Hacker Cinema
Absence of Malice
1981 · Film · 116 min
Directed by Sydney Pollack
Megan Carter is a reporter duped into running an untrue story on Michael Gallagher, a suspected racketeer. He has an alibi for the time his crime was allegedly committed—but it involves an innocent party. When he tells Carter the truth and the newspaper runs it, tragedy follows, forcing Carter to face up to the responsibilities of her job when she is confronted by Gallagher.
1 positive1 neutralfrom 2 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
2 comments on Hacker News
Reminds me of the film "Absence of Malice," directed by the great Sydney Pollack, starring Paul Newman and Sally Field.
"... That as a matter of law, the truth is irrelevant. We have no knowledge the story is false, therefore we're absent malice. We've been both reasonable and prudent, therefore we're not negligent. We may say whatever we like about Mr. Gallagher, and he is powerless to do us harm. Democracy is served."
As I noticed many years ago, it's easy to notice that journalism commonly, correction, nearly always, is a long way short of the commonly taught high school term paper writing standards of using primary sources, identifying sources, quoting accurately, etc.
So, we can ask, why is that? Journalism has too few college graduates who majored in the humanities and wrote stacks of term papers? Nope.
So, why? Sure: "Follow the money". The media is ad supported. They are in the ad business. For that they want smelly bait for the ad hook.
Okay, how to get lots of smelly bait, easily? Sure: Have one newspaper write a smelly story, and then do two things:
First, have other newspapers write much the same story with much the same smelly content and, for credibility, maybe quoting the first newspaper.
Second, with such a good thing, so much smelly bait all on just one or two days, of course, sure, keep it going! So, write more such stories. Then with so many stories, maybe the readers will conclude that with so much smoke there has to be at least a little fire in there somewhere. So, all the media just does a gang up, pile on, get on the band wagon, have a case of some implicit collusion, get on the big wave and ride it, and, better to fit in with the gang and, thus, get the security from being one of the gang, don't tell the truth, contradict, or rock the boat and, instead, just to along with the gang -- mob.
So, create lots of smelly bait across lots of newspapers for lots of days.
Now that ad revenue is really adding up. All from a seed of nothing, zip, zilch, zero, nichts, nil, nada. Easy money!
There is a lot in common between the OP and the movie Absence of Malice (1981) written by knowledgeable newspaper guy Kurt Luedtke. To paraphrase from the movie, "If we only published stuff we really knew, then we'd publish monthly" and nearly all of that would less important than Mrs. Murphy's cat Fluffy crying high in an oak tree.
There really is a lot of important information the newspapers could publish, but they won't consider doing that, apparently because it is just not part of their traditions. Or, really, in the grand new standards of intellectual safety, efficacy, and relevance of the ascent of man from mathematics and science, the newspapers are still back in the days of superstition, phlogiston, Chaucer, and the techniques of formula fiction.
E.g., what is the definition of GDP? Okay, now, to be more relevant, how is it actually measured? Are there some critiques of that measurement technique? If we are going to pay any attention at all to GDP, then we at least should discuss how the heck it gets measured.
Yesterday Hillary claimed that some of the best paid 25 hedge fund guys pay a lower tax rate than kindergarten teachers. Okay, address that issue: Give us some solid answers. True or false? If true, then how do they do that? I.e., what parts of the tax law are they using?
I can toss off such questions faster than I can type, and so can nearly anyone interested in government, but such will nearly never be addressed in the mainstream media.
One of the points in common in the OP and the movie is the defense by the newspaper that "We have no evidence that the story is false". Of course, neither did they have any "evidence" the story was true!
It's old stuff, e.g., back at least to the movie Citizen Kane.
That's just what the newsies -- newspapers, news magazines, TV news, news Web sites, etc. -- do. It's a very old story.
Greenwald's point is solid: Can't believe what you read in the newspapers. Indeed, that remark is so common and so readily believed by the public that it is in an old Andy Hardy movie from the 1930s. Did I mention "old"?
Some years ago, I really, really wanted to be a well informed citizen and subscribed to more and more news publications trying to know more. One day I added up I was receiving 22 publications a month. Earlier, I spent a summer with my parents in DC and each day read The Washington Post fairly carefully. Net, I finally concluded I wasn't learning much. Now I subscribe to nothing on paper and very little on the Internet.
I still want to be informed, but the media is junk. Maybe I'd take The New York Times, but I (A) have no dead fish trimmings to wrap, (B) need no packing materials (besides, all that ink creates a mess), (C) have no need for kitty litter, (D) for my fireplace already have plenty of fire starter paper from all the phone books that are left, etc.
So, media? Sure, light entertainment following the rules of formula fiction with good guys, a problem, bad guys, etc. Any connection with actual reality is thin and incidental.
The media would be less harmful if people would just ignore it, and I'm getting good at that.