In a fawning interview with the stars of The Post, on Thursday’s NBC Today, co-anchor Savannah Guthrie gushed over Hollywood’s latest love letter to the liberal media: “The movie is getting great reviews. And for something that took place 45 years ago, it feels like it could have been ripped right out of a newspaper today. Very timely.”

Actress Meryl Streep, who plays longtime Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham in the film about the newspaper’s reporting on the Pentagon Papers in 1971, hailed director Steven Spielberg for seizing on the project: “He felt that the impetuous of the moment, that at this particular time we’re seeing that our press is under siege. And just even the notion of what the truth is and how much we really do depend on the First Amendment and the freedom and independence of the press.”



Following the obvious jab at the Trump administration, Streep lamented that the screenplay was written at a time when the Hollywood left expected a Hillary Clinton presidency:

The film, the script was actually written much before this. So it was written by Liz Hannah back when she thought that there would be the first female president. So it was a different – a different atmosphere. And it was more centered on the sort of gender issues in it.

Later in the segment, actor Tom Hanks, who plays the paper’s then-editor-in-chief Ben Bradley, eagerly drew parallels between the Nixon and Trump administrations:

This week in 1971 dealt with an administration that wanted to keep its secrets. They did not want their lies to become printed in the press and part of the record. We’re still very much dealing – they were dealing with the legacy of Vietnam, as of 1971, that went back prior to World War II. And it also deals with the fact that Kate Graham became Kate graham. A woman who had only been either the daughter or the wife of the people who were in power, becomes the person in power. So in a weird way, we kind of hit the 2018 trifecta by way of this movie.

Despite the effort to solely blame the Nixon administration for “their lies” about Vietnam, in a 2001 op/ed for The New York Times, Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg detailed the deceitful role that the Johnson administration played when it came to the war.

Wrapping up the exchange with the cast, Guthrie gave the film a glowing review: “Well, it definitely raises a lot of issues that are very timely and very relevant. Congratulations to all of you on The Post. As I said, for journalism geeks such as myself, it was very enjoyable. Appreciate it.”

NBC followed CBS’s lead in promoting the movie. On Wednesday’s CBS This Morning, correspondent Jan Crawford cheered how the film “reveals unsung heroes” and offers “a message that resonates today.” Back in December, Streep and Hanks appeared on the same broadcast to tout how it was “ripped right from today’s headlines” given “the siege on the free and independent press.”

The biased coverage of the film on Thursday’s Today show was brought to viewers by Comcast and Sleep Number.

Here are relevant excerpts of the January 4 segment: