"Shock and Awe" 2017

In a post 9/11 America, gripped by fear and patriotic fervor, few dared to question the rush to war. “Shock and Awe”, Rob Reiner’s 2017 political drama, tells the story of those who did. 

"Shock and Awe" Official Movie Poster
The film follows a few journalists at Knight Ridder— Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson), Warren Strobel (James Marsden), and the editor John Walcott (Rob Reiner) — as they challenged the official narrative that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), a fact that if true would send the US to war against Iraq. 

While the mainstream media amplified the Bush Administration’s case for war, these small-town reporters dug deeper, cross-checked sources, and posed unpopular truths. In doing so, Shock and Awe offers much more than a historical recap of the pre-war, post-9/11 era; it’s a powerful reflection on the perils of a profit-driven media and the moral obligation journalists have to speak truth to power. 

In the early 2000s, as television networks competed for ratings and newspapers struggled to retain readership in a rapidly digitizing world, journalistic integrity was too often sacrificed on the altar of profitability. In Shock and Awe, Reiner makes this tension palpable— newsrooms once committed to investigative rigor quickly became echo chambers for the government’s script. 

The mainstream media, the film argues, didn’t just fail to challenge power; they courted it. Cable news channels ran B-roll of the president’s speeches, newspapers led with sensationalist headlines, and anchors spoke with an air of patriotic certainty. For profit-driven media, going to war was advantageous. 

The film underscores this issue with subtle yet damming scenes of newsroom executives sidestepping uncomfortable truths to avoid losing viewership. In contrast, small newspapers like Knight Ridder used their editorial independence to ask the questions no one else dared, or could. 

And therein lies the film’s quiet indictment: that the erosion of truth begins not with lies, but with profitable compliance.

Newspaper headlines of Knight Ridder's newspaper in 2002
The Knight Ridder reporters, operating on far fewer resources than their competitors, didn’t have insider access to White House briefings or lucrative network contracts. What they did have was an old-school commitment to verification and a healthy cynicism of sources.

In a particular heated moment in the film, Landay stresses to his colleague, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.” This line encapsulates the rigor and skepticism that should define journalism, especially when lives are at stake. It is a reminder to reporters that we must not only ask, “What happened?” but also, “Who benefits?” and, “Why now?”. Bias is inevitable, but unchallenged bias, especially from influential people, is dangerous. 

This film is ultimately a call to arms— not with weapons, but with words, facts, and conviction. Journalists are meant to be watchdogs to power, not lapdogs. As editor John Walcott puts it, “We don’t write for people who send other people’s kids to war… we write for the people whose kids got sent to war. So when the Government says something, you only have one question to ask— is it true?” The reporters at Knight Ridder didn’t chase prestige or profit; they chased the truth, even when nobody wanted to hear it. 

In that sense, Shock and Awe isn’t a period piece about the lead-up to the Iraq War, but a mirror held up to every newsroom, every journalist, and every news consumer today. It is a tribute to the media that resists, editors who don’t chase the herd, and to the facts that don’t bend to popularity. It is a warning against the allure of consensus, the peril of narratives crafted for profit, and the erosion of truth in favor of falsehoods. 

Knight Ridder reporters, from left, Warren Strobel, Jonathan Landay, and John Walcott, 
whose work inspired the movie, "Shock and Awe"



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