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Once, Hollywood painted journalists as heroes in films such as Citizen Kane and Deadline, USA. Then, with Network, Hero, and Wag The Dog, they were a professional elite in a morally bankrupt industry. Today, filmmakers take a more he said-she said approach, portraying noble and amoral reporters alike. The verdict of filmgoers, however, is less evenhanded. Of all the journalists on the silver screen of late, the sleaziest have drawn the biggest crowds. Nightcrawler–in which a cameraman played by Jake Gyllenhaal chooses to set up the culprits in a triple murder for a shootout and car chase, so he can get better footage, instead of immediately reporting them to the cops–has outgrossed Kill The Messenger, the true story of tenacious but tragic muckraker Gary Webb, a dozen times over. By that measure, George Clooney’s upcoming Hack Attack, on the phone-hacking exploits of Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids, should fare well.
