Sony Pictures Classics has released new clips from the docudrama starring Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes and Robert Redford as Dan Rather.
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Despite being one of the primary subjects of the new film Truth, CBS has refused to air any advertisements promoting the film due to its being critical of the network. It’s not a pretty picture, but it gives this movie the harsh ring of truth.
In the film, Redford plays Rather opposite Blanchett as producer Mary Mapes, portraying the true story of a CBS “60 Minutes” investigation into former President Bush’s military service.
Callan told the NYT CBS was not interested in running ads for the film, which the network has described as inaccurate. So no real outrage about the suppression of free reporting is generated and, instead, to care, you need to be hugely invested in the fact that this botched 60 Minutes show contributed to the post-election retirement of the much loved veteran news anchor Dan Rather (authoritatively played by super-wrinkly Robert Redford), not easy for British audiences, who may have little identification with him nor the general reverence for that role that Americans seem to nurture. (Never one to forego playing dirty, Bush had deflected a serious question by bringing up a trivial Rather hissy fit.) Mapes contends in her book and Mike Smith in a rant onscreen that the media conglomerate Viacom (which then owned CBS) threw them under a bus because billions were at stake in Washington, where Viacom vigorously lobbied for favorable action on “media ownership rules, debt structure, a variety of cable issues, and leniency in television (particularly cable) decency standards”.
“I don’t think anyone expected to send them flowers”, he said. “I think the one thing that surprised everyone was the tone and the emotional nature”. The panel’s report said the facts did not conclude CBS was motivated by an anti-Bush attitude. There was certainly a story there, but the team’s rush to make an arbitrarily chosen airdate made them sloppy, continuing to investigate the story long after it had aired, putting out fires and playing defense rather than pursuing legitimate concerns raised during the collapsed investigation. Mapes was only months removed from a career triumph – breaking an award-winning story about mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, a story embarrassing to the Bush administration whose veracity wasn’t questioned.
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I’ve seen the movie.
