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In case you’ve been snoozing on the couch for a couple of decades, here’s an update: Edward R. Murrow is dead, and most television journalism has degenerated into shlocky infotainment. That’s the none-too-startling conclusion of documentarian Brian Malone’s Breaking News, which presumes to explain all over again that the boob tube’s frenzied obsessions with O.J., Kobe, Martha, Iron Mike, Monica and all the rest represent a disturbing trend and — this just in — a case of stupidly misplaced priorities. “The news ain’t what it used to be,” the seventy-minute film’s terminally sincere narrator informs us, then bolsters the argument with such earth-shaking gems as “Nothing fills time like the fall of a celebrity” and “Ethical boundaries and good taste is [sic] on the wane,” along with field trips to such media-choked venues as the courthouse lawn in Eagle, the Michael Jackson trial and the sidewalk upon which beleaguered Robert Blake sweetly strums his guitar for the cameras. There’s no fresh news at all in Malone’s indictment, but the generous of heart might allow that his message, however obvious, bears repeating.
Breaking News will screen at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 22, at Starz FilmCenter, 900 Auraria Parkway. Hosts will be Rocky Mountain News TV critic Dusty Saunders and former Denver anchorman Ed Sardella, who will join Malone in a panel discussion following the showing. For more information, call 303-595-3456.
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