User Reviews

I give this a 7. I think this was a very good look at the inner workings of the Times. There is nothing wrong with this documentary. It is well done.

The part I find weird is that, watching this you can see the bias. the single minded intent, and the lack of diversity of opinion, pretending to be journalists going after a story. I actually don't so much believe the Times is actively as biased as many conservatives feel, It seems to me to be an almost an aloof bias. When they are breaking stories it is glaring that they don't have a single person on staff to bat a different point of view back and forth. They are all of one mindset, "Get Trump, trash Trump, hate Trump." They are indeed doing their jobs going after the story. There is no argument there, and that is what every news organization should do. But it becomes apparent, if you are not a "progressive," that they are all after an angle on the story, not the story. Every news clip they show is on MSNBC, or CNN. Every news clips on the Televisions of reporters and editors, is...MSNBC, or CNN. Could you imagine if the Times had pursued the Obama Admin in this manner? They would be blasted as racists, sabotuers, etc.

This documentary kind of hurts the Times. It appears through the edits that the Times only reports negative stories on Trump and dismisses anything at all positive. They have no one on the staff that even has a positive mindset towards Trump. In the first episode they show the reporter that covers Republicans and the Conservative movement and its clear from body language that he doesn't understand conservatives, and has a disdain for not only Trump, but all conservatives. This is ok, I guess you could claim that is a way to be critical but my guess is whoever they have covering the progressive movement is likely neck deep in the movement is extremely comfortable and cozy with those they are covering.

Another reporter, not covering Russia, says he tries to write about things that "piss him off." Of course he is attacking the Administrative state on de-regulation. He is admitting he is an activist journalist with a big conflict of interest. He doesn't seem to be concerned for the last admins. destruction of the rights of individual Americans, States Rights, or the trampling of these rights by unelected bureaucrats, but as soon as de-regulation is mentioned this guy is all over attacking the Trump admin. Is this unbiased reporting? No.

The biggest thing this doc shows is the lack of diversity of opinion at the Times. The Old Gray Lady is of one solid opinion and you cannot avoid seeing why they couldn't get the 2016 election right. They were angry about the election and only pay a passing glance to understanding how they got the election wrong. If they want to understand how Trump got elected they really need to dive into the arrogance of their staff, editors, and staff, and that lack of diversity of opinion. The Grey Lady needs an overhaul and it is not one that comes from "understand" by the current employees, but maybe could come with a change over of many of their employees. Go after the stories, they are great at that, but they must have a much more diverse conversation about their narratives. The reason Trump resonates when he talks about "Fake News," is because the media doesn't even recognize their own bias. They spent 8 years cheering on, backing up, and extolling the glories of one point of view. They got so in deep with that Admin. that they completely insulated themselves from any opposing view. This attitude has poisoned them all. At this point, I don't know if they will have anyway to recover at all. America has more opinions than the left.

A look at the beginning of the 2nd Civil War in America! Factual, well done and Scary!

"The Fourth Estate" (2018 release; 4 episodes; 260 min.) is a documentary about the day-to-day journalism that the New York Times does. As Episode 1 "100 Days" opens, it is January 20, 2017 and Trump is being sworn in. We get to know Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of the Times, about the rapidly changing landscape, both within the newspaper industry and within the political sphere ("We are dealing with a President who is very comfortable not telling the truth"). It's not long before one political bombshell starts falling after another...

Couple of comments: this documentary series is produced and directed by veteran film maker Liz Garbus, one of the premier documentarians of this generation ("Bobby Fisher Against the World", "There' Something Wrong With Aunt Diane", "What Happened, Miss Simone?"). Here she is granted seemingly unlimited access to the New York Times for months on end, and at all times of the day and night. The core team of political and investigative reporters becomes very familiar to us over these 4 episodes. Couple of things that are really striking: (1) the competition, in particular against the Washington Post, is killer. Watch the expression on the NTY reporters' faces when the WaPo breaks a big story (the Flynt story) in early 2017 before they do. (2) these reporters are putting in HUGE amount of hours, and need to basically be available 24/7. "Reporters today are working much harder than when i was a reporter", comments Baquet. (3) it's all about posting a story on-line. The print edition has become an afterthought. (4) did I mention it is HARD WORK? holy cow. Please note that the theme music and some of the score is courtesy of NIN's Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Earlier this week I attended a book event here in CIncinnati featuring the New York Times' Deputy General Counsel David McGraw (discussing his new book "Truth in Our Times"). He mentioned that the NYT must do a better job explaining to the public what (and how) it works, and that this Showtime series was a deliberate effort to make the paper more accessible and transparent. I had not heard of this series until this week, and then promptly bingewatched it. What an engrossing and must-see documentary this turned out to be! Even though it's now 18 months old, it feels still 100% relevant with this crazy age that is the Trump administration. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I absolutely loved this. I've read the articles and seeing how they run down stories is fascinating. It shows how tough it is for them in this age when the press is under attack, and the decisions they have to make. I'd highly recommend it.

I want this documentary to continue ....absolutely fascinating!

Finally factual accounts compared to conspiracy theory fake trumpiism (Faux news)

We folllow the staff of NYT during their coverage iof Trumps' first year in office.

My five points are for the directing and editing which are near brilliant. It feels like " All the president's men" or "The Post" but then for real. You can easily see Hoffman or Hanks as one of the NYT reporters here . They all are those cleancut almost sanctimoniously noble and driven journalists hunting for the bad guy, in this case ofcourse Trump (instead of Nixon).

But that's also the main problem with this documentary : it is completely one-sided as it only deals with: the viewpoint of the Democratic elite. As I sometimes glance to the NYT (the EU version) it becomes clear that the whole newspaper is completely obsessed by Trump. The bulk of the articles are directly linked to him. Besides it got the sales up again it is also due to the fact the NYT is largely owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim who obviously is no friend of Trump. So much for objectivity then. But it is really well made.

As a former investigative journalist with more than two decades of experience, it sickened me to watch these sanctamoneous "journalists" who have already made up their mind on a story. I prided myself on being objective and always believing both side of an argument--but what have they got to show after all this time? And millions and millions spent on a witch hunt? These reporters will go down in history as examples of how they and their leaders (my goodness doesn't Mr. Barquet seem so arrogant) ruined the trust we had once in this once storied journalistic institution and how personal biases and just plain stupidity at allowing entrenched establishment members dictate what is news. Do you honestly believe a Russian influenced my decision to vote against a person who enabled a sexual predator to thrive for decades, robbing the souls of all those women and then Hillary and her henchmen (ABC's George Stephie being one) tried to destroy these women. Great job by the filmmaker capturing their arrogance, but the subject matter sure bummed me out at how biased and forever ruining the Times' reputation due to their reckless actions.

These fools bought everything the disgraced FBI was selling. Now that the truth is out and it's clear that political bias left this group uninformed they are unwilling to finish the story. . The big Russian contacts talking to George Papadopoulos were all brought in by the FBI. . General Flynn a victim of FBI treachery. . Where is the follow up here?

A closer look at the inner workings of the Political biased news and attacks through journalism to those that dont fit the narrative.

A series of segments about NYT reporters covering Donald Trump's presidency. If you've ever wondered what it's like inside the NYT echo chamber, this may interest you. For everyone else, it's basically a ripoff of "The Circus" except instead of last week, the content is over a year old and instead of personable hosts there are a bunch of pretentious NYT reporters.

I get it, Trump is awful, but I just suffered through two years of the MSM obsessing about Russia and whinging about mean tweets. Why would I want to watch a documentary series review the same inane partisan hackery in detail?