Grayer Lady

Just as journalists embedded themselves in Afghanistan, filmmaker Andrew Rossi bunkered down in the newsroom of the New York Times. His documentary Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times shows a paper considering its own extinction for the first time in its 160-year history. In the battlefield of the newsroom, attacks don’t come in the form of IEDs, drones, or missiles. Instead these men (and yes, it is mostly men) seek cover from an imploding global economy and massive layoffs. As they feverishly fight for their livelihoods, they mastermind new tactics to fight the enemy, which, in this case, is new-media outlets such as Gawker and the Huffington Post. And if this battle had a General Patton, it’d be Times media columnist David Carr, a scruffy-voiced reporter whose past includes cocaine addiction and welfare. Although he believes online media is a good thing for journalism, he’s wary of the snark machines pushing attitude over reporting. In Page One, Carr has a heated discussion with Vice cofounder Shane Smith about heavy-hitting news and finally explodes with: “Just a sec, time out. Before you ever went there, we’ve had reporters there reporting on genocide after genocide. Just because you put on a fucking safari helmet and looked at some poop doesn’t give you the right to insult what we do.” See Page One this Friday with a second screening at 10 p.m. at O Cinema. There will be screenings through Sunday.
July 8-10, 7:45 p.m., 2011