The Insider

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Almost every character in the story is compromised by business considerations. And in the film's vision of television news reporting, moral relativism is a big part of playing the game.

The film centers on CBS's "60 Minutes" and does the kind of muckraking that would ordinarily be that program's own province. The connection between CBS and Mr. Wigand's revelations -- that the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company knew that cigarette smoking was addictive even as it sought new ways to make nicotine deliver more of a kick -- is a producer named Lowell Bergman.

In the film Mr. Bergman keeps a portrait of Cesar Chavez on display, mentions that Herbert Marcuse was his mentor ("major influence on the New Left in the 1960's") and otherwise calls attention to his political credentials. "How did a radical journalist from Ramparts magazine wind up at CBS?" he is asked. He replies modestly: "I still do the tough stories. '60 Minutes' reaches a lot of people."

The film's casting stacks ...

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