The World is Watching (Film Review)

Note: This is a documentary film, not a major motion picture.

The World is Watching ; c1988 ; 59 minutes ; English ; directed by Jim Munro & Peter Raymont ; narrated by Elizabeth Gray. An examination of news gathering, editing, and reporting, within the contexts of a country then sponsoring a war abroad. Note: the footage of this film was edited down and was partly the basis of a shorter, directly related project, “Only the News that Fits”.

An on-the-road film examining, simultaneously, the work of ABC News reporter John Quinones (Managua-based), and Senior Correspondent and Prime-Time Anchor Peter Jennings (New York City-based). Critiqued are Quinones in the field, and Jennings and his research-writing team in the newsroom and in editorial session. The news subject is Nicaragua’s Arias Peace Plan negotiations, and U.S. connections to the Contra-Sandinista struggle.

Basic journalistic questions are asked (and sometimes answered), regarding what is newsworthy, to what “story”, and to what purpose, and how does one know that? Was all the coverage factual, was it first-hand, and how was it verified? Who controls the story, the reporter or the editor, and to what extent does the editorial team shape the story irrespective of the facts derived from the confirmation process? Should a story be edited by those who have not seen or heard anything first-hand, and who neither know the locale, nor speak the language? When the news is viewed as a “business”, these gray areas and others emerge. What also emerges is that exclusions, inclusions, and distortions may be as intentional as they are accidental; they might also be inevitable in any news program with such time and deadline constraints.

Thye film is not a personal assessment nor attack on Quinones, nor Jennings, as “newsmen”. Nevertheless, as you might guess, the film encourages skepticism in the viewing of any major network news program examining issues tied to U.S. foreign policy. It is not a blanket condemnation of U.S. news coverage of U.S. political stories, nor is it a purely “outsider’s view”, in that the film also includes commentary from journalist Ry Ryan (“Boston Globe”), Edith Coron (“Liberation” – the Paris-based, French newspaper), and Bill Gentile (“Newsweek” photographer) - all of whom criticize the often same-day release of television news, and the long-distance editorial control required for this.

The film won a “Genie Award” for Best Documentary, as well as a “Gold Hugo” award winner as the 1988 Chicago Film Festival, and later was “Blue Ribbon” winner at the 1989 American Film and Video Festival.

Note: the very same film-makers returned to Nicaragua 15 years later, re-examining the country, the people, and the media. The resulting project, “The World Stopped Watching” is a look at what happened to the people and the country, when the Western media fled Nicaragua in search of the next big story.