It’s now conventional for corporate media pundits and centrist politicians to acknowledge that their support for the US invasion of Iraq was misguided. Most excuse their pro-war record on the grounds that there was no available alternate narrative to the Bush administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. How could they have known any better?
But as FAIR has long noted (Extra!, 3–4/03), this “we were all wrong” narrative doesn’t hold up. There were, in fact, a few corporate journalists who got it right when everyone else was getting it wrong.
Shock and Awe, a new film directed by Rob Reiner—of This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and A Few Good Men (1992) fame—tells the story of two of these journalists. At the center of Reiner’s proper noun–heavy docudrama are Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, two reporters for Knight Ridder, one of the largest newspaper publishers at the time. (It’s since been absorbed by McClatchy.)
The film shows Landay and Strobel—portrayed by a playful, good-hearted Woody Harrelson and an awkward yet sharp James Marsden, respectively—working tirelessly to counter the government’s lies about Iraq’s possession of WMDs and ties to Al Qaeda. Reiner and his writer Joey Hartstone tell the story of the lead-up to the invasion with clips of Bush and other “dickweeds” in his war cabinet deceiving the public, supported by an obedient media and the “think tank boys,” like “that giant butthole” Bill Kristol at the “Project for the New American Whatever-the-Fuck.”
Woody Harrelson as Jonathan Landay is hugged by on-screen spouse Milla Jovovich in Shock and Awe.
Reiner and Hartstone maximize the political potential of every relationship and scene in the film. For example, when Landay’s wife (played by Milla Jovovich) cancels their subscription to the New York Times, she explains: “It’s propaganda, it’s packaging press releases from the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon. Sorry, that’s not a real newspaper.”
One scene later, set on the morning of September 8, 2002 (six months before the invasion), Strobel walks into the Knight Ridder office to drop a copy of the Times on Landay’s desk. Above the fold on A1 is Judith Miller and Michael Gordon’s infamous “aluminum tubes” story, which reported that Saddam Hussein had “embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb,” based on interviews with unidentified “Bush administration officials.”
Miller “would quote a carnival fortune teller if he was willing to say Iraq had WMD,” quips veteran journalist Joe Galloway, played by a confident, no-nonsense Tommy Lee Jones.
Later that day, as the Knight Ridder staff is watching Dick Cheney cite the Times story on NBC’s Meet the Press (9/8/02) to drum up support for the impending war, editor John Walcott—played by Reiner—reminds his staff whom they work for:
If every other news organization wants to be stenographers for the Bush administration, let them. We don’t write for people who send other people’s kids to war. We write for people whose kids get sent to war. So when the government says something, you only have one question to ask: Is is true?
The next 60 seconds juxtapose corporate media headlines with a frantic and relentless Knight Ridder team working to report the truth.
James Marsden’s Warren Strobel (left) confers with editor John Walcott, played by director Rob Reiner.
Scenes like this one show the film at its best, but Reiner’s public musings on current politics show that he hasn’t learned the simplest lesson of his own movie—that we should be skeptical of those at the highest levels of the US government. He has firmly bought into the Russiagate hysteria and joined the FBI- and CIA-loving liberal #Resistance. His Twitter feed is filled with retweets of George W. Bush speechwriter David “Axis of Evil” Frum, Sen. John McCain and conservative cop-lover Joe Walsh.
In one particularly ironic tweet, Reiner writes (7/23/18):
We’ve just taken another big step towards Autocracy. An illegitimate President just threatened to remove security clearances from John Brennan, James Clapper & Michael Hayden for being patriots who are critical of a POTUS hell bent on destroying Democracy. Save the US. VOTE!!!
Did Reiner forget that Brennan, Hayden and Clapper all served in senior intelligence positions in the Bush administration prior to, during and after the invasion of Iraq? And that at the least the latter two were instrumental in selling the WMD claim, the one that his film goes to such great lengths to ridicule?
This liberal myopia is frustrating, and makes the film’s cringe-inducing scenes a bit more cringe-worthy. For example, in one scene, during a loquacious 55-second explanation of Middle East history and the implications of a potential war in Iraq, Jessica Biel’s character—who dates Strobel in the film—tells him, “After reading your stories, I know that Iran is the top sponsor of terror, not Iraq.” At a time when the president appears eager for war with Iran, when claims that Iran is a major sponsor of terrorism are dubious at best, it’s hard to understand why this line made the final cut.
Critics were not wowed by the film (Washington Post, 7/10/18; Rolling Stone, 7/13/18; Variety, 7/12/18), leading to a 34 percent Rotten Tomatoes percentage and a 45 score on Metacritic. But flaws aside, Shock and Awe delivers an effective valorization of aggressive, adversarial journalism that should inspire young reporters, and a powerful condemnation of one of the darkest moments in the history of journalism. For opponents of the Iraq War, it’s a feel-good movie that says, “We told you so.” And it doesn’t pull punches; viewers won’t forget the names of the congressmembers who voted to support the war, or that the New York Times (5/26/04) issued a mea culpa in disgrace.
For its educational potential—news junkies may find the film’s over-explaining annoying, but others will likely find it helpful—it’s unfortunate that Shock and Awe got a limited nationwide release on July 13 and was pushed out of theaters just over a week later. (It was made available on demand before its theatrical release on platforms like Amazon Prime Video, iTunes, YouTube Movies and Google Play.)
