Spielberg's Film the Post: Epic Tale of Press Freedoms Prevailing Over Government Censorship

Abstract

Steven Spielberg's film The Post is made in response to President Trump's savage attacks on the press and reporters. It portrays the historic Pentagon Papers case -- a case that resulted from the courageous The New York Times decision to publish a ten part series drawn from the top-secret Pentagon Papers, a Pentagon study tracing America's involvement in Vietnam from 1945-1968 -- by focusing on the decision of The Washington Post, made after a federal judge had enjoined the Times, to publish additional excerpts from the study. Fifteen days after the Nixon administration first sued the Times, The Supreme Court denied the administration a preliminary injunction, thus freeing the the newspapers to continue to publish their reports.

Keywords: Pentagon Papers Case, Prior Restraint, The Post, Daniel Ellsberg, Katherine Graham, Ben Bradlee