Film The Post (2017)
Story Arc
Stage 1:
One local family newspaper, The Washington Post, prepares to go public and sell shares due to financial distress.
Stage 2:
Ben, the editor-in-chief of The Post, noticed the strange actions of a Vietnam War editor of the New York Times, and he always hoped that the Post would become as influential as the New York Times.
Stage 3:
The New York Times broke the shocking news about the Vietnam War.
Stage 4:
The Post begins an investigation into the source of the story, hoping to get some other coverage before the New York Times.
Stage 5:
A Post editor found the source behind the New York Times story through an old friend.
Stage 6:
The core members of the Post’s newsroom spent a day sorting through the documents and preparing to report, because the Nixon administration had issued a ban on the New York Times, and their move would be tantamount to the demise of the Post.
Stage 7:
The Post still decided to report on this resistance to the ban, and they, along with the New York Times, were sued by the Nixon administration.
Stage 8:
Newspapers across the country scrambled to report the contents of the Vietnam War document, setting off a wave, and the Supreme Court’s final decision said the Post and The New York Times were not responsible for their action.
Characters Archetypes
Heroes: Kay Graham, Ben Bradlee
Allies: Ben Bagdikian, Fritz Beebe, Meg Greenfield
Herald: Neil Sheehan
Shapeshifter: Robert McNamara
Threshold Guardians: Arthur Parsons
Shadow: Daniel Ellsberg
Timeline:
JUNE 13, 1971:
The Times publishes its first story about the report under the headline “Vietnam Archive: Pentagon’s Study Traces Three Decades of Growing U.S. Involvement.”
JUNE 15
The Nixon administration secures an injunction to block further stories by charging that Ellsberg committed a felony by leaking the papers. The Times appeals and the case quickly goes to the Supreme Court.
JUNE 18
After internal debate led by new publisher Katharine Graham, the Washington Post begins publishing its own series, based on copies provided by Ellsberg. The Post’s first story runs under the headline “Documents Reveal U.S. Effort in ’54 to Delay Viet Election.”
A federal court refuses the Nixon administration’s request for an injunction. More than a dozen other newspapers start publishing their own stories.