The Paper by Ron Howard is the movie where there were two businessmen that were shot dead in a car, which during the time is covered with multiple negative writings in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Two black teen civilians were seen at the crime scene and because of that, they are the prime suspects of the murder. However, The Sun has discovered the truth about the murder, that the two black teenagers were just curious civilians and that they were not the people responsible of the crime that had happened. Given this, they had a day to break the news and clear the names of the two teenagers. During a meeting in the movie Close asked a question regarding the story, why put in the extra effort to clear their names now, if they could just release the real story the next day. Keaton responded that by doing so they are not being truthful and that they are not doing the right thing. “We taint them today, we make them look good on Saturday, everybody’s happy.” Keaton exclaims, “Not tomorrow, right fucking now, today!”
The main message of the movie for me is how journalists live a very busy life. Before watching the film, I did not realize that this is what usually happens to them. I assumed that they have ample time to research about an article then write about it, however I did not expect that they needed to produce such articles in such a fast pace. Day by day they need to get an interesting story, check facts, write an article, then have it published. I personally would be tired, burnt out if the process is that fast, I wouldn’t last too long since I would want enough time to properly and perfectly produce an article. Given the fast paced work, one would ask if there are some things that they sacrifice to keep up with such work.
Personal and work life balance can be clearly seen as a problem in the movie. In a specific part of the movie, Henry Hackett editor of the Sun, was experiencing this problem. He was supposed to have dinner with his wife, Martha, and his parents. However, during that day, he was also trying to search for the truth regarding the two black teenage suspects, that is why he had to interview a police at the precinct for a quote about their innocence. Given that he chose to interview the police than continuing the dinner, Martha was disappointed and worried about their future, since at that time she was with child. Another example of personal life and work life balance being a problem is when Bernie White, the Editor-in-Chief of the Sun, met up with his daughter after years of not seeing each other. White is one of the workaholic employees, he placed his job over everything, this included his family. This is the reason as to why he and his daughter are not close and why they are not talking to each other now. During their meeting, he has realized that his daughter was already married and that he wasn’t invited. This goes to show how disappointed and angry the daughter is to Bernie for being a distant parent. The anger can be seen when Bernie asked if his daughter was mad at him and the daughter replied with “I don’t know you enough to get mad”.
Another difficulty is, as mentioned, is the everyday deliverable. Journalists are tasked to find an interesting story worthy to be called news. Also, journalists are tasked to provide complete and honest information to their readers, most especially controversial reports like the Williamsburg case. In the movie they had a deadline of 8pm for everything. The deadline was set so that the printing of the newspaper for tomorrow will be ready on time. Hackett was spearheading the research regarding the Williamsburg article. He had 5 hours to complete the article then have it published before the deadline and while his Managing Editor, Alicia Clark, was always behind him observing his every move. Given this short amount of time and pressure to do a great article, the question of reporting the correct news may appear. This was a problem when they weren’t done with proving the teenagers innocent, but are already done with the article mentioning that they are guilty of the crime.
Lastly, a problem that journalists might get to experience is what McDougal experienced. In the first part of the film McDougal was threatened by a city official called Sandusky. McDougal was consistent in having articles targeting Sandusky for several weeks, and because of that he was threatened for his life and was forced to sleep inside the office. Eventually, they had a confrontation while drunk in a bar, in the heat of their argument, Alicia got shot in the leg. This goes to show how dangerous being a journalist is, one always need to think twice as to what to write about since one won’t know if it leads to the same situation of them being threatened for their lives.
The ending of the movie was satisfying. Clark had a change of heart and accepted Hackett’s revision of the article. This shows that the truth is the most important aspect in journalism. Journalists serve the public to report the truth about the current happenings. One shouldn’t give priority to the money that goes with it, but should give priority to the people that are involved and are affected by the article.
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