Truth

Before the 2004 election, a CBS news programme broadcasts documents suggesting President George W. Bush did not fulfil his National Guard service. After it airs, the authenticity of the documents is questioned, an argument breaks out about typography, and the story's verification process collapses. The producer Mary Mapes and the anchor Dan Rather lose their jobs. The subject is not whether the story was true but the inadequacy of the verification. The film looks from Mapes' side and implies that the substance of the claim remains defensible, while still having to show the negligence about where the documents came from. The form is newsroom drama: telephones, rounds of confirmation, deadline pressure, and then a review panel. The second half is almost entirely internal investigation. The source is Mary Mapes' own book, so the account comes from one side of the events. CBS refused to run advertisements for the film on its own channels and stated that it distorted what happened, which was read as a continuation of the subject the production describes. James Vanderbilt directs in his first feature. Cate Blanchett plays Mapes and Robert Redford plays Rather. Who it is for: viewers who like journalism and stories of institutional reckoning. Who it is not for: anyone expecting balance; the film narrates from one side and passes quickly over the counterarguments.