by Esther Iverem | SeeingBlack.com Editor and Film Critic
There is a serious media war going on—and it’s not the war over who secures risqué photos of former Congressman Anthony Weiner or even over how the Libya invasion is reported. This is the war chronicled by “Page One: Inside the New York Times,” a new documentary that gives us an up-close view of news gathering—in an era when newspapers, including the Times, are fighting for survival.
There has been a dramatic decrease in advertising revenue for newspapers, particularly from bread-and-butter classified ads, which have gone online to Web sites like Monster.com and Craigslist. This decrease, combined with a decentralization of the ability of publish and distribute news content on the Internet, have posed serious challenges for the Times, which, two years ago, borrowed $250 million from Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu, took out a mortgage on its new Manhattan office building and decreased its news staff by 100 positions.
Of course, this financial emergency followed a crisis in newsgathering ethics when it was rocked by the reporting scandals of Jason Blair in 2003 and then Judith Miller. Miller’s false stories about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq virtually led the U.S. into a costly and deadly war, which we still have not exited ten years later.
But “Page One” does not offer a dry recitation of business factoids. Instead, though it, much of this new reality of the media unfolds before our eyes. It follows editors and reporters on a newly created media desk, charged with covering this new and constantly evolving world of media. The star, of sorts, is David Carr, a salty and eccentric veteran reporter who has achieved notoriety for his no- excuses reporting on media and for being a former drug addict.
Read the Full Essay @ SeeingBlack
