Free Republic

By Peggy Noonan Dec. 28, 2017 7:03 p.m. ET 1222 COMMENTS We often write of the urgent need for more truth in politics. A hope for 2018 is more truth in art and entertainment, too. The past week I watched the Netflix series “The Crown” and Steven Spielberg’s movie “The Post.” Each is enjoyable, yet fails in the same significant way. There’s dramatic license, which is necessary or nothing’s fun, and historical truth, which is necessary or nothing’s understood. Ideally in any work they more or less coexist, however imperfectly. But in “The Crown” and “The Post” the balance is...

Some media observers say overseas reporters cover U.S. politics better than stateside scribes. It’s a case-by-case situation, of course. It’s not far from the truth, though. We saw a great example of it recently courtesy of the BBC. The Post, out in select theaters now and going wide January 12, stars Meryl Streep as Katherine Graham, The Washington Post publisher circa 1971. Graham approved the publication of The Pentagon Papers under great duress, a watershed moment in journalism. Tom Hanks co-stars as editor Ben Bradlee, and Oscar winner Steven Spielberg is behind the camera. Talk about heavy hitters. The story...

Washington Post heir, 69, shoots himself dead, echoing his father's own 1963 suicide, days before Meryl Streep movie about the family was released William W. Graham committed suicide on December 20 at the age of 69 His Washington Post publisher father Phil Graham killed himself back in 1963 Graham's mother Katharine then served as publisher for the next two decades His death came days after a Meryl Streep film was released about his mother The heir to the Washington Post fortune, William W. Graham, committed suicide last week, echoing his publisher father's death in 1963. Graham, a 69-year-old lawyer, was...

Tom Hanks plays famed newspaper editor Ben Bradlee in Steven Spielberg's upcoming drama The Post. Here, the two-time Oscar winner discusses the man he plays (and also knew); the issues the film raises; and why he would refuse to go to the White House for a screening of his movie. You knew Ben Bradlee? He said: "You don't get it. We're covering the stories that are changing the world... And then, of course, the Nixon administration, the Justice Department, says: "If you print these papers, you're going to be traitors," which complicated absolutely everything, because it happened in the week...

‘The Post,” the new movie starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, is three things: a film about the Pentagon Papers, classified documents about the Vietnam War that were leaked to the media in 1971, a film about the press and Donald Trump, and, finally, an indictment about Harvey Weinstein and sexism in Hollywood. According to Streep, who is interviewed on December 14 in the Washington Post, the film is mostly about sexism. Streep says that the new film came from a place of “grievance” about sexism.  “People were really scared and demoralized [after Trump was elected],” Streep told the Post. But...