Awards for fake news stories and the fact that terms like “post-truth” exist suggest that we need a David and Goliath narrative about the importance of journalism now more than ever. Thankfully, as Deadline reports, Liz Garbus’ documentary on The New York Times will air on Showtime on May 27. The previously-announced doc chronicles the publication’s inner workings during the first year of the Trump Administration, which isn’t exactly a proponent of the free press (to put it mildly). Produced by RadicalMedia for Showtime, Garbus’ project is tentatively titled “The Fourth Estate.”
“From the first time President Trump called The New York Times ‘highly inaccurate’ in its coverage of his administration, through his false claim that the paper is ‘failing’ and losing thousands of subscribers, to ultimately declaring the majority of the nation’s major news outlets ‘fake news,’ a chief task for the Times, long considered the ‘newspaper of record,’ has been to find the best way to accurately and honestly cover this new and unconventional president,” Showtime’s synopsis for “The Fourth Estate” reads. The doc “intimately chronicles the tenacious men and women in the trenches who are fighting for the freedom of the press and America’s right to know.”
As Garbus said in a statement, “The Fourth Estate” will unpack the demagogue’s pattern of equating the press with his own PR team — and his fury when the press presents him in a less-than-flattering light. “Trump craves the positive coverage of his hometown paper while simultaneously denigrating the ‘failing New York Times’ on what seems to be a daily basis,” Garbus explained. “It’s the story of a lifetime, but what kind of story is it? Is it the story of a new era of the American presidency, or is it a reality show debacle?”
Garbus received Best Documentary Oscar nominations for “What Happened, Miss Simone?” and “The Farm: Angola, USA” in 2016 and 1999, respectively. Netflix doc “What Happened, Miss Simone?” took home the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special in 2016. “Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper,” “Love, Marilyn,” and “Bobby Fischer Against the World” are among Garbus’ other doc directing credits.
Next, Garbus will direct the Sarah Paulson-starrer “Lost Girls.” The adaptation of Robert Kolker’s 2013 book “Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery” is about the so-called Craigslist Ripper. The project is in pre-production.
