Film Review: What ‘The Post’ Fails to Expose

FEATURING NORMAN SOLOMON – The new Steven Spielberg film The Post is already garnering rave reviews, not just for the performances of A-list actors Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, but for the message of upholding the First Amendment. With journalism directly under attack today by Donald Trump’s administration, it is tempting to view the film through the lens of mainstream journalism as a bulwark against government secrecy, corruption, and war crimes in faraway countries.

The film is based on the book Personal History, a memoir by Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham who is played by Streep in the film. The Washington Post’s decision to publish the Pentagon Papers obtained by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg is a profoundly important story of how journalism can expose government lies. But my guest Norman Solomon writes that what the film misses is the cozy relationship between newspaper publishers and politicians.

Read Norman Solomon’s article ‘The Real Story Behind Katharine Graham and ‘The Post’, HERE.

Norman Solomon, journalist with ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy, where he’s executive director. Norman is the author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death; and a co-founder of RootsAction.org. He recently wrote the film review, The Real Story Behind Katharine Graham and ‘The Post’.