Though perhaps stylistically a bit overdone at points—if you want to watch Woody Harrelson spontaneously start playing acoustic guitar at a camp in Tora Bora, you won’t be disappointed—Reiner’s film reminds us why it’s so important to remember that there were traditional journalists, relying on low-level government sources, who got the story right: The next time the government is trying to sell the public on an unjust and illegal war, we need to pay attention to to the ones who know better.
LOL Rob Reiner after all the great work done on this film actually buys into Russiagate???? Wow, I guess that his long ago, :”MEAT HEAD,” moniker still can ring true. : )
Russiagate is as fake as weapons of mass destruction were. I remember nothing could be stupider than the idiots that screamed we were anti-Americans for pointing out that Duh lied, but here’s the dumb left, working for the military industrial complex calling us traitors because we neither want Cold War 2.0, or nuclear annihilation.
I never in my wildest dreams thought in the span of just 15 years I would be looking at “liberals” as FAR stupider, and WAY more gullible than “conservatives” of 2003.
“…….Jessica Biel’s character—who dates Strobel in the film—tells him, “After reading your stories, I know that Iran is the top sponsor of terror, not Iraq.” At a time when the president appears eager for war with Iran, when claims that Iran is a major sponsor of terrorism are dubious at best, it’s hard to understand why this line made the final cut.”
Perhaps, this one ‘innocuous’ statement was the whole purpose of the film.
Yeah, i kindah wonder if that should be seen as beyond the pale..
This movie is so right. I was a reporter and writer most of my life and when the Drums began sounding from the big guys I looked harder, and longer, to recognize what became apparent soon enough; The war was a historic joke. If you were dumb enough to join the parade, then so be it. What amazes me to this day how the media ate every dead fish Miller and her cohorts tossed at them. I can’t forget watching TV, hoping for some respite as our tanks crossed the line. I read some of the Knight Ridder stories , relieved some publications got it right. I was referred there by a former editor so some of us were hip to the lies. Was not long until I surfed into the McClatchy site. Here’s the thing: It’s clear that mass cult has claimed Mass Media. Check your wallet after ingesting what we’re getting today. T rump would never have been in the White House had major media not enabled his rise by publicizing every word he uttered. In fact the MM created that monster and now they’re feasting on his carcass. Unless he can control them too! (writing with PD has become impossible)
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Trumps the anti-dote of this nonsense. Would you rather have a woman that as a junior senator voted for the Authorization to Use Force in Iraq, and was the force behind bombing Libya to “prevent a humanitarian crisis”, which today is now in civil war and has slavery markets today?
I’m always amazed at how “journalists” are so incompetent at their job. Either they are entirely incompetent, or they are just propaganda. You’re one of the other.
I wish you morons would realize you can talk to anybody on the planet with the device you’re reading this on now. Remember Bana al-Abed? Obvious propaganda platform. Barely anybody in the propaganda media pointed that out. How can anybody believe that when a city has been bombed to rubble so much that the infrastructure of food delivery has collapsed, yet the Internet still works well enough for a little girl to be able to send out tweets on Twitter *daily*, and she just happens to speak English, and is begging for US and British intervention? Gee whiz, think it’s a propaganda operation? Duh, I kant tell. Me dum.
You people are either stupid, or think we are stupid.
Anyone who gets their history from Hollywood, deserves Donald Trump. A film with mixed messages, like all of Hollywood’s bunk, will only mix up the mass of the un/under-educated American audience. But that’s the point, isn’t it. Liberal is still Liberal, and that means Conservative, just with a slightly smaller c, for compromised. Please, just ignore Hollywood, they deserve no respect or kudos for anything. They’ll continue making paltry attempts to redeem themselves because they’ve been silent on institutional racism, poverty, and the 2 decade long militarization of America. The me too movement, has exposed why there was the silence – too many skeletons in too many closets. I actually laughed when I saw Spotlight was made; it’s the toilet paper calling the toothbrush gross.
I agree with your point about Hollywood movies being a BAD source of historical info. I especially never waste my time watching ‘docu-dramas’ because HOW would you ever even begin to know what is or isn’t factual? Believing movies supply some true info is an easy way to lose a subsequent debate/argument and be embarrassed in the process. Even critically acclaimed classic ones are more ‘supplementary’ than reference material — I’m thinking of movies like ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, where you really have to have existing background on the initial cavalier attitudes and subsequent horrible carnage of that debacle to appreciate what the movie was ‘saying’. And like any other big corporate enterprise, the vast majority of the movies are made with a PRIMARY purpose of making a maximum profit, and the whole product has to be consistent with that goal, so that virtually automatically filters-out a lot of disconcerting facts.
Never heard of “Shock and Awe”! I’ll have to see if its available.
Never heard of “Shock and Awe”! I’ll have to see if its available.
And Rob Reiner is pushing the “Russia-gate” crap, which is basically as evidence free as the WMDs in Iraq claim. (No, don’t answer and move the goal posts to Trump and dirty money from the former Soviet Union.)
But Rob Reiner backed Hillary, she voted to greenlight the war push and then backed the war for years; that’s years longer than John Kerry. Carl Reiner on the other hand supported Bernie Sanders.
Lots of people knew Bush was lying. I remember in the early 2000’s there were hundreds of thousands of posts on yahoo news challenging it, and pointing out that Hussein wouldn’t possibly work with binLaden to carry out 9/11 since he murdered any religious figure that would challenge his rule, that Scott Ritter tried repeatedly to address congress and even Hillary Clinton and was turned away, etc, etc, etc – and all of that – was deleted.
You will never know that hundreds of thousands of people knew this was a lie, tried to tell people, explain the true motivations for the war, and all of their protests were simply deleted to create the new false narrative of “duh, nobody knew”.