Steven Spielberg's The Post is a must-watch in these dark times for journalism

Many people will say that idealism is dead today. The movie, starring some of the most talented actors of contemporary times like Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Alison Brie, Sarah Paulson and Jesse Plemons, is based on the true story of journalists from The Washington Post who published the infamous Pentagon Papers — classified documents with decades’ worth of information about the Vietnam War which showed that the United States government kept sending American soldiers to the frontlines despite knowing as early as 1965 that the war was unwinnable. The most significant parts of Spielberg’s brilliant and emotional political drama depict how journalists at The Washington Post handled the extremely tricky dilemma of whether they should publish the contents of the Pentagon Papers, especially since the then Nixon administration took strict action against The New York Times for publishing a small part of the top secret documents. The final decision ultimately rests in the hands of Katherine Graham, The Washington Post’s first female publisher. “‘The Post’ is an uneasy, if ultimately optimistic, exploration of the entanglements among journalists, politicians and policymakers in Washington, and of the conflicts between the financial and moral imperatives of the newspaper business,” says this article in none other than The Washington Post.