As a longtime film journalist, I've spent the better part of my career lamenting the fact that my hometown, Indianapolis, is largely devoid of anything actual broadcast film journalists other than a smattering of underpaid, bi-vocational who use their own paid time off to journey on down to their local radio or television studio for a few moments of airtime at best.
As a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association, I'm well aware that a full-time film critic, or even a full-time entertainment critic, doesn't much exist anywhere in Indiana. Though, it must be said, a good majority of the IFJA members do work somewhere within the field of journalism, telecommunications, marketing, or entertainment.
While it's easy for me to get lost in this issue, the truth is it's a symptom of a wider problem captured vividly in two-time Academy Award nominee Rick Goldsmith's informative and infuriating feature doc Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.
Stripped for Parts is, perhaps, Goldsmith's quietest of three documentaries surrounding the world of journalism. I can't help but wonder, perhaps, if this isn't at least partly because of his willingness to tackle a subject few dare to go for - that of hedge fund Alden Global Capital, hedge fund "making so much money wrecking local journalism it might not want to stop anytime soon."
Stripped for Parts dives deeply into the last quarter-century or so for American journalism. Hedge funds, Alden Global Capital and others, have acquired newspaper after newspaper concerned less with journalism and more with quick assets. Newsrooms have been slashed, buildings sold, an estimated 2,000 newspapers have been sold, and journalism as we knew it has largely paid the price.
Stripped for Parts introduces us to several journalists fighting back with the spotlight primarily shining on former The Denver Post editor Greg Moore and Julie Reynolds. Both are riveting interviewees with Reynolds, in particular, representing the growing collective of voices speaking truth to the powers.
Stripped for Parts began a streaming release across PBS outlets about a month ago, an interesting fact given PBS's own defunding just this year as the powers that be continue trying to quell the voices of anyone who might disagree.
This is a film about American journalism, sure, and it's also a film about working reporters and editors who discover the truth, report that truth, and then step outside their usual professional comfort zones to sound the alarm of watchdog journalism slipping away. Fiercely engaging and absolutely vital, Stripped for Parts is a film not to be missed about a story that must be told.
Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
