We’re talking about Richard Jewell, the Clint Eastwood movie about the dangers of media fake news. And the media is fighting the movie preemptively. The AJC’s (Atlanta Journal Constitution) approach has been to predictably play identity politics by accusing the movie of sexism.
The AJC fastened on to the depiction of Kathy Scruggs and the movie’s suggestion that she slept with an FBI agent.
Kevin Riley, the editor in chief of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has slammed “Richard Jewell” for its portrayal of Scruggs. Riley said in a statement to IndieWire “there is no evidence that this ever happened” and called the film’s suggestion that Scruggs traded sex for news info “offensive and deeply troubling in the #MeToo era.”
I have no idea what the #MeToo era has to do with anything.
We recently had the case of Ali Watkins who slept with a married official and ended up on track to a Pulitzer. This stuff does happen. I don’t know if it happened with Scruggs, but since when have movies been all that painstakingly accurate in every detail?
Yes, Scruggs is dead. As is Jewell. But Scruggs died of a prescription drug overdose. She’s also not the issue.
The media are using her body as a human shield to protect themselves from one narrative about fake news with another narrative about sexism. They don’t care about Scruggs. They do care about protecting their own reputation.
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