Truth - and Consequences?: A movie about investigative journalism that misses the mark

The James Vanderbilt 2015 movie, Truth, about the 60 Minutes botched investigation of GW Bush's service in the Air National Guard, which lead to Dan Rather's downfall. The movie had the misfortune of going up against another and far better movie about investigative journalism, Spotlight. Truth is OK, but not nearly as a dramatic, well-paced, and well-written as Spotlight. Except for the central character (and author of the source book), Mary Mapes (played very well, of course, by Cate Blanchett), none on the investigative team come to life at all. Further, we see very little of their actual investigation; rather clumsily, we're filled in on the whole process when a new member joins the team. What we see is the final rush toward broadcast, when producers pressure Mapes et al toget confirmation on some key documents. Partly but not entirely because of network pressure to move fast, they do an amateur job of checking the documents, with the result that the whole story was discredited; Rather, who pretty much just reported what the team handed to him, went down in disgrace, as did the whole team, Mapes in particular. Among the problems with the movie: we can't and don't root for any of them; though there's a half-hearted attempt to portray the corporate bigwigs and their stooges at CBS as villainous, the fact is that the 60 Minutes team screwed up: they were duped - it's not clear by whom - and they failed in their job. Second, comparing perhaps unfairly with Spotlight, the story of GWB's "military service" was necessary - esp in a climate when right-wing zealots were trying to discredit John Kerry's actual service - but in the great scheme of things, who cares? Every knew Bush got out of the military thanks to the pull of his family, and that he didn't even fulfill his minimal obligations. People voted for him anyway, twice, amazingly. The CBS story was interesting but wouldn't really have changed anything even if the reporting were airtight. And that's the final frustration: the story was accurate, though the reporting was not. It all could fly if the movie were more clear about its goals; however, while showing us the crappy job the 60 Minutes team did w/ this story, it also tries to make Mapes and, even more so, Rather into heroic figures: Rather's final sign off, replete with orchestral crescendos (please stop this misuse of musical scores!) stage lighting, tearful faces is ridiculous, especially in this context. The movie is a reasonably engaging look at journalism at its highest level, but lacks spirit, soul, and clear point of view.