Journalists being jerks are a mainstay of Hollywood movies. Here are 11 examples.
But First
All The President’s Men is an example of a film about journalists who can be pushy and aggressive — because they have to be in order to uncover lies and crooked behavior by the Nixon Administration.
Journalists being assertive isn’t the same as journalists being a jerk. When we talk about journalists being jerks, we’re talking about journalists using their platform to promote themselves, rather than truth.
So, on with our list.
Citizen Kane (1941)
We use the term “journalist” very loosely to describe Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), who uses his newspapers as a bully pulpit to support his business interests and keep himself and his friends happy.
He’s the worst kind of publisher, someone willing to twist the truth for the sake of profit, even as he tells himself he has high-minded ideals.
He’s based on the real William Randolph Kane, who tried to use his journalistic empire to kill the movie.
People who try to bend journalistic enterprises to their own power are, inevitably, jerks.
Ace in the Hole (1951)
Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole stars Kirk Douglas as a disgraced big-city reporter who, relegated to a job at a small paper in Albuquerque, learns of a man trapped in a collapsed cliff dwelling. Seeing his chance to reclaim his former success, he builds the situation up into a media circus.
The story is about both how the news media can overhype small stories into massive ones, and how politicians and a gullible public are part of the phenomenon.
The Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Burt Lancaster plays columnist J.J. Hunsecker, who rules Broadway with an iron fist because of his influential column, which has the power to make or break careers. Though ostensibly noble, he has a weird fixation on the love life of his younger sister, Susan (Susan Harrison, above left) and isn’t above using his press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis, above right) to meddle in her affairs.
Curtis is impressively wily, trying to siphon off some of Hunsecker’s power, in this wonderfully twisty tour of 1950s Manhattan in which almost everyone is corrupt.
Broadcast News (1987)
Not all the journalists in Broadcast News are jerks — producer Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) is smart, ethical and devoted to getting the facts straight.
And the two men competing for her attention have their good points, but they’re also kind of jerks: Tom Grunick (William Hurt) is handsome and great on camera, but not seasoned in real journalism, and willing to unethically fake crying in order to make a story more compelling. He represents the problem in journalism of sizzle over substance.
Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) is presented as very smart, and great at journalism — but he’s also a condescending know-it-all. And the scene where he seems to minimize sexual assault hasn’t aged especially well.
All that said, we love Broadcast News, a smart and nuanced movie for grown-ups.
My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
Cynical food critic Julianne “Jules” Potter (Julia Roberts) tries to sabotage the wedding of her best friend, sportswriter Michael O’Neal (Dermot Mulroney) to the wide-eyed Kimmy (Cameron Diaz).
If you remember this as a silly romantic comedy, watch it again — it’s another movie for grown-ups, about pursuing and giving up your dreams, and when to sell out and when to stay true. The kinds of questions journalists wrestle with constantly.
Jules does things that are wildly unethical and jerky, but also learns to not be selfish.
Never Been Kissed (1999)
Look, we love the setup of Never Been Kissed — a 25-year-old journalist goes undercover in a high school to report on kids today — and Drew Barrymore is typically charming as Josie Gellar, who is forced to remember her high school humiliations while spying on those kids.
But it’s totally unethical for reporters to misrepresent who they are, even if they’re intentions are good, and it’s something that ethical real-life reporters do only in the most unusual of circumstances.
In fact, when two ABC News reporters went undercover at a grocery store chain in the 1990s for a hidden-camera investigation into food safety, the grocery chain sued and won, accusing the journalists of fraud because they had lied about their backgrounds to gain employment with the chain.
The chain initially won millions, which was reduced to $2 on appeal.
Shattered Glass (2003)
To be clear, real journalists do not just make things up. That’s why it’s such a big deal when one gets caught.
Shattered Glass is a 2003 biographical drama film about so-called journalist Stephen Glass, (played by Hayden Christensen) who was caught making up stories during his time at The New Republic.
Real reporters despise these kinds of practices because journalists being jerks (for the sake of self-aggrandizement, not the pursuit of truth) give fuel to people who want you to distrust the press.
Anchorman (2004)
Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell, left) makes Tom Grunick in Broadcast News look like Edward R. Murrow. He’s a misinformation machine coasting on supposed charm and good looks, aided by a news team of pompous dummies.
The one competent addition to the crew is Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate, right) who of course is punished for her competence with relentless harassment from her horrendous colleagues.
For all the excellent jokes, director Adam McKay and co-writer Ferrell land some solid points about how we all suffer when newspeople use news merely as a means to local fame and fortune. We love Anchorman.
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep) is a brilliant fashion editor who knows the industry inside-out, but she’s also mean and condescending.
But Andy (Anne Hathaway) is in some ways worse: Though totally inexperienced in her job beneath Miranda, she resents paying dues, and considers herself too good for her position. Until she learns to play the game, becomes engrossed in an industry she once considers shallow, and becomes just as manipulative as the people she claims to detest.
Lessons are learned.
Night Crawler (2014)
An incredibly fun watch, Nightcrawler follows sociopath Louis Bloom as he breaks into the world of if-it-bleeds-it-leads local news coverage.
Nevermind that much of the footage he captures in the movie is way too graphic to show up in a real news broadcast: Nightcrawler is a propulsive look at the sometimes blurry line between news and voyeurism. Is Louis a journalist, or a ruthless self-promoter?
You could ask the question of many so-called journalists, especially those who, like Louis, come at it with no professional training. They aren’t so much journalists being jerks as jerks posing as journalists.
Vengeance (2022)
This mystery thriller follows writer-director-star B.J. Novak as a New York City aspiring podcaster who travels to Texas to investigate the death of a woman he hooked up with. Novak told MovieMaker that his opportunistic character is “charmingly pathetic,” and explained why thinks there are so many journalists in movies.
“It’s a great structural sort of cheat because it means that the protagonist is discovering the story along with you. And the discovery of the story can be the plot. So you have this amazing head start if you have a journalist character,” Novak said.
“If you have a writer character who can talk and type about everything they’re experiencing and how they’re feeling, it’s perfect.”
Liked Out List of Movies About Journalists Being Jerks?
Look, it’s easy to blame the messenger when you don’t like a story. But we urge you to also check out some movies about the best of journalism, like Spotlight, which shows why we need independent people willing to ask tough questions and follow the truth wherever it goes.