Article by Marcus Siu
Who will control the future of America’s news ecosystem: Wall Street billionaires concerned only with profit, or those who see journalism as an essential public service, the lifeblood of our democracy?
When award winning investigative reporter, Julie Reynolds, a journalist for the Monterey County Herald (as well as co-founder of the nonprofit news organization Voices of Monterey Bay and associate editor of the independent news outlet, The Imprint) received a call from Bay Area documentary filmmaker Rick Goldsmith who wanted to interview her regarding her investigative findings of Alden Global Capital, she was quite skeptical of the filmmaker whose name she was not familiar with.
“Until I looked him up…there were a few other people talking about making documentaries about Alden and I’m like, yeah yeah. Whatever.”, Reynolds recalled.
As a freelance journalist, she has also reported for the Center for Investigative Reporting, The Nation, NPR, PBS, The NewsGuild and other outlets.
“I sort of didn’t believe it but then I googled him and saw what his work had been. I was like… Oh my God, this is serious.”, Reynolds said. “He’s a serious journalist making documentaries, so I was just honored to be a part of it. I had no idea it was going to take the next four years, but you know so many things changed and had to keep telling the story as the story kept changing.”
A very serious journalist indeed, Goldsmith has two Oscar nominated films to his credit; 1996’s “Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press” and 2009’s “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”. He also has many other awards and accolades to his credit, including the prestigious Peabody Award.
His latest film, “Stripped for Parts – American Journalism on the Brink” is the third of a trilogy about journalism. It’s a story of a secretive hedge fund that is plundering what is left of America’s newspapers, and the journalists who are fighting back, including Reynolds who was on the front line.
Reynolds discovered Alden Global Capital, the parent company of the company she is employed with was accused of acquiring hundreds of newspaper companies across the nation and dismantling them for profit. Her findings would eventually trigger rebellions across the country by journalists working at Alden-owned newspapers. The journalists were also backed by the NewsGuild union, the newsmen and women who would dare to go toe-to-toe with their “vulture capitalist” owners in a battle to save and rebuild local journalism in America.
“What was always interesting about Alden is they never cared what was said until we wrote about them, but ultimately only cared about the bottom line and that is still true today.”, Reynolds said.
After Alden Global Capital became a big investor in Sinclair Broadcasting, they became well aware of the media landscape around them and what roles they could change both socially and politically.
“They actually ordered all of their newspapers to stop endorsing any political candidates long before Bezos interfered with the Washington Post…so they’ve always been kind of standoffish only because they are really only were looking at spreadsheets on the East Coast and their offices”, Reynolds explained. “”It was just another one of their businesses…it could have been a shoe store chain it could have been anything like that. They really don’t care.”
Reynolds, along with Goldsmith were present at the Orinda Theater for a recent screening and Q&A and Goldsmith told the audience that there were three major questions that he wanted to address in his film.
Why would somebody or some outfit try to make money by wrecking journalism rather than practicing it? Since journalism and newspapers are kind of on the ropes of a dying industry… How do you make money at doing that in just a few months later?
However, it was the third question that got Goldsmith hooked soon after he started shooting.
“Here were the journalists who were fighting back. They were putting their jobs on the line. This had happened just after I got into the film, just after that first kind of scene in the film with what’s now called the debt for rebellion; the editorial (in the Denver Post) that blasted the hedge fund owner (vulture capitalist – Randall Smith). These people and not just one but a whole crowd of them were putting their livelihoods on the line and for what? They don’t usually do that as is pointed out in the film.”
“Journalists are covering other people’s stories in the world around them. George Seldes is famous about saying “the most sacred cow of the press is the press itself“. They don’t write about themselves and here they were writing about themselves, and they were standing up…and they were standing up not only for themselves, but really for the rest of us…and for democracy…and that to me was a great story!”.
THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE
Goldsmith continued, “Before the last financial crisis and the first decade of this century we started seeing a decline in the number of journalists. I think that led to a less informed public to and then with the rise of social media to not only a misinformed public but a disinformed public. I think that led to the kind of politics and elections that we have seen in the last twelve years now…so one thing did lead to another and now with journalists being called “the enemy of the people” it’s even more dangerous for them.”
“People like Patrick Soon-Shiong (Los Angeles Times) and Jeff Bezos (Washington Post) who own newspapers and are obviously catering to the powers that be right now.”
Goldsmith paused and pulled out an article from the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, (a very small newspaper in Vermont) titled “Yes, We are the Enemy”, which was originally published during the first Trump Administration and was just re-published again last February just when the second Trump Administration just was getting started in February and just months prior, when major newspapers decide not endorse their choices for President.
“With Bezos and people like Patrick Soon-Shiong and ABC News kind of caving in to the new (Trump) Administration, this is the kind of journalism that I think we need”, Goldsmith remarked; “this editorial response to the accusation that the newspapers and journalists are “the enemy of the people”.”
“We are the enemy. It’s true. We say that with no hesitation. If you abuse power, we are the enemy. When you use propaganda to mislead the people, you are the enemy. If a public official deliberately hides documents or closes meetings, we are the enemy. We will come after you if you are an oppressor of the underprivileged. We will never allow anyone to silence the voices and opinions of others. If you ignore laws and human rights, you are the enemy. We will call out discrimination, any willingness or eagerness to hate, narrow-mindedness.”…and it goes on, Goldsmith says.
“That to me is the kind of spirit and the kind of attitude that we need desperately more now than ever from the Fourth Estate”, Goldsmith continued. “There are people practicing that and there are a lot of people who partner for the state. We’re not practicing. We’re sitting back and not going after abuse of power.”
“Julie could speak to this. She’s made a career out of it, you go after abuse of power and you know you’re on the right track!”
Here is the link to the “We are the enemy” article from the Barre Montpelier Times Argus:
“Stripped for Parts – American Journalism on the Brink” is now streaming free on Kanopy.
Also just updated: Stripped for Parts is currently available on PBS for streaming and broadcasts:
- Streaming – From October 1st to December 31st, the film is available for free at PBS.org or the PBS app (sometimes called “PBS video”) through Roku, Apple TV, Google Play or most smart TVs
- Broadcast – check here for dates and times, which will be updated periodically. You can also check your local listings.
- October 20th at 5pm PT/8pm ET, (and then 3 repeat airings that week) on the PBS World Channel broadcast everywhere, check your local listings to see if your local station carries the World Channel or check the schedule on our website.
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