Trial By Media, Pt. 1 — Sweet Smell of Success

Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime paints problematic TV phenomenon To Catch a Predator — and especially its host, Chris Hansen — as an enterprise fueled by ambition, amorality, and a tenuous grasp of journalistic ethics. Those qualities put us in mind of the cursed collaboration between desperate press agent Sidney Falco and influential columnist J.J. Hunsecker in 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success, so this week we’re digging into the twisted loyalties and razor-sharp dialogue of Alexander Mackendrick’s blisteringly cynical portrayal of a very different era in tabloid journalism. Then in Feedback, a listener helps flesh out a bit of William Friedkin trivia that came up during our recent Sorcerer discussion.

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