The Richard Jewell Movie Bends The Truth — Transcript

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1. 0:00some movies glorified journalism think
2. 0:02spotlight or all the President's Men
3. 0:04Clint Eastwood's new film Richard Jewell
4. 0:06does the opposite accusing the media of
5. 0:09destroying the life of a real-life hero
6. 0:11problem is in making its case Richard
7. 0:13Jewell bends the truth adam has more the
8. 0:16message of the movie Richard Jewell
9. 0:18isn't subtle don't trust the government
10. 0:20or the press these accusers are two of
11. 0:23the most powerful forces in the world
12. 0:25the United States government and the
13. 0:27media after he saved countless lives by
14. 0:30discovering a pipe bomb at the 1996
15. 0:32Atlanta Olympics Richard Jewell was
16. 0:34hailed as a hero and then hounded when
17. 0:37the FBI turned him into a suspect but
18. 0:43while Richard Jewell the film says it
19. 0:45wants to correct the record it takes
20. 0:46gross liberties when it comes to Kathy
21. 0:48Scruggs the real-life reporter who broke
22. 0:51the story about the FBI's focus on jewel
23. 0:53jewel fits the profile of the lone
24. 0:55bomber a frustrated white man who is a
25. 0:58police wannabe who seeks to become a
26. 1:00hero we're running it the film shows
27. 1:02Scruggs offering to sleep with an FBI
28. 1:04agent to get information but there's
29. 1:07zero evidence that ever happened Scruggs
30. 1:10died in 2001 and can't defend herself
31. 1:12but her former employer the Atlanta
32. 1:14journal-constitution
33. 1:15is threatening to sue Warner Brothers
34. 1:17the studio behind the film the newspaper
35. 1:20wants a public statement from the studio
36. 1:22saying some events were imagined and a
37. 1:24disclaimer at the end of the film for
38. 1:27now Warner Brothers isn't budging
39. 1:28calling it the ultimate irony that the
40. 1:30Atlanta journal-constitution having been
41. 1:33a part of the rush to judgment of
42. 1:34Richard Jewell is now trying to malign
43. 1:36our filmmakers and cast for the record a
44. 1:39court tossed out jewels libel suit
45. 1:41against the journal Constitution in 2011
46. 1:43calling the papers coverage
47. 1:45substantially true well I already know
48. 1:48I'm gonna be alone on this one because
49. 1:49we were talking about this in the green
50. 1:50room but I mean it's a multi it's
51. 1:53artistic license I realize the U stirs
52. 1:55in a real name I just saw that bombshell
53. 1:57movie which is about Fox News I'm sure
54. 1:59there was plenty of artistic license in
55. 2:01that I mean and the filmmakers are right
56. 2:03you know the Atlanta
57. 2:05journal-constitution
58. 2:06really really maligned Richard Jewell
59. 2:09that's the that's the thread of this
60. 2:10story this is a sidebar and by the way I
61. 2:13was
62. 2:14understand it Kathy Scruggs may have had
63. 2:16a relationship with one of the FBI
64. 2:18agents I would say that if you're making
65. 2:20a movie about the destructive
66. 2:22consequences of the media's recklessness
67. 2:24it would make sense to not embellish
68. 2:27gratuitously this is a cautionary tale
69. 2:29even if you don't have Kathy strong
70. 2:31Scruggs in an imagined sequence offering
71. 2:34to trade sex for a scoop as for the
72. 2:37relationships I've read of a few
73. 2:38profiles of Kathy Scruggs in the course
74. 2:41of getting ready for this show and
75. 2:42apparently she did date some police she
76. 2:46had very you know sources and law
77. 2:47enforcement she also dated people in law
78. 2:49enforcement but that's different than
79. 2:50offering a transactional hey how about I
80. 2:52sleep with you and you give me this
81. 2:54information in return for it and I do
82. 2:56think it's important to stress that what
83. 2:59she reported that the FBI was looking at
84. 3:02Richard Jewell that was correct you can
85. 3:05question the framing of the story you
86. 3:08can note that there were other things
87. 3:09that the AJC did there was a column that
88. 3:11compared Richard Scruggs to a convicted
89. 3:14killer that looking back on it buddy
90. 3:16thank you Richard Jewell looking back on
91. 3:19it seems pretty irresponsible but her
92. 3:21story wasn't wrong the FBI turned out to
93. 3:23be wrong but she wasn't the story she
94. 3:25wrote was just to be clarified yes I of
95. 3:29all the people to add stuff you know why
96. 3:31is the woman's character the real woman
