Soledad O’Brien stopped by the Variety Studio presented by Audible at Sundance and scolded the American press for its coverage of Donald Trump. The former CNN host was highly critical of how the press covered Trump’s first administration, and she said her position has not changed as Trump’s second administration gets underway.
“The media has done a really piss poor job, to be honest,” O’Brien told Variety’s Brent Lang. “In a couple different ways. Framing every discussion as ‘this vs this’ is a real mistake. There is lot of access journalism that has just been distressing and dismaying to watch. There are journalists I respect, but they want access. There’s a lot of countries where journalists don’t get access to their political leadership and you can actually do a good job reporting when you’re not necessarily being invited to the dinner or having a front row seat. In this country we are all about getting access, so we see a lot of journalists say we need to get in.”
O’Brien also said the media is partly responsible for widespread “misinformation and disinformation,” citing the continued headlines about Trump’s comments on tariffs.
“The conversation around tariffs is hilarious if it wasn’t so pathetic,” O’Brien said. “People have no idea what a tariff means and what the impact will be. That is a failure of journalism if people don’t understand the basics. I am hopeful we will do a better job in helping people understand the issues better instead of just pushing access to things. I’m not optimistic about it.”
O’Brien is in Sundance as an executive producer on the documentary “The Perfect Neighbor,” directed by Geeta Gandbhir. The film tackles Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” laws and centers on a seemingly minor neighborhood dispute in Florida escalates into deadly violence. The documentary utilizes police bodycam footage and investigative interviews to expose the consequences of the divisive law.
Gandbhir culled from two years worth of bodycam footage to make the documentary. It wasn’t always her intention to rely on so much of this footage, but she was attracted to how much it allowed the viewer to have access to her subjects before tragedy struck.
“When you come in after a tragedy you are dealing with people who have been deeply impacted by such tragedy,” Gandbhir said.”They are not who they were. They are changed. That was so important [to see them before]. We wanted to lead with the humanity of the community.
O’Brien signed on as an executive producer because she’s worked with Gandbhir on other projects and “the topic was so interesting.”
“I think when it became clear that bodycam was going to be the bulk of the documentary, it was so unusual,” she said. “You know how it ends but to get to see the beginning. The original conflict. Through bodycam, to be able to watch it unfold piece by piece by piece, it’s just riveting. We knew we had a really great project on our hands.”
“The Perfect Neighbor” is an acquisition title at Sundance.