The Framework of a Newsroom

Now, The Paper (1994) intrigued me because I did not expect that this is what reporters, editors and the like go through within a day. The film revolves around the staff of the fictional newspaper New York Sun who are constantly facing their own problems such as balancing work and family, hiding from people who threatened to end their lives, or in the case of Phil, facing constant rejection for getting his orthopedic chair.

From the film, the main messages are clear and this showed how a day is more eventful for a journalist, yet it is also not enough. In the beginning, the editor Henry Hackett arrives to the newsroom and it was quite chaotic. The people working for him constantly asking what they can do because they want to write stories, or ask him for advice. Other than that, he also had to figure out his own life and career because he was asked to work for another news company, his wife was pregnant and he also needed his own story for the day. Somehow, he was quite composed or so I thought. At one point in the film, he looked at the time and he was surprised to see that it was seven o’ clock in the evening yet he had barely done anything for his paper. He needed a quote from the police that the teenagers were wrongly accused for the murder of the two businessmen. To put it simply, time was not enough to get everything together. But somehow in some way, everything turned out alright

As they were journalists, there was a problem of balancing life and work which was clearly seen in two characters namely Bernie White, the editor-in-chief and Hackett. First, White put his work first before his family that essentially made him lose contact with his daughter. He had confronted her to reconcile but she made it clear to him that she no longer wanted him in her life; he was left heartbroken. Now, Hackett was also taking the same risk because his wife Martha yearned for his attention as she was pregnant and as a husband, he should be there to take care of her. Throughout the movie, there were numerous instances of Hackett neglecting her and this resulted in how Hackett was so close to losing his family with Martha. But, I believe that he won’t make the same mistake as White because the way he looked at his son was truly heartwarming.

Finding a story that is news-worthy is not easy and oftentimes, journalists need to be “resourceful.” Most of the time, it is finding connections to get to the details that a journalist wants. In All the President’s Men, the journalists were contacting and finding people so that they could get their scoop. They also had their inside source that helped them in confirming information they had gathered. In The Paper, this is not the case.  As mentioned above, Hackett had been offered a job offer in a company known as the Sentinel and he had met up with the editor to talk about it. He steals information from the editor about the murder in Williamsburg while being interviewed which eventually results in losing the job offer.

Michael McDougal, a columnist for Sun, was an interesting character. His problem was that he was hiding from a city official whom he had written an article that tormented said official. Instead of facing it, he decides to run away from the problem. It was quite surprising to me because my image of journalists was that they were strong and brave to face problems on hand. But, seeing this made me realize that even if they had done everything for a story, it doesn’t mean that they always want to put their lives on the line.

Covering, writing and publishing a story is life-changing not only for the reporters but for every person they write about as well. A perfect example is the two teenage boys that were suspected of murdering the businessmen. Initially, they were supposed to print the newspapers with the headline “GOTCHA!” that had a story of the boys being the ones to blame for the murder. If this was published, their lives would have changed forever and Hackett had mentioned this to Alicia Clark, the managing editor. Yet, somehow her reaction was to print it anyway and they can post another story tomorrow saying that the boys were innocent. My first thought when she said this was, “How could she say such a thing? This is not something you can merely brush off.” I also learned that the morals of news writing can cause conflict and there will be times when a person thinks of what’s better in the short run rather than the long run. But, I was glad when she had changed her mind in the end.