“The Fourth Estate”– Movie Review

This week, I attended an advanced screening of the new documentary, “The Fourth Estate”, about The New York Times’ coverage of Donald Trump’s first year as President.

Synopsis

When Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the united states, will the media be able to keep up with its coverage of him?

Story

After President Donald Trump made his “American Carnage” speech as part of his inauguration, it seemed that the country was headed in a different direction -- and when the journalists at The New York Times reported this, they appeared to know it, too.  While on the one hand it could be an exciting time, it also became a time where demands would be made on them like never before. Much of the time is frequently spent fact checking because they have learned they can’t rely on anything that is told to them by this White House.  The rules as they knew them have all been thrown out the window and the game is being re-defined on-the-fly.

All was not unified, however.  Often, the Washington, D.C. Bureau would argue with the New York City office, especially when, at the last minute, the New York office would drastically change a story reported by the Washington Bureau.  There was plenty of internal squabbling, with resignation threats abounding. Additionally, the New York Times reporters were very competitive when it came to The Washington Post. Whenever the Post would get a scoop, the Times reporters were deflated.  “How did they get that information before us? Why didn’t we get it first?”, they would ask, after having developed relationships with their trusted sources.

There are many sacrifices these reporters make -- much of it having to do with their time.  Anything resembling a personal life is the first thing to go because of how frequently they have to work late into the evening.  If they have small children, they may be able to see them first thing in the morning, but it’s highly unlikely they’ll be home in time to tuck them into bed at night.  Furthermore, with the incumbent President publicly questioning the veracity of the media in general and hurling daily insults at The New York Times in particular, will the journalists be able to keep up -- or will they instead simply give up?  

Review

The Fourth Estate is a four-part mini-series that debuts on the Showtime network Memorial Day weekend; at this screening, we only viewed the first episode.  Watching how these intrepid reporters dutifully perform their job despite many internecine and external challenges certainly does give you a renewed respect for the profession of journalism.  However, given the fact that this will appear on Showtime (and not, say Fox or Sinclair networks), it pretty much amounts to preaching to the converted; the people who should see this never will.  Perhaps it’s just as well. The people who should see it would probably never believe it because of their innate distrust of the media, as inculcated by Fearless Leader.

Having said all of that, one problem occurred to me during this screening -- the title.  The term The Fourth Estate refers to the press in general, not The New York Times specifically.  Despite this, the story seems to focus primarily (if not solely) on The New York Times itself. Based on what we saw in the first episode, other news outlets are only given passing allusions.  If it turns out that the other journalists -- print, digital and broadcast -- are not given their fair share of screen time in the remaining three episodes, then it is a bit misleading for the filmmakers to suggest that “The Fourth Estate” is literally about The Fourth Estate. 

Following the screening, there was a question and answer session with the filmmakers and several of the New York Times journalists that appear in the mini-series (see the list of panel members above).  Haberman said that her coverage of Trump is adventurous but she’s not sure how it will end; because of this, she has been forced to get used to feelings of uncertainty and disorientation.  She believes that when reading his Tweets, you are getting a real-time look into what Trump is thinking, adding that it’s like having Nixon reading his infamous tapes out loud. 

For the full post-screening discussion, please refer to the video below; beneath that, the trailer for the documentary.