From “All the President’s Men” to “She Said”: reporters in the film should be heroic enlighteners. But do such clichés really help journalism?
Everyday business as you only see it in the movies: Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford discover the Watergate affair almost by themselves in “All the President’s Men” (1976).
Real journalists smoke. You always have the phone close to your ear. As they talk, they put on their jackets. The call is important. It’s the call everyone has been waiting for. Afterwards they sit down in long conferences around a large table and discuss the latest scoop. Finally, an editor-in-chief says in a broken voice, “Print it!”
