“The Post,” which comes out in theatres in the United States on Friday, recounts the nail-biting behind-the-scenes story of the 1971 publication by The Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War. The Pentagon Papers, leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, were a 7,000-page classified report which determined — contrary to the public assertions of US government officials — that the Vietnam conflict was unwinnable. Spielberg, Streep and Hanks attended a screening of “The Post” at the shrine to journalism, the Newseum, in Washington last week, located just a few blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. Despite Spielberg´s protestations, reviewers are finding parallels inescapable between “The Post” and its championing of the media and the non-stop vilification of the press by Trump. “The film is here to warn us of fresh threats to press freedom.”

Source: Pakistan Today December 20, 2017 04:52 UTC