Life or Something Like It

When I was about 14 I saw the movie "Life or Something Like It." The movie stars Angelina Jolie who plays the character Lanie Kerrigan, a Seattle based Anchor/ Journalist and in her words "A TV personality." She is told by the character "Prophet Jack," played by Tony Shalhoub, that she is going to die in a week. The movie goes into detail about that following week and the important growth she makes when it come to "What Really Matters" in her life. At 14 I was enthralled by the romance and drama of the movie. Last night I watched it with some friends who were seeing it for the first time. While the movie played, they all watched with the same wonder I had the first time I saw it... Wondering if Lacie would live or die and whether fate was real or imaginary.

Watching it for the first time in many years I saw something that I had not noticed 5 years ago. When Lacie is about to have a live interview with the renounced TV personality Deborah Connors (played by Stockard Channing) the producer comes up to her says that he has her list of questions she is supposed to ask. Lacie responds that she has her own set of questions that she wrote. The producer insists that she take the generic questions because "Deborah Connors doesn't answer any questions that she doesn't already know."

In true Hollywood form, Lacie bravely does what journalists are supposed to do, and goes off book, asking Deborah if the success and fame that she has achieved was worth the personal sacrifices.

On live camera, Deborah looses her composure on camera, cries, then straitens up and bravely tells Lacie that she shouldn't sacrifice her happiness for the approval of other people as the only person that she should need to please is herself. This heartwarming sentimental moment is shattered when the camera turns off and Ms. Connors shows her fury of being put on the spot and insists that she wants Lacie out of the job.

That scene just about sums up my fury with the state of the worlds current journalism. Journalism is supposed to check it's subjects. When the subject is just a celebrity talking about Botox the stakes are not that high, but what about when the stakes are raised?

How many times do you think Politicians have given journalists the questions to ask? How many times have CEO's or War Lords used journalists as a medium to lie to the public? As they have high stakes in their success, it is no surprise that a interviewee would try to direct the conversation, but it is up to journalists to pry the truth out of the subject, whether the interviewee likes it or not.

I am not saying that all journalism is corrupt, what I am saying is that journalism needs to be more vigilant and consistent in forcing their interviewee's to tell the truth. When researching this topic I found an interesting article explaining how to interview politicians:

I think the article highlights some very important points, but honestly, why is the information coming from the internet? There should be requirements about knowing those skills before you can call yourself a journalist. The public should be informed as to who created the questions for the interview. I know that it is asking a lot of the media, but you shouldn't be going into reporting if you only want the fame. You should be inquisitive and resilient and not willing to side-step the truth for anything.