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BarkCampbell wrote: ↑09 Jun 2025 02:50 am No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

MikoTython wrote: ↑09 Jun 2025 11:39 am

BarkCampbell wrote: ↑09 Jun 2025 02:50 am No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

Better the corrupt leading the blind leading the blind, eh ? Now, I'm not putting modern journalism on any kind of a pedestal, because 'access journalism' & partisanship seems to be the coin of the realm of the 'mainstream', but SOME kind of oversight is better than none. That said, there are a lot of small independent outfits - bellingcat, ProPublica, The Center For Public Integrity (CPI), among others - doing their bit.

McCarthy was, indeed, a fraud, and Edward R. Murrow was, indeed, a first-rate journalist. What fault adheres to George Clooney for dramatizing Murrow's speaking truth to power you'd have to explain - probably the stink of his liberal political affiliation, would be my guess. Which is imo utterly irrelevant, other than the entirely laudable impulse to inspire our institutions to stand up against fraud & corruption - what a concept. Don't think I have to draw a picture for where the present situation stands, re: corruption.

BarkCampbell wrote: ↑09 Jun 2025 22:45 pm

MikoTython wrote: ↑09 Jun 2025 11:39 am

BarkCampbell wrote: ↑09 Jun 2025 02:50 am No profession is more self-congratulatory than journalism. What's worse than journalists thinking that they're the true heroes of society is hollywood regurgitating that narrative time and time again. All The President's Men, Spotlight, Truth, The China Syndrome, Reds, Good Night & Good Luck, etc etc. All bad movies.
Know what's worse than a bad movie? turning said movie into a PLAY.

Clooney's a stooge, begging us to reclaim our allegiance to a profession that doesn't deserve ours.

Better the corrupt leading the blind leading the blind, eh ? Now, I'm not putting modern journalism on any kind of a pedestal, because 'access journalism' & partisanship seems to be the coin of the realm of the 'mainstream', but SOME kind of oversight is better than none. That said, there are a lot of small independent outfits - bellingcat, ProPublica, The Center For Public Integrity (CPI), among others - doing their bit.

McCarthy was, indeed, a fraud, and Edward R. Murrow was, indeed, a first-rate journalist. What fault adheres to George Clooney for dramatizing Murrow's speaking truth to power you'd have to explain - probably the stink of his liberal political affiliation, would be my guess. Which is imo utterly irrelevant, other than the entirely laudable impulse to inspire our institutions to stand up against fraud & corruption - what a concept. Don't think I have to draw a picture for where the present situation stands, re: corruption.

ProPublica is neither independent nor partisanship-free. No matter how loudly they proclaim they are, a simple check of where their money comes from reveals who's behind the curtain. They've run 3 major stories run afoul of journalistic integrity 101 in the past 2 years alone.

The closest person to Murrow these days has been Matt Taibbi. He spent his years the darling of the aughts Rolling Stone-reading progressive intellectuals with his hard-hitting reporting on W and TWOT. Fast forward to when he discovered the team he usually voted for was now guilty of conspiring to domestically censor free speech, and fostering abroad (through USAID) the "good news." He testified before congress the extent for which journalism centers across the country and world were, sadly, not in the business of "standing up to fraud and corruption" anymore, but in the business of "manufacturing a consensus machine." ProPublica and CPI are in that boat.

So when Clooney makes eye contact and implores us to do more. He really means he wants you to not peek behind the curtain and swallow what he and his buddies in power force feed you.

acewater11 wrote: ↑10 Jun 2025 10:04 am Clooney = Pompous and Pretentious.
Challenge. Name 3 great Clooney performances.

acewater11 wrote: ↑10 Jun 2025 10:04 am Clooney = Pompous and Pretentious.
Challenge. Name 3 great Clooney performances.

todd-parker wrote: ↑10 Jun 2025 13:49 pmName 3 great Clooney performances.