Last night I had the distinct pleasure of seeing a first screening of the movie, "Truth," starring Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett (and a long roster of other talented actors). It is the story of the controversy surrounding CBS anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) and "60 Minutes" producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) after the network broadcasts a report about President George W. Bush and his military service. If you don't remember that long ago (2004), the media focused on whether documents were "authentic," rather than the heart of the issue, which was whether the President had gotten preferential treatment in the National Guard and not served as required by law. It's kind of like the musical Wicked, in that you are shown a side to the story you never saw or were aware of...

Fascinating stuff and the issue of being distracted from the "real" issue by the network heads, how they cowtowed to the political power.

We were fortunate to also have a talkback with Redford, moderated by Rather, and, aside from the usual celebrity anecdotes (Redford & Newman were pranksters), they talked about the state of journalism today and how difficult it is to just get the facts of any story. They talked of the condition of the environment (thats how they met, 40 years ago) and how important that the natural world is.

One thing that was really refreshing was that a large part of the audience were people in their 20s and 30s and how in awe, enthusiastic and respectful they were of these 79 and 83 year olds.

One of these youngsters asked, "What can we do?"

Redford's answer, "Pay attention."

I'm going with that too. I've got one life on this one planet.

Pay attention.