All,
Sydney Pollack’s 1981 film, Absence of Malice, serves an interesting testament to the dynamics of journalism. Asked to focus on the practices the newspaper reporter, Megan Carter, did wrong throughout the film, I offer the following:
(1) She failed right off the bat by falling into the trap set by federal prosecutor, Elliot Rosen. She read the file he intentionally left for her to see on his desk regarding Michael Gallagher. A federal prosecutor has the responsibility to ensure that nothing is published that could implicate an individual absent an indictment. However, Rosen is not the most noble of characters, and he’s desperate for a story, and Carter is guilty of not being more cautious as a reporter before publishing it.
(2) Carter also failed to make adequate efforts to contact Gallagher before publishing her initial story about the investigation surrounding his involvement with the murder of Joey Diaz. Simply claiming to have tried calling without leaving a message is not good enough. Gallagher had a right to be given the opportunity to comment before Carter went ahead and published the story.
(3) In my opinion, Carter’s worst failing throughout this whole ordeal was her total lack of empathy and caring for Teresa Peron. During her meeting with Teresa, Teresa disclosed the whereabouts of Gallagher the night Diaz was killed, which was a realistic and believable alibi that buttressed Gallagher’s claim that he did not commit the crime. Gallagher was with Teresa in Atlanta for emotional support when Teresa went down for an abortion. Carter was completely insensitive to Teresa’s pleas not to reveal the abortion details in the paper for fear of being ostracized by the Catholic community who knew her well. Carter published the story with full details anyway and Teresa committed suicide the next day.
Overall, there were several areas of journalistic integrity and professionalism that were called into question throughout the film. Carter’s colleague at the paper said something to her along the lines of, “I know how to tell the truth, and I know how not to hurt people, but I don’t know how to do both at the same time, and neither do you.” He told Carter this after Carter received word of Teresa’s suicide in an attempt to comfort her and help absolve her of any guilt she might be feeling by publishing the story. But the truth is, she should feel guilty; she ignored the personal feelings of a source. Anonymity would have been most appropriate in this scenario.
I appreciate how Gallagher summarizes the entire debacle in one of the last scenes of the movie where he responds to Carter’s saying, “You really go us all,” with, “You got yourselves.”
-Jordana
