Rob Reiner has died

(hollywoodreporter.com)

265 points | by RickJWagner 14 hours ago ago

151 comments

  • mvkel 4 hours ago ago

    As an aside, it's been fascinating reading the comments here about news media.

    People want journalists to publish quickly AND only publish what’s fully verified.

    They want anonymous sources named "in the spirit of truth," without grappling with the reality that doing so would instantly dry up anyone risking their job, or worse, to provide information.

    They expect journalists to release raw information as soon as they have it, while simultaneously acting as perfect filters; never amplifying rumors, or being wrong, even as new facts emerge.

    They want neutrality, except when neutrality conflicts with their priors.

    It's no wonder that morale among journalists is at an all-time low. Is any other profession held to such an impossible standard?

    • justin66 3 hours ago ago

      > It's no wonder that morale among journalists is at an all-time low. Is any other profession held to such an impossible standard?

      Morale is not low amongst journalists because the job is tough, it's low because they're being fired all over the place, pay has decreased, and corporatism is making the whole thing pretty mediocre.

      • amanaplanacanal 2 hours ago ago

        Doing the hard work can't compete with podcasters/entertainers "just asking questions". We're in a pretty sad state right now.

      • elicash 2 hours ago ago

        I think there some jobs where community acknowledgment of "oh wow you do THAT job, thank you" can make up for lower pay. I think in states that have low teacher pay, for example, many think it's worth it so long as it comes with acknowledgment of the hard work and dedication -- which, of course, it often doesn't.

        The counter-argument is probably that if it were truly acknowledged, then the pay itself would be higher. But I don't think it's the case that the average person in Florida thinks less of teachers than someone in New York. (I'm including cost of living adjustments in making this comparison btw.)

        I don't disagree with the items you lay out, and maybe the ones you list are most important. But I do think "respect" belongs on the list, too.

      • danielmarkbruce 2 hours ago ago

        "corporatism" - come on now. The reason why news was decent and the job was decent for a good amount of time was that newspapers were a natural monopoly. Fat, juicy profits and "owned" cities meant the owners could just say "I don't really care, just print approximately the truth and don't alienate readers across the broad spectrum that we have".... "oh, and I guess pay the journalists decently too, because I'm swimming in money"

        • Uehreka an hour ago ago

          > newspapers were a natural monopoly

          What on earth are you talking about? Most major cities have had multiple papers in cutthroat competition with each other for decades. If the New York Times got a story wrong, the Wall Street Journal would happily take the opportunity to correct them and vice versa. In smaller cities with one big paper (like Baltimore with The Sun), the local tabloids (like The City Paper) would relish any opportunity to embarrass the paper of record if they got something wrong.

          The era of monopolistic journalism is the new thing, not the old thing. The corporatism GP is referring to is conglomerates like Sinclair and Tribune Online Content (Tronc) buying up tons of local papers and broadcast stations and “cutting costs” by shutting down things like investigative reporting.

        • justin66 2 hours ago ago

          > newspapers were a natural monopoly

          I don't know why anyone would believe that.

        • sigwinch an hour ago ago

          Colorado has had over 1,000 papers. The tactics of the largest paper during the mid 20th century included cries for attention that no dignified monopolist would try.

        • croes an hour ago ago

          By that logic everything is a monopoly.

          Car manufacturers have a monopoly on cars.

          Smartphone manufacturers on smartphones.

          Mankind has a monopoly on creating humans.

    • JKCalhoun 3 hours ago ago

      "Is any other profession held to such an impossible standard?"

      Teachers, but point taken.

      • LanceH 2 hours ago ago

        Referees, who are seemingly out to make both sides lose.

        • mvkel 11 minutes ago ago

          A referees is a perfect analogy. We love to rate an umpire's call as "bad" after watching the slow motion replay 25 times, not based on the split second one-shot of information they had when they made it.

