Bezos needs to be ready for the fight against Trump 2.0
The Independent|June 15, 2024
Is there a more romantic newspaper than The Washington Post? Think Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the crusading duo bringing down a US president with the growling encouragement of their cigar-chomping editor played by Jason Robards.
ALAN RUSBRIDGER
Bezos needs to be ready for the fight against Trump 2.0

Or think of Tom Hanks playing the same editor (Ben Bradlee) in another Hollywood movie celebrating the paper’s fight for the truth, backed to the hilt by the publisher Katharine Graham, played by Meryl Streep, who stood firm as her newspaper went for Richard Nixon and defiantly revealed hidden truths about the Vietnam war in the teeth of furious attempts to gag it.

Stories like that do not fade away: if anything, their aura has grown over the half-century since the Post seemed to dominate the world of newspapers, doing exactly what journalists were put on the planet to do – and not just in the burnished version that Hollywood subsequently served up. If there were a journalistic version of Mount Rushmore, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein would be the first faces to be carved in stone.

“Democracy dies in darkness” has been the catchy slogan of the paper in more recent years, and it once again hit editorial heights under the pugnacious editorship of Marty Baron – himself celebrated in celluloid by Liev Schreiber in the 2015 film Spotlight, which told of his campaign to unmask widespread sex abuse within the Catholic Church in the diocese of Boston.

By the time the film was released, the Post had a new owner, with the Graham family unable to support the paper through the financial convulsions besetting virtually all news organisations as the graceful old world of print was trampled underfoot by the urgent stampede of digital.

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FLERE HISTORIER FRA THE INDEPENDENTSe alt
Relax Kemi, history's on your side in the battle with Farage
The Independent

Relax Kemi, history's on your side in the battle with Farage

Conservative MPs are worried. They weren’t worried when Andrea Jenkyns, formerly one of their number, defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Unlike Starmer, Farage's charisma lights up the room
The Independent

Unlike Starmer, Farage's charisma lights up the room

The extraordinary poll showing Reform UK has overtaken the Labour Party in popularity can be attributed to many factors.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Okolie follows in footsteps of giants with weight switch
The Independent

Okolie follows in footsteps of giants with weight switch

Lawrence Okolie is a big lad, and he has always been a big lad.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Year of living dangerously: our season awards for 2024
The Independent

Year of living dangerously: our season awards for 2024

Kieran Jackson on best driver, biggest shock and much more

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4 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Injury-plagued City cannot afford to slip up in Turin
The Independent

Injury-plagued City cannot afford to slip up in Turin

Manchester City's manager had his head in his hands.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Liverpool's imperfect win maintains perfect campaign
The Independent

Liverpool's imperfect win maintains perfect campaign

The mathematics of a complicated competition may remain unclear but one element is apparent.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Thames Water's operation is simply not good enough
The Independent

Thames Water's operation is simply not good enough

Deeply in debt and proposing huge price hikes, the troubled company is holding customers to ransom

time-read
3 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Murdoch loses court case in real-life 'Succession' battle
The Independent

Murdoch loses court case in real-life 'Succession' battle

Rupert Murdoch's attempt to give his eldest son control of his family media empire has been blocked by a US court after a lengthy legal battle with three of his other children.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 11, 2024
Netanyahu takes witness stand in corruption trial
The Independent

Netanyahu takes witness stand in corruption trial

Benjamin Netanyahu has become Israel’s first sitting prime minister to testify as a criminal defendant – having taken the witness stand in his lengthy corruption trial.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 11, 2024
US shooting suspect shouts as he's dragged into court
The Independent

US shooting suspect shouts as he's dragged into court

Mangione: 'It's an insult to the intelligence of Americans'

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2 mins  |
December 11, 2024