Posted by I saw the movie “The Post” last night, and – after listening to a full year of twitter pronouncements about “fake news” – all I can say is “Thank you, Steven Spielberg!”
My career in publishing and print/online journalism was born out of a deep appreciation and professional respect for my father, Erik Arctander. Coming out of his service in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II, he went to Columbia on the GI-bill. Upon graduation, his first job was working in the press office at Columbia at a time when the Manhattan Project was still in Manhattan! He was well aware of his responsibility to the Project and the public in what was undoubtedly, at that time, a very sensitive position.
After leaving academia for the “real” world of publishing, he went on to write for some of the leading magazines in the industry – including Popular Science and Popular Mechanics.
To be a Journalist is to Tell Truth to Power
If there was one thing he told me over and over again during my work life in publishing, it was, “Always check your sources. And always double check your quotes.” In other words, as a journalist, it is your responsibility to get your reporting right: to do due diligence on your sources to be certain they are trustworthy; to do your own fact checking (whether there is a fact checker assigned to you or not); and to go back to your sources to be sure you are quoting them correctly and have not made any errors in your reporting.
This is what professional journalists do. They consider their stories to be their bond, their name, and their integrity. And some times, as in the case of the “Pentagon Papers” – the story Spielberg presents so brilliantly in this movie – a journalist risks going to jail for standing up for what s/he believes in. It is a public trust and sacred honor to tell truth to power. And someone has to do it, or everyone in our democracy will lose.
A Woman in a Gentleman’s Business
The second issue Spielberg tackles in this film is the story of the Washington Posts’ reluctant and accidental owner, Katharine Graham. Publishing was long considered to be a “gentleman’s business,” run almost exclusively by men, and the Washington Post was no different. Although the newspaper was owned by her father, Katharine’s husband, Phillip Graham, was named publisher of the Post in 1946. It wasn’t until after Phillip’s death that she took on the job, and even then, it was only to save the family business.
In her autobiography, Personal History, Katharine Graham wrote, “Far from troubling me that my father thought of my husband and not me, it pleased me. In fact, it never crossed my mind that he might have viewed me as someone to take on an important job at the paper.” But through the course of the movie, her attitude undergoes a profound change.
Spielberg portrays Graham’s decision to publish the “Pentagon Papers” as the brave and heroic act of a woman who has grown into the position of power she holds; a position where she knows she has to make a stand to speak truth to power for the good of the American people. And she rises to the challenge.
#MeToo is Not Just about Sexual Harrassment
The reality of the current “#MeToo” movement is that it is primarily about intimidation tactics: whether women have personally experienced sexual harassment in the workplace or not (and most of us have to one extent or another), there are cultural forces that hold women back from living their own truths and maximizing their own personal power. Spielberg addresses this by using Graham as an example of a woman who quite simply refused to be intimidated by the forces around her.
There is a scene in the movie when the Post and the New York Times have just appealed their case on the freedom of the press to the Supreme Court. As they all exit the building, the NYT publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, stands on the steps to make an official announcement. Graham briefly considers doing likewise, but instead she resolutely pushes her way through the crowd, while a sea of young women stares at her in awe.
Leading by Example
Graham led by example. She held the title of president of the company from 1969 to 1979 and chairwoman of the board from 1973 to 1991. In 1972, she became the first female Fortune 500 CEO. Although she had no female role models and struggled with being taken seriously by many male colleagues and employees, the convergence of the women’s movement and her control of the Post served to change her own attitude and to promote gender equality within her company.
All of the Above 