Review-'Citizen McCaw':Who owns your news?
Whitney Clark
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Entertainment
Hushed conversations and bursts of laughter filled the humid space in the balcony of the Arlington Theatre. The air was thick with a palpable feeling of excitement.
As the room darkened, yelps of delight escaped from audience members and a collective clap rumbled off the walls. The anticipation of the controversy that was about to unfold onscreen was felt all the way through to the back row of the balcony.
On Friday, "Citizen McCaw" made its world premiere at the Arlington to a sold-out crowd of about 2,200 people. The buzzed-about documentary chronicles the mass exodus of the Santa Barbara News-Press under the ownership of Wendy McCaw.
The 85-minute film was well-crafted. The editors and producers, who included high-profile names such as Peter Seaman, screenwriter from "Shrek the Third," made the messy News-Press situation easy to follow.
Unless you've been living on Pluto, or simply have no interest as to what's going on in Santa Barbara, you've most likely heard of the News-Press controversy that began a little more than a year-and-a-half ago.
In the summer of 2006, five editors and long-time columnist Barney Brantingham resigned from the News-Press. According to the documentary, the reporters charged a breach of ethics and accused McCaw and Editorial Page Editor Travis Armstrong of interfering with the news content of the paper. Since then, more than 70 staff members have either been fired or resigned.
For the most part, the film was comprised of testimonials of former News-Press reporters, editors and personnel. The film also included interviews with journalism professors from across the country, as well as legends such as Washington Post Editor Emeritus Ben Bradlee and former NBC News reporter Sander Vancour.
"The role [of the press] is to uncover the truth and to have no sacred cows. And there's nobody that you can't write about and there's no friend of the publisher," Bradlee said in the film.
"Citizen McCaw" was both tragic and hilarious. Although the film has been criticized for being biased, McCaw refused several times to be interviewed for the film. The laughable quotes from her editorials were preposterous, making it impossible to feel any compassion for the multi-millionaire.
As the room darkened, yelps of delight escaped from audience members and a collective clap rumbled off the walls. The anticipation of the controversy that was about to unfold onscreen was felt all the way through to the back row of the balcony.
On Friday, "Citizen McCaw" made its world premiere at the Arlington to a sold-out crowd of about 2,200 people. The buzzed-about documentary chronicles the mass exodus of the Santa Barbara News-Press under the ownership of Wendy McCaw.
The 85-minute film was well-crafted. The editors and producers, who included high-profile names such as Peter Seaman, screenwriter from "Shrek the Third," made the messy News-Press situation easy to follow.
Unless you've been living on Pluto, or simply have no interest as to what's going on in Santa Barbara, you've most likely heard of the News-Press controversy that began a little more than a year-and-a-half ago.
In the summer of 2006, five editors and long-time columnist Barney Brantingham resigned from the News-Press. According to the documentary, the reporters charged a breach of ethics and accused McCaw and Editorial Page Editor Travis Armstrong of interfering with the news content of the paper. Since then, more than 70 staff members have either been fired or resigned.
For the most part, the film was comprised of testimonials of former News-Press reporters, editors and personnel. The film also included interviews with journalism professors from across the country, as well as legends such as Washington Post Editor Emeritus Ben Bradlee and former NBC News reporter Sander Vancour.
"The role [of the press] is to uncover the truth and to have no sacred cows. And there's nobody that you can't write about and there's no friend of the publisher," Bradlee said in the film.
"Citizen McCaw" was both tragic and hilarious. Although the film has been criticized for being biased, McCaw refused several times to be interviewed for the film. The laughable quotes from her editorials were preposterous, making it impossible to feel any compassion for the multi-millionaire.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
DS
posted 3/12/08 @ 3:12 PM PST
This is one of the best reviews of the screening I've read so far. Well done!!
Katie
Katie
posted 3/17/08 @ 11:10 AM PST
Love this one! For further information on all of the recent lay-offs, corruption and failings of California newspaper groups check out this blog
http://reporter-g. (Continued…)
Geoff
Geoff
posted 3/18/08 @ 5:33 PM PST
Great article! It is a hot topic as more and more large corporations own larger market shares of television stations and newspapers. Good job.
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