Bens decision to not post the article
I think it was rather noble of Ben not to send the article to Sam regarding the weather underground movement since I guess he realized there were things more important than publishing a story.
shareYes it was noble, but it rendered him totally unsuitable to be a reporter.
That ending made me imagine a version of All the President's Men where Redford and Dustin Hoffman get the goods, and then say, Oh, hey, if we publish this it will hurt John Mitchell's feelings so let's kill the story.
Of course investigative reporters publish stories that hurt people's feelings. Innocent people too. So Ben uncovers what would be a terrific news story ... and says, oh, well, this is going to hurt someone's feelings, guess I'll forget about it.
The story totally sells out the character. It's a feel-good ending, but what does the movie say? That it's better to hide the truth as long as we can spare everyone's feelings? That investigative reporters shouldn't do their jobs because exposing the truth invariably hurts and embarrasses people, some of whom just happen to be related to the guilty parties?
Redford played Bob Woodward for God's sake. And innocent people did get hurt in Watergate. Attorney General John Mitchell went to prison, and his wife Martha was driven to alcoholism and early death. Does Robert Redford really believe that Woodward and Bernstein should have killed their stories to spare Martha Mitchell?
Grrrrr. This plot point made me furious. It sold out the entire movie. Telling the truth is bad if it hurts anyone's feelings. Investigative reporters are big meanies and they shouldn't ask all those questions.
Ye gods.
Perfect reply, fishfry!
I thought exactly the same while seeing this movie.
@fishfry, you repeatedly talk about people's hurt feelings. His story, concerning an innocent man, was set to upset, disrupt, and/or ruin families and relationships. He had even been warned about his hard-edged reporting tactics earlier in the movie by his own editor.
I'm not sure why you're invoking John Mitchell. The man was a trusted public official who was indicted on multiple felony counts, and who was convicted and served time for several of them. I doubt his wife, Martha, was concerned about having her feelings spared by the press, since she repeatedly made phone calls to reporters about the illegal shenanigans of Nixon and some of his staff.
I agree, that was totally lame. Better to let the truth out. So what if it got out that the young woman's parents were old Weathermen. Most people weren't even alive when they were active. Her dad was innocent too. The story needs to be told
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