The story of a brave, courageous reporter who stands up to powerful, corrupt men should be a cliche by this point.
It is a story that ostensibly has been done to death, and the beats should seem trite with plot signals being ostensibly evident to the listener.
If the sheer number of “All the President’s Men” and “Spotlight” clones that dominate the discourse hasn’t run this model of storytelling into the ground, then spoofs such as “American Vandal” and “Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer” should have been the nail in the genre’s coffin, as big of an onus as “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” was for music biopics.
And yet, people keep coming back to the well, and the water is as fresh as it has always been. “Chasing Corruption,” Facebook Watch’s masterly original documentary series, perhaps most thoroughly illustrates the reason why.
The docuseries follows host Ian Hoppe and his Reckon by AL.com news team as they scour the country for stories of reporters that take a stand against corruption.
The production team routinely pulls off the miracle of churning out 8–9-minute episodes that outline the stories and get to the heart of the matter as well as any full-length “60 Minutes” segment could, without an ounce of jejunity.
The episode that outlines how Robert Bentley’s mistaken rose emoji text toppled over a series of dominos that resulted in Alabama shocking the world and electing Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate is an especial feather in the series’ cap.
This series shows that the reason these stories are still so powerful after all these years is because there has never been a time or place without corruption by those in power.
In a society where an openly fascistic and corrupt president designates these corruption fighters as “the enemy of the people,” it is more important than ever that stories such as “Chasing Corruption” are made. Stories such as these still hold power and will always hold power because corruption touches all parts of American life, and those who fight it are true heroes.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