97. 3:33who is dead and not here to defend
98. 3:35herself why is it that you know she has
99. 3:38to be maligned in this way if they
100. 3:40absolutely knew that to be true maybe I
101. 3:43could see it and even then I would be
102. 3:45like squeezie about it you know but this
103. 3:48they don't know to be true this is just
104. 3:50to make people have eat more popcorn
105. 3:53it's disgusting it's artistic elation
106. 3:55it's not artistic license I'm not
107. 3:57disagreeing with that I'm saying he had
108. 3:59choices to me he made other choices but
109. 4:02he chose to malign her in this way and
110. 4:04even after that's all I'm saying but
111. 4:05Faceman to me it is almost ridiculous
112. 4:08and to me ruins the whole movie to make
113. 4:10a movie about the media ruining the
114. 4:13smearing a person's reputation while
115. 4:16they're smearing the reputation of a
116. 4:18dead woman that's number one there were
117. 4:20two the username is not it's not a
118. 4:22composite character they don't use the
119. 4:24FBI agents name what's that all about
120. 4:26and
121. 4:26third thing is this is a continual theme
122. 4:29through through real-life journalism and
123. 4:32fictional journalism but somehow the
124. 4:34woman reporter couldn't get the story
125. 4:36whether it's from the cops or the
126. 4:38politicians or anybody else without
127. 4:39sleeping with them I mean we also that
128. 4:41in house of cards and any other kinds of
129. 4:43of things that are not talking and so I
130. 4:45think Clint Eastwood looks this looks
131. 4:48very movies Fatty's and add a sexual
132. 4:51element when they don't use her name
133. 4:53yeah life well yeah yeah that that's the
134. 4:57thing I mean this room my cousin Tom
135. 5:00Fiedler went through this too of the
136. 5:02movie about a Gary Hart
137. 5:03he was viciously maligned but they made
138. 5:06out to be a sloppy thug and he wasn't
139. 5:08well we all know how urbane and charming
140. 5:11tom is but he was Mia he was made out to
141. 5:13be this this dope yeah but that's very
142. 5:15different than making someone out to be
143. 5:17a vixen wasn't you know there nobody
144. 5:23accused him of sleeping with somebody to
145. 5:25get the school and he's alive yeah even
146. 5:29though there's been some great real-life
147. 5:30movies like spotlight and all the
148. 5:32President's Men and some others we could
149. 5:34point to it's a very odd genre isn't it
150. 5:37we're using real names would say real
151. 5:40people and saying this happened and this
152. 5:42is what people take away from it this
153. 5:45was a huge misstep it was a deeply
154. 5:48sexist misstep and I'm just going to
155. 5:51quote what a great lawyer once said in
156. 5:53the courtroom he said turn to the jury
157. 5:55and he said if there's something rotten
158. 5:57floating around at the top of the barrel
159. 5:59you're under no obligation to reach in
160. 6:02and see if there's something better
161. 6:03underneath and to me this is just
162. 6:05something rotten floating around at the
163. 6:08top of the barrel and it just kind of
164. 6:10poisons the whole thing don't forget you
165. 6:12know Oliver Stone sort of did a lot with
166. 6:14his genre - he used real names in that
167. 6:16movie where he made up the whole thing
168. 6:17you know that's not know buddy was
169. 6:23threatening to sue him not again where
170. 6:26people sleeping around in the film give
171. 6:29me a lot of people believed what he was
172. 6:31saying this is not going anywhere
173. 6:34because you can't libel a dead person
174. 6:36right yeah maybe one more reason man
175. 6:39journal-constitution I could say that
176. 6:40they've defamed them well that's why I
177. 6:44mentioned just as an aside in case we
178. 6:46have any Olivia Wilde superfans out
179. 6:48there in the audience that she initially
180. 6:50made some comments that seemed to sort
181. 6:52of belittle the concern that's been
182. 6:53raised and has since taken to Twitter
183. 6:55and written this long Twitter thread
184. 6:57where in essence she says I was not
185. 6:59attempting to portray Kathy Scruggs
186. 7:01trading sex for information and she
187. 7:04implies that there were decisions made
188. 7:05by the filmmakers that resulted in that
189. 7:07portrayal that she's not on board with
190. 7:09yes I said she did research herself and
191. 7:11she that was not part of any of her
192. 7:13research that she came up with