Showtime’s The Fourth Estate – Covering the Trump Presidency

This is a difficult moment for journalism. But it’s also an exhilarating moment for journalism. People read us more every day than ever before. Dean Baquet, Executive Editor, The New York Times

Imagine if a film crew had followed Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, documenting their every move while they covered Watergate. The 1976 film All the President’s Men dramatized what unfolded, but the two Washington Post reporters were played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. A new series on Showtime, however, places us right in the middle of the action, watching how reporters and editors at the New York Times are trying to keep up with the maelstrom that has become the Trump presidency. 

The Fourth Estate, by Oscar nominated filmmaker Liz Garbus, is perfectly timed. While Donald Trump and his associates continue to attack the media as “fake news,” this docu-series goes inside the paper of record to illustrate how these professional journalists gather the news. “The Trump administration is really attacking the press for making mistakes,” says the Times’ media columnist Jim Rutenberg. “So if there’s any time that you want to make sure that the small mistakes that people will try to use against us don’t get made, that’s kind of the peril right now.”

Michael Schmidt, Investigative Reporter (left) and Peter Baker, Chief White House Correspondent, working on an article on obstruction.  (Photo: Aletheia Film/Courtesy of SHOWTIME) 

Garbus doesn’t pull punches, documenting the cutbacks in the newsroom which had union members marching outside the Times’ building in New York. And when the #metoo movement hits the Times with sexual harassment allegations against White House correspondent Glenn Thrush, the paper moves swiftly to suspend the reporter. 

The Internet has transformed journalism since the Watergate era. Declines in circulation have led to losses in classified advertising forcing many newspapers to close. Those that remain continue to struggle. As Baquet observes, there are few news organizations that can support the large experienced staffs needed to do serious investigative reporting. Since being acquired by Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post has been able to hire additional reporters and has ramped up its coverage. Without those deep pockets provided by Amazon, the Times has been forced to cut back, offering buyout packages to many copy editors and some reporters. That announcement led to reporters joining in the protests carrying signs that say “copy editors save our butts.” 

“I’m not cutting to reduce dramatically the size of the newsroom,” Baquet says, defending his decision. “Mainly it’s to free up money to go on a real hiring spree. I can’t compete on this story unless we hire more. We have an editing structure that was built for print and that’s not the way we produce the New York Times anymore. So the newsroom can’t look the same.” The camera pans over empty floors in the Times building, bringing home the reality of the situation. “It’s cowardly not to do it, but it’s painful,” he observes.

While the Times’ headquarters is in New York, the Washington bureau is front and center. As Washington bureau chief, Elisabeth Bumiller is constantly on the move. She and Baquet worked together when he was Washington bureau chief and she covered the White House. They have a close relationship, but she’s not afraid to stand up to him, as she did when New York changed the headline on the lead story after Trump’s State of the Union Address. (The bureau wanted to go with immigration; New York went with Trump calling for an end to petty partisan fights.)

Michael Schmidt, Investigative Reporter (Photo: Aletheia Film/Courtesy of SHOWTIME)

The Times reporters covering Trump are now household names, thanks to frequent appearances on cable news. Maggie Haberman, Michael Schmidt, Peter Baker, Matt Apuzzo, Mark Mazzetti, Jeremy Peters, Yamiche Alcindor (now the White House correspondent at the PBS NewsHour), break stories and then talk about those pieces on TV. Managing a personal life becomes a challenge. Haberman, perhaps has it the toughest as the only White House correspondent based in New York. She hastily leaves a podcast recording to take a phone call from her distraught son, promising him she’ll be home soon.  

While the Times is often attacked for being biased against Trump, The Fourth Estate attempts to show how reporters strive to remain objective. As the reporter who broke the story in 2015 that Hillary Clinton used a private email server, Schmidt has been targeted on both sides as the enemy. “Liberals see me as responsible for Hillary Clinton’s problems,” he says. He admits that he hasn’t voted in the last two elections. “I don’t want to have any skin in the game. It helps me put distance between myself and the process.”

Jeremy Peters, Political Reporter, talks with Steve Bannon of Breitbart News at a Roy Moore campaign rally. (Photo: Aletheia Film/Courtesy of SHOWTIME)  

We see political reporter Jeremy Peters kissing his partner goodbye in the morning and then traveling to Fairhope, Alabama, to interview Dean Young, a chief strategist for the Roy Moore campaign, who says America has to get back to the Christian God. “We got gay people pretending like they’re married,” he tells an astonished Peters, who points out that gay marriage is now legal. In another segment, Alcindor travels to Ohio to interview a couple whose home was saved by a program now being targeted by Trump. Still the two say they support Trump, even if they have to give up future help in order to fund a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Alcindor maintains a straight face.

The third episode in the series, “American Carnage,” opens with footage from August 12, 2017, when the neo-Nazis and white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. The visuals are stunning, including the moment when Heather D. Heyer, 32, was killed when when a car barreled into the crowds. Later, members of the Washington bureau watch in astonishment as Trump holds an impromptu press conference in the lobby of New York’s Trump building where he proclaims there were good people “on both sides.” 

The New York Times headquarters in New York, N.Y., on January 18, 2018. (Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick/SHOWTIME)

But perhaps the most frightening moment occurs in Phoenix where Trump targets the media for unfairly portraying what happened in Charlottesville. With an agitated crowd hurling insults and epithets at the reporters sitting at their computers or behind cameras, the threat of violence seems very real. “Oh my God, you hate our president!” one woman is heard to cry out. “That’s so sick. What kind of an American are you?” Reporters, including one from the Times, gather up their belongings and leave.

The hard work pays off with the Times and the Washington Post winning Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of Trump. “I think the Pulitzers make a statement and they are an important honor,” Baquet says. After a celebration with the staff, Baquet can be seen leaving the Times building. 

“It’s been a hard year,” he says. “The day in and day out attacks on us, that hurts us. But this has happened in history, during the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, a lot of people attacked news organizations like the New York Times. Called them bad, evil, outside agitators. All I can say is, those guys are gone. And the New York Times is still here.”

Top Photo: T.J. Kirkpatrick/SHOWTIME 

The Fourth Estate can be seen on Showtime.

About Charlene Giannetti (685 Articles)
Charlene Giannetti, editor of Woman Around Town, is the recipient of seven awards from the New York Press Club for articles that have appeared on the website. A graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Charlene began her career working for a newspaper in Pennsylvania, then wrote for several publications in Washington covering environment and energy policy. In New York, she was an editor at Business Week magazine and her articles have appeared in many newspapers and magazines. She is the author of 13 non-fiction books, eight for parents of young adolescents written with Margaret Sagarese, including "The Roller-Coaster Years," "Cliques," and "Boy Crazy." She and Margaret have been keynote speakers at many events and have appeared on the Today Show, CBS Morning, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and many others. Her last book, "The Plantations of Virginia," written with Jai Williams, was published by Globe Pequot Press in February, 2017. Her podcast, WAT-CAST, interviewing men and women making news, is available on Soundcloud and on iTunes. She is one of the producers for the film "Life After You," focusing on the opioid/heroin crisis that had its premiere at WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, where it won two awards. The film is now available to view on Amazon Prime, YouTube, and other services. Charlene and her husband live in Manhattan.