DOCS D: Fred Peabody. Canada. 91 min. Sep 9, 6:30 pm, Isabel Bader Sep 15, 9:15 am, Scotiabank 14 Sep 17, 5 pm, Scotiabank 13 Rating: NNN
Riffing off the great independent newsman I.F. Stone’s famous statement “All governments lie,” Peabody connects with an array of impressive indie journalists – Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW, Jeff Cohen, Matt Taibbi, among others – who are filling in the gaps left by a pandering mainstream media.
The film works best when it focuses on the stories we would otherwise have missed, but there’s not much new in the analysis of media’s failure. Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore crank out ideas we’ve heard before, and I wish somebody would have wondered what’s going on elsewhere in the world. As it is, this is an American story. But give these indie journos credit.
