All the Poop That’s News

As a longtime subscriber, I still get a lot of value from The New York Times, not least because it reflects a highly influential view of what’s important. Judging from Andrew Rossi’s 2011 documentary Page One: Inside The New York Times, which equates the future of this particular newspaper with the future of journalism, the Times itself tops that list of important things. 

The movie follows the paper’s media desk, so it tells the inside story of the journalists who tell the inside story of journalism, which wonderfully encapsulates the profession’s fascination with itself. Others may be less interested, although I enjoyed the scenes featuring David Carr, the raspy, irascible newsman who, during an interview about The Vice Guide to Liberia, bristles at Vice magazine co-founder Shane Smith’s assertion that “the mainstream media…never tells the whole story.” Carr interjects, “Just because you put on a fucking safari helmet and looked at some poop doesn’t give you the right to insult what we do.” —Jacob Sullum