        • DonHopkins 2 hours ago ago

          Yeah but sports aren't essential to society, and it really doesn't matter who wins, beyond fanning the flames of tribalism and religious proxy battles and advertising endorsements and gambling and hooliganism.

          But education and journalism are deeply and essentially beneficial to society.

          Referees could just as well be replaced by a coin toss or AI or participation trophies (like FIFA Peace Prizes), and society would be just fine without them.

          Their salaries are much better spent on journalists and teachers, and schools should spend much less on their sports programs and scholarships, and much more on their faculty and research and writing and journalism programs, to actually benefit students who are there to learn instead of just playing games.

          • psunavy03 an hour ago ago

            Ah yes, let's get rid of sports and art and anything that isn't "strictly necessary." Such a wonderful life that would be with nothing to live for.

            • DonHopkins an hour ago ago

              If all you have to live for is sports, then you desperately need more education and better journalism and mental health care.

              I'm not saying get rid of them, and I didn't mention art or music or exercise, which are far more useful and enriching than sports.

              Just don't sacrifice much more important things for sports, like so many high schools and colleges and universities do.

              Our society is NOT existentially suffering from a lack of referees, as much as a lack of good teachers and journalists.

              Get your priorities straight. It really doesn't matter if your sportsball team wins or loses, but it does extremely matter if your children are educated and informed or not.

    • no_wizard 3 hours ago ago

      As far as the anonymous sourcing goes, that has to do with the exposed issues that some news outlets simply claim to have “sources” and when exposed they either don’t or they aren’t credible.

      There is a real trust problem Journalism will need to overcome and some of it is self inflicted

      • JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago ago

        > the exposed issues that some news outlets simply claim to have “sources” and when exposed they either don’t or they aren’t credible

        Source?

      • exasperaited an hour ago ago

        Fake sources (outside the gossip and celebrity columns and a couple of cheap tabloids in any given country) is essentially a non-issue even now.

        “non-credible” anonymous sources: that’s in the eye of the beholder, I guess. It is in any government’s interest to downplay the authority of any off-the-record leak source, but political parties that rail the hardest against anonymous sources generally have more to hide, and generally those stories prove substantively true in the long run.

        It is still rare for any newspaper to predicate a story on a single uncorroborated anonymous source.

        If you have examples it would be interesting.

        • philistine 42 minutes ago ago

          https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-supermicro/?embedded...

          Bloomberg has come out with the linked story in 2021. They have never provided any other detail; no other journalist has been able to corroborate anything advanced in the story. Through grapevines, we've been able to ascertain that Bloomberg based the whole story on a single source that they massively misunderstood.

          That story is the worst case scenario, and thank god, it's extremely rare to find such a blunder. Reading the comments here, you'd think half the reporting in the world is exactly as wrong as that one single thing.

    • giancarlostoro 4 hours ago ago

      > They want anonymous sources named "in the spirit of truth," without grappling with the reality that doing so would instantly dry up anyone risking their job, or worse, to provide information.

      There's some cases where I rather someone put their name up or I don't want to hear it, the only exception is give me some damning proof? Give me something that qualifies your anonymous remarks or its not worth anything to me, its just he said she said.

      Regarding this specifially, I don't care enough, I am more curious about the legal case and how it will play out though.

      • scelerat 3 hours ago ago

        > Give me something that qualifies your anonymous remarks or its not worth anything to me, its just he said she said.

        This is where journalistic reputation comes in. Do you trust the journalistic entity providing the story? Do they have a history of being correct? Has information from anonymous sources in other stories proven to be true?

        • giancarlostoro 3 hours ago ago

          I don't go by that, it sounds like a recipe for disaster, too many stories propagated by major news orgs that were later retracted over the years.

          • bryanlarsen 3 hours ago ago

            Such stories are notable and egregious because they're rare. They definitely do happen -- the NYT carrying water for Bush's Iraq war agenda to preserve access particularly bothers me. Perhaps a small number of such events are "too many", but they aren't common in reputable media.

