The fact-based “Mr. Jones” delivers a warning we need now more than ever.
James Norton stars as Gareth Jones, the Welsh journalist who traveled deep into the Ukraine to learn the truth about Joseph Stalin’s so-called famines.
They were real, and horrifying, claiming the lives of anywhere from four to ten million people. Both Stalin and the media covered up what the BBC called “deliberate starvation.”
No one did the latter more effectively than New York Times Moscow Bureau Chief Walter Duranty, effectively portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard.
The real Duranty earned a Pulitzer for being his generation’s premiere propagandist, something the film captures in unflinching detail.
“Mr. Jones” is available now on Video on Demand services, but even without a pandemic crushing the film industry it wouldn’t earn much at traditional theaters. It’s a small film lacking big name stars.
That doesn’t dull its cultural impact. The larger truths exist off the screen, though. We’re awash in Walter Durantys, “reporters” peddling fake news designed for maximum political impact.
That’s the new normal since President Donald Trump first took the oath of office.
Russian collusion, anyone?
Still, recent events in Seattle evoke Durantry’s vile blend of journalism and fiction better than before. Local police finally reclaimed a large section of the city taken over by far-left protesters last month. The violence, the shootings, the utter chaos became too much for even appeasement-happy Mayor Jenny Durkan to take.
We can see the truth in front of our eyes, courtesy of reporters like Andy Ngo who follow in Gareth Jones’ remarkable footsteps, portable camera in hand. Jones previously suffered a brain bleed after Antifa thugs attacked him while he did his job.
Other modern journalists, though, report the news in Seattle through a Duranty-like lens. The horrors they’re covering for cannot remotely compare to the famines of yore.
It’s still a similar process, reporting news that’s clearly inaccurate.
Duranty received accolades, greater access to Team Stalin, and other perks for his troubles. Modern journalists get huzzahs from the far Left. That, apparently, is more than enough compensation.
Seattle’s recently disbanded autonomous zone, dubbed either CHAZ or CHOP depending on the given day, showcased classic Duranty journalism.
Newsbusters has diligently captured some of the cartoonish coverage attached to the “Summer of Love,” Mayor Durkan’s quickly discarded term for the chaos in her own city.
Here’s just one example:
As early as June 12, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best told local reporters: “Rapes, robberies, and all sorts of violent acts have been occurring in the area that we’re not able to get to.”
But a day later, Dan Simon, a correspondent for self-proclaimed “Facts First” network CNN, claimed on camera: “The facts on the ground indicate that this is an entirely peaceful situation.”
MSNBC followed suit, along with other reports from CNN.
“This has been the mostly peaceful week these streets have seen,” added an MSNBC reporter on the periphery of the zone.
The New York Times did all it could to spin on the zone’s behalf early on.
“Free Food, Free Speech and Free of Police: Inside Seattle’s ‘Autonomous Zone’” reads the headline of the article on the CHAZ, which the Times describes as an “experiment in life without the police – part street festival, part commune.” Left unmentioned was the new delay in police-response times to crimes in progress.
Not to be outdone, The Washington Post summoned more outrage over conservatives craving the rule of law than anarchists taking over parts of a major American city.
The paper’s initial article on the situation, titled “‘This is not a game’: Trump threatens to ‘take back’ Seattle as protesters set up ‘autonomous zone’” – focused on the president’s insistence that Washington’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee take control of the situation.
Radio show host and reporter Jason Rantz covered the melee for both The Daily Signal and Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. He breaks down how and why some media outlets initially cheered on the protests despite the stone cold truth.
Fawning over CHOP, some reporters were free of harassment and intimidation because they either pushed approved talking points or didn’t leave nearby hotel rooms after dark. But your media affiliation, and the time of day you reported from CHOP, dictated how those in the streets treated you.
The Daily Beast, Rantz notes, gave The New York Times a run for its money in its CHAZ/CHOP coverage. Here’s just one headline: “Local Businesses Love the ‘Domestic Terror’ Zone in Seattle, Actually.”
It’s reminiscent of MSNBC’s Ali Velshi describing an early George Floyd-themed protest as “peaceful” while an inferno raged behind him.
“I wanna be clear on how I characterize this,” said Velshi, reporting live from Minneapolis. “This is mostly a protest, it is not, it is not, generally speaking, unruly.”
Velshi’s inept reportage quickly went viral.
Duranty got a pass on his negligent reporting, in part, because people had no access to the famine engulfing the Ukraine. They relied on journalists to deliver the truth. They collectively failed until Jones bravely stepped forward.
Now, enough new media journalists are around to tell us what’s really happening in places like Seattle’s collapsed zone. What a shame their corporate peers would rather spin fiction than reality.
It’s notable that the Pulitzer team decided in 2003 not to rescind Duranty’s award.
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