Two Long Beach-based businesses, indie publishing house Brown Paper Press (BPP) and the historic Art Theatre, are coming together this weekend to host The State of Journalism, an event seeking to shed light on the major changes that have disrupted the industry and to offer insights into the future.
On Sunday, December 11 at 10:00AM at the Art Theatre, a screening of the acclaimed 1976 film All the President’s Men will precede a panel discussion centered on today’s news industry crisis, addressing “two decades of Internet-induced cutbacks” that have “turned newspapers into shells of their former selves” as well as a press increasingly under attack, according to BPP.
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In All the President’s Men Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star as Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein who uncovered the details of the Watergate scandal, ultimately leading to President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
Touted as “the most devastating detection story” of the 20th Century, the film served as an inspiration to journalists across the country.
Following the screening, a panel discussion and Q&A will feature a handful of prominent local journalists and educators speaking on the changes in the newspaper industry since the Watergate scandal as well as offer their thoughts on the future of journalism.
The panel will also address the role of the media in covering the election and impending Trump presidency.
The event comes after the release of BPP’s publication I’m Dyin’ Here: A Life in the Paper, a biographical book by Long Beach Press-Telegram columnist Tim Grobaty, who will serve as one of the panelists. The book was also chosen as the first work to be read for Mayor Robert Garcia’s citywide book club.
Grobaty started working at the Press-Telegram in 1976, when All the President’s Men could still be viewed in theaters, according to BPP. Signed copies of I’m Dyin Here will be on sale in the lobby.
The panel also includes Russ Parsons, former LA Times food critic and author of How to Pick a Peach, Barbara Kingsley-Wilson, a reporter for the Orange County Register and lecturer in the Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) Journalism Department and Sarah Bennett, former Long Beach Post editor, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Weekly and journalism teacher at Santa Ana College.
CSULB media literacy and history of journalism professor Jennifer Fleming will moderate the discussion.
Doors to the screening and panel discussion will open at 10:00AM, with the screening to begin promptly at 10:30AM. To reserve a seat for the free event, please visit the Eventbrite page here.
The Art Theatre is located at 2025 East 4th Street.
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