            • dragonwriter an hour ago ago

              > the NYT carrying water for Bush's Iraq war agenda to preserve access

              Judith Miller was not a politically neutral journalist trying to preserve access, she was a deeply, actively involved long-time Iraq hawk doing propaganda for her ideological faction.

            • exasperaited an hour ago ago

              Right. Scooter Libby portrayed as a “Hill staffer”.

      • ChrisMarshallNY 3 hours ago ago

        I was involved in writing a history book of an organization, and we used what was termed "journalistic integrity."

        We couldn't put something into the book, unless it was corroborated by three separate sources (this was before the current situation, where you will get a dozen different sources that basically all come from the same place).

        The onus was on us; not the people we interviewed. We were responsible for not publishing random nonsense.

        • giancarlostoro 3 hours ago ago

          Sure, but a lot of major news orgs publish things that are later found to be patently false or incorrect, so the onus is on the facts presented for me and many readers, the journalistic integrity angle is dead in my eyes.

          • mvkel 2 hours ago ago

            False with the benefit of hindsight, because more facts emerged, or maliciously false?

            The latter among major news orgs is incredibly rare.

          • ChrisMarshallNY 2 hours ago ago

            Well, that may be, but that's still on the news outlet.

            We currently reward outlets that spew out junk, right off the bat, and penalize outlets that take the time to validate the data. Some outlets almost certainly make it up, on the spot. No downside.

            Back in the 1990s/early 200s, Michael Ramirez (a political cartoonist) posted a comic, showing three pairs of shoes.

            On the left, were a massive pair of battered brogue wingtips. Under them, was the caption "Cronkite."

            In the middle, was a very small pair of oxfords; both left. Its caption was "Rather."

            The right, was captioned "Couric," and featured a big pair of clown shoes.

    • BadCookie 4 hours ago ago

      And the biggest problem of all: They expect it to be free.

      • y-curious 2 hours ago ago

        I expect it to be free when the ad revenues are huge and the titles are “you WON’T believe what Elon said on Xitter!” clickbait.

        This is why substack exists

      • dfee 2 hours ago ago

        Even when I pay, I’m still bombarded with ads.

        And you’re never going to get all the angles from a single source. So short of paying a couple thousand dollars, and still getting ads, many people become cheap in exchange for the cheap experience pushed on them.

    • CoastalCoder 34 minutes ago ago

      Are you sure that a lot of individuals hold those contradictory positions?

      Or do the contradictions only exist across multiple persons?

      (Tangent: anyone know if there's a term for this fallacy? I.e., claiming that an attribute exists for some/all of a group's members, when in fact that attribute only applies to the collective itself?)

    • mhurron 2 hours ago ago

      > Is any other profession held to such an impossible standard?

      Almost all, to varying degrees, with the expectation increasing the more you deal with people that are outside that field. People seriously underestimate the challenges and difficulties of things they have little experience with while overestimating their ability to do it.

      'How hard can it be to ask someone who knows what's going on and write that anyway?'

    • HelloMcFly 4 hours ago ago

      In my experience (dramatized):

      Teachers: parents expects teachers to deliver personalized instruction to a classroom of 30+ while adhering to standardized testing targets. They are expected to act as surrogate parents yet threatened with lawsuits and suspensions when they attempt to enforce discipline. They are asked to spend their own money on supplies, but I think we've had enough levies to raise funds for our local district, haven't we? They are treated as lazy, agenda-driven agents by their community neighbors. They get the summers off, so I think I've heard enough about their "burnout".

      Doctors: patients demand certainty from a science based on probability. They expect empathetic listening but it must come within the fifteen-minute slots insurance and healthcare network financial officers dictate. Any story of a missed diagnosis is evidence of idiocy or contempt. Patients want pharmaceutical fixes for decades of poor lifestyle choices without side effects or changes to habits. They're all just paid for by the pharmaceutical industry anyway, so better if they just give me the prescription I saw a TV ad about. And why won't they just do what ChatGPT said they should do, anyway? Besides, they're all rich, right?

