You might expect a higher-than-average degree of camera consciousness from a guy who began his career in journalism by creating a popular blog about the television news industry, but that’s not the case for Brian Stelter. Stelter, now a media reporter for the New York Times, is a recurring subject in a new documentary, “Page One,” which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the Gray Lady and the financially troubled state of the newspaper industry. After film crews followed him and some of his colleagues around for a year, he became a little too relaxed with the filming, he said.
“We forgot the camera was there,” Stelter told Yeas & Nays on Wednesday at the Newseum, where he showed up for a screening of the documentary. “There was a scene they cut out in the early cut of the film where I’m in the bathroom shaving and I don’t know why I allowed [the camera] in with the microphone on. It just shows how comfortable we got.”
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Though Stelter has been with the Times for four years, he said he learned new things from watching the film. “For one thing, it shows the ‘page one’ meetings, and reporters aren’t allowed into those meetings. So it was fun to see the editors interact in them,” he said.
Halfway through, the film documents the massive layoffs the paper underwent in late 2009 and shows interviews with several media experts commenting on the rapid decline in classified advertising and industry ad revenue. Stelter, speaking on a panel following the film, implied that the worst has past for the newspaper of record.
“You see it in the movie with the layoffs,” he said. “I think that is toes hitting the bottom.”
“Page One” is set for nationwide release on Friday.
