On Friday, June 22 we’re excited to cohost with our friends at RAAC a cool RAAC TalkBack “twin bill”:
- “The Post,” the Academy Award-nominated film starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. The 2017 film delves into the Washington Post’s (and New York Times’) high stakes legal battle to publish the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon Administration. Streep portrays the courageous Post publisher Katherine Graham; Hanks does his best to channel executive editor Ben Bradlee.
- Immediately following: A conversation between our own Andy Alexander (former ombudmsan for the Washington Post) and noted First Amendment attorney Jay Ward Brown.
The sponsors moved the event up one day to ensure the best possible attendance during a busy summer weekend. So if you have the event on your calendar for Saturday, June 23? Move it!
Time: 7 p.m.
Date: Friday, June 22
Place: Little Washington Theatre.
Many will recall the full house we drew for the showing of “Spotlight,” another great journalism-inspired film — winner of the Academy Award for best picture. The subsequent conversation between Andy and Martin Baron, executive editor of The Post, took place on a notoriously busy news day: Oct. 7, 2016. That day The Post broke the story of the Access Hollywood tape revealing then-candidate Donald Trump’s “pussy-grabbing” comments on how he treated women. That day also featured administration officials going public with concerns about Russian hacking of the 2016 elections.
I can’t wait to see “The Post” again. I’ll fully admit getting emotionally caught up in the story, as it covers events taking place just as I was entering journalism school. Spoiler alert: I blubbered when the presses roll.