      • lanthade 2 hours ago ago

        Also doctors: Patients want schedules to run on-time but come in with a laundry list of concerns and will expect to be carefully listened to for 30 minutes during their 20 minute appointment. Medical systems insist on a 20 minute appointment even for complex cases or instances where translators are needed. Patients are non-compliant with discharge instructions and then get re-admitted which penalizes the MDs who discharged yet insurance pushes hospitals to discharge ASAP. I could go on and on...

    • tracker1 2 hours ago ago

      I want journalists to try to answer the 6 W's and make an effort to represent the stated positions of all parties mentioned. At least with that effort, you can have at least a chance at seeing what bias is in play. Most "journalism" fails on this metric by a wide margin.

    • xnx an hour ago ago

      And they want it for free

    • djeastm 4 hours ago ago

      Is any of this really any different than any other time in history, though?

      • teddy-smith 4 hours ago ago

        yeah I was going to say. Journalism has always been hated by those in power and by proxy their followers.

        Few profession I have more respect for than journalists and police.

        Most of them are trying to fight evil and make society better and are hated for it.

        • tehjoker 3 hours ago ago

          That’s because the journalists of today that work for corporate outlets frame stories in ways that benefit power and police area agents of power, namely the business owners.

      • dlisboa 4 hours ago ago

        Yes, absolutely. Journalism was in a much better standing a few decades ago.

        • JumpCrisscross 2 hours ago ago

          > Journalism was in a much better standing a few decades ago

          Many more people paid for journalism a few decades ago. People who only consume free media are obviously going to see more junk.

        • mvkel 3 hours ago ago

          That's a function of time and technology, and our demands as consumers, not journalistic skill.

          If a journalist has an entire day to gather facts and write the story before it's published in the newspaper the next day, it's going to be a lot more accurate than the realtime demands of "we are hearing reports of a bomb threat in the vicinity of..."

      • mvkel 3 hours ago ago

        Great point, and no! Same with "truth." What is it? History is written by the victor.

    • johnwheeler 3 hours ago ago

      That's their problem. They're trying to give people what they want instead of being objective. They're supposed to be objective. What's that you say? Their objectivity is not rewarded? Well, neither is this.

      • signforsign 2 hours ago ago

        Journalistic ethics speaks about impartiality, not objectivity, and that has always brought me comfort. I'm dismayed by young uns talking about a joke being objectively funny, or one movie in a series being objectively better than another. It is an Anti-literate trend.

        • johnwheeler 2 hours ago ago

          Is this your cheeky and coy way of saying that objectivity is not possible? What's really the difference between impartiality and objectivity in this context? Sounds like you're just being a wordsmith.

          • mvkel 5 minutes ago ago

            Correct, objectivity is not possible. Human observation is never perfectly neutral.

            What we call "objective" is usually just invisible judgment that aligns with our priors. An observer's choices about what to include, exclude, measure, or frame shape reality long before conclusions appear.

            Scientific facts are just theories that haven't been proven wrong yet.

  • benzible 12 hours ago ago

    Reportedly killed by their son, who had struggled with addiction: https://people.com/rob-reiner-wife-michele-were-killed-by-so...

    > In a 2016 interview with PEOPLE, Nick spoke about his years-long struggle with drug addiction, which began in his early teens and eventually left him living on the streets. He said he cycled in and out of rehab beginning around age 15, but as his addiction escalated, he drifted farther from home and spent significant stretches homeless in multiple states.

    Rob Reiner directed a movie from a semi-autobiographical script his son co-wrote a few years ago. Hard to imagine many things worse than going through the pain of having a kid who seemed lost, getting him back, and then whatever must have been going on more recently that apparently led to this.

