NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers have been a rich source of movie material. If Hollywood rarely catches the true flavor of putting out a newspaper, it isn’t from lack of trying. And newspapers fascinate us; they have been the heroes and villains of many stories since before the Republic was founded. Newspapers have had a hard time with the blossoming of the internet. But I happen to think that their death, like that of Mark Twain, is greatly exaggerated. 
There could hardly be a better example of the power of newspapers than All The President’s Men (1976) in which Bob Woodward (Robert Redford), Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and the Washington Post merely topple a president of the United States (Nixon, of course). Forty-one years later this is still a terrific movie. Good story, good cast, and some real good inside newspaper stuff. One of the best opening sequences ever made. 
But a very close runner-up about the power of the press is 2015's Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight. Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams are intrepid reporters in a special Boston Globe unit. Their boss is played by Michael Keaton and his boss by Liev Schreiber. The Globe blows the top off a scandal about Catholic priests molesting children, and the cover-up of the situation by the hierarchy. 
His Girl Friday (1940) is that rarest of beasts- a remake of a good movie that is better than the original. The Front Page (1931) is the first take on the Hecht-MacArthur play, with Adolphe Menjou and Pat O’Brien, and it is very good. But Cary Grant as the crafty editor, Rosalind Russell as his star reporter and ex-wife, and Ralph Bellamy as Roz’s wimpy fiance, make His Girl Friday even better. Both are terrific newspaper movies with delicious machine-gun dialogue from smart-aleck reporters.
Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, William Powell and Jean Harlow are an unbeatable cast in Libeled Lady (1936). Tracy’s newspaper inadvertently prints a false story about Loy, then dispatches playboy Powell to seduce her. Harlow is Tracy’s fiancee, and is somehow persuaded to marry Powell so his affair with Loy will be scandalous. Well, 
the plot may be convoluted and not very true to the newspaper business, but it is so much fun that nobody cares.
Absence of Malice (1981) illustrates how newspapers can go wrong. Reporter Sally Field is conned into printing a fake story about innocent Paul Newman. He sues for libel.She cries freedom of the press. It’s an excellent story showing both sides of this equation. Both actors are so engaging you find yourself pulling both ways.
Perhaps the movie that best captures the newspaper business is The Paper (1994). Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall and Randy Quaid lead a brilliant cast in this Ron Howard-directed vehicle about the problems on a big-city daily. About midway through the press run a terrible mistake is discovered. This film is way over the top, but somewhat accurate on the newspaper details and fun to watch if you don’t stop to think. 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All except Spotlight are suitable for children 10 and up, subject only to the boredom quotient.