AJC to Eastwood: Go ahead, make a disclaimer

Atlanta Journal-Constitution doesn't like how reporter is portrayed in upcoming film on the Atlanta Olympics bombing.

Atlanta newspaper demands disclaimer for reporter portrayed in Clint Eastwood film

 

Well, I imagine if it was me, and I wasn't just portrayed as indifferently sliming someone in print, but sleeping with sources to get the info - I'd be kind of hacked too. And honestly, if the reporter accurately quoted a law enforcement source that they were looking at Jewell and it was a fact - the problem is law enforcement, and how media portayed the information. As much as it is frustrating when investigations don't yield a lot of public info day to day - I think a lot of it goes back to this case. You start publicizing theories you don't just potentially tar someone for life, but you undermine the case against the person who actually is tried.
I may be wrong but I think Jewell was one of the first instances of "person of interest" being used rather than suspect.

 

The reporter in question died in 2002, and you can't libel the dead, so I suspect Clint will just wash his hands of it.

Clint's had his own go-rounds with the media over the years, so this might be his chance to strike back.

 

The AJC and other media outlets deserve some criticism for how they handled the story, but this reporter doesn't deserve to have her name impugned like this.

It's one thing to say she and a source disagreed on a quote or that she ran with a source that was sketchy. It's completely different to suggest she was sleeping with sources to get info.

Eastwood and the screenwriter should be ashamed.

 

For what it's worth, Deadline quotes Olivia Wilde, who portrayed Scruggs, as describing the "extraordinary amount of research" she had done about the reporter and saying, "She was incredibly successful as a cop reporter. She had a very close relationship with the cops and the FBI helping to tell their story, and yes, by all accounts she had relationships with different people in that field." That's not the same as Wilde specifically saying she traded sex for information on this story, of course.

 

Wilde also said this:

“It’s a basic misunderstanding of feminism as pious, sexlessness. It happens a lot to women; we’re expected to be one-dimensional if we are to be considered feminists. There’s a complexity to Kathy, as there is to all of us, and I really admired her.”

Wilde is the daughter of a journalist and frankly one of the smarter actors in Hollywood. But she’s missing the plot a little bit here. So is Eastwood. A true indictment of the media is that we adhere too much to whatever wild hair is up the rear end of law enforcement/intelligence agencies. By introducing the sexual favor, the critique changes to something else entirely.

 

This article about Scruggs doesn't spare much.

The Ballad of Kathy Scruggs

 

Oddly enough, Eastwood's most recent wife was an anchor at KSBW, the NBC affiliate in the Monterey Bay area.

 

Quite interesting. Thank you for posting.

 

I imagine more than a few people will make the connection between Jewell getting slimed by the FBI and the press and a certain other person - and I think that's fair. I don't think the profession of journalism spends enough time doing autopsies on its failures and spends far too much time patting itself on the back.
What made the Jewell case so extreme however was the time and place (Olympics) and the number of press willing to repeat stories they did not personally verify creating the illusion of certainty that Jewell was "the guy." And if you've seen Mindhunter - it provides another case of the dangers of investigating to fit the proflie, rather than using a profile to fit the investigation. Glad to learn that the people that did Manhunt: Unibomber are going to do one on the Rudolph case. For such a notorious criminal - he's had a pretty low profile.

 

Surprised the movie tanked as much as it did. Figured at least the Fox crowd would go see it.

 

Considering the real bomber was a white nationalist, I wondered how Eastwood would play it.