    • lab14 3 hours ago ago

      (tangent) for those of us who had close experiences with addiction in our families, it's so obvious why "give them money" or "give them homes to live in" isn't a solution to homelesness. A close family member owned 3 properties and still was living in the streets by choice because of his addiction which evolved into a full blown paranoid schizophrenia. He almost lost it all but he was forcefully commited into a mental institution and rehab saved his life.

      • amanaplanacanal an hour ago ago

        Just realize your personal experience isn't generalizable. Surveys I've seen report that about a third of homeless have drug problems, which means that the other two thirds may very well benefit from "give them homes to live in".

        • benzible an hour ago ago

          UCSF published a comprehensive study of homelessness in California in 2023 [1]. A few relevant points:

          The ~1/3 substance use figure holds up (31% regular meth use, 24% report current substance-related problems). But the study found roughly equal proportions whose drug use decreased, stayed the same, or increased during homelessness. Many explicitly reported using to cope with being homeless, not the reverse.

          On whether money helps: 89% cited housing costs as the primary barrier to exiting homelessness. When asked what would have prevented homelessness, 90% said a Housing Choice Voucher, 82% said a one-time $5-10K payment. Median income in the 6 months before homelessness was $960/month.

          The severe-mental-illness-plus-addiction cases like the family member mentioned exist in the data, but the study suggests they're the minority. 75% of participants lost housing in the same county they're now homeless in. 90% lost their last housing in California. These are mostly Californians who got priced out.

          [1] https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/2023-06/CA...

        • earlyreturns an hour ago ago

          As with any survey or most research really, it’s the sample the determines the finding. Homelessness is not easy to define precisely. Drug addiction, setting aside the fact that surveys are self reported, is a bit more cut and dried but from your response it’s not clear if alcohol is included, or drug history. Like if someone did some bad shrooms or had a bad acid trip and wound up homeless would that person be in the 2/3rds?

      • mbauman 2 hours ago ago

        > "by choice because of"

        Goodness, that doesn't look like a choice to me.

      • mistrial9 2 hours ago ago

        sorry for your situation but that description is inconsistent without medical insight

        perhaps more importantly, ascribing legal treatment for a class of people ("homeless") based on this particular case is also unwise, at the least

    • enduser 12 hours ago ago

      So far AFAIK this claim isn’t repeated by any reputable publishers. E.g. Associated Press and LA Times both published 2.5 hours after PEOPLE and did not make this claim.

      • benzible 12 hours ago ago

        Here's another independent report: https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/rob-rei...

        Also, People is credible for this type of reporting. They're owned by a major company, IAC, and they don't have a history of reckless reporting or shady practices like catch-and-kill a la the National Enquirer. They likely just have sources that other news outlets don't.

        • TMWNN 8 hours ago ago

          >they don't have a history of reckless reporting or shady practices like catch-and-kill a la the National Enquirer

          TIL that the 'National Enquirer' was the most reliable news source during the O. J. Simpson murder trial. According to a Harvard law professor who gave the media an overall failing grade, the 'Enquirer' was the only publication that thoroughly followed every rumor and talked to every witness. <https://np.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/6n1kz5/til_th...>

          • pge 4 hours ago ago

            The Enquirer also broke the John Edwards (vice-presidential candidate) affair story well before mainstream media picked it up. That doesn't make up for the reckless and sometimes completely nutso stories they print, but it is a reminder that they aren't always wrong.

          • sigwinch 4 hours ago ago

            That’s going a little far, I think. The Enquirer was mentioned during jury selection and not for facts. When the defense wanted to leak a story, they went to the New Yorker.

          • philistine 5 hours ago ago

            That was an eternity ago. They’re no longer worth anything in terms of reputation.

            • Fricken 5 hours ago ago

              They were never worth anything in terms of reputation, hence the "TIL"

      • netsharc 6 hours ago ago

        Speaking of media, I