Tell everybody what
the movie is about.
Well, it's about
a lot of things,
but it's about one week in
1971 that was sort of really
important in our history.
And it's a time when the
Washington Post decided
to continue publishing the
Pentagon Papers-- something
that the New York
Times had begun.
Nixon tried to shut it down.
It was the first time that the
government had preemptively
tried to stop the presses
before they wrote a story.
And it was about
the week in which
a woman ran the newspaper,
which was very, very
unusual in those days.
They weren't even
allowed to be reporters.
Our friend, Nora Ephron, who
the film is dedicated to,
she graduated at
the top of her class
from a really,
really great college,
went to Newsweek at the time
that Katharine Graham owned it,
and applied for a
job as a reporter
and the man looked at
her and said, "Well, you
can be a secretary.
You can be an assistant,
but reporters are men.
Writers are our men."
And that was the way it was.
It was not that long ago, I
was graduating from college
that year.
So I remember how
different the world was.
And so it fell to this
woman to make the decision.
And she happened to have
the greatest managing
editor of a newspaper,
Ben Bradlee,
and they had a
working partnership
that was sort of a template
for the best of how men
and women can work together.
There was a moment
when, honestly,
most of the people
who are in power
at the newspaper
are telling her,
"Do not publish these papers.
You will go to jail.
You will lose the newspaper.
You will be convicted of
treason and it will be ruinous."
And there was one
guy saying, "There's
no reason to have a newspaper
unless we print this stuff.
So you got to publish.
You got a publish."
Which is what is amazing--
how similar, kind of,
what's happening right now
with the press being attacked
and being called fake news.
And it's very, I
think, closely related.
Yes it is.
Their legitimacy taken
away and our film
is about standing up
and the cost of it
and the importance of it.
The importance of
it, absolutely.
I was reminded this
morning, the last time I
saw you we were at the White
House and we were getting the--
How about that day?
--getting the Medal of Freedom.
[APPLAUSE]
And you also have one.
[APPLAUSE]
It's amazing that
the three of us
have received this amazing
award from this amazing man.
[APPLAUSE]
What did your certificate say on
it-- because everybody is like,
"OK, so this goes
to Ellen DeGeneres--
pioneer, leader, entertainer,
social engineer, advocate."
To Meryl Streep-- educator,
artist, actress, filmmaker,
social advocate, pioneer."
Mine said, "Tom Hanks--
actor."
[LAUGHTER]
No, it didn't!
That was it, it's all I got.
Not like, "Former bellboy."
Nothing-- nothing was on there.
Didn't even list the bellboy.
Wow.
I got actor.
That's a shame.
