Free Republic

October 20, 2004 Mr. Leonard Downie, Jr., Executive Editor Mr. Michael Getler, Ombudsman The Washington Post “The story is a legend now, but it really did happen.” So begins page one of The News About The News: American Journalism in Peril, the book co-authored (with Post colleague Robert Kaiser, 2002) by Leonard Downie, Jr., an omnibus review of the condition of American news media. The legend referred to is Watergate. Mr. Downie reminisces about the unfolding of the Watergate saga—he had a ringside seat as the direct supervisor of Woodward and Bernstein at the time--and the Post’s role in driving...

As a movie buff living in Illinois, I went about my usual Friday newspaper check to find out movie times and new releases for this weekend. To my surprise, I found at least 5 "local" theaters are going to have showings of the new pro-John-Kerry "documentary" called, "Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry." I guess it shouldn't have been as big of a surprise as it was; I mean, after all, my local AMC Theater was still showing "Fahrenheit 9/11" until about two weeks ago, despite the obvious empty theaters at that time. But it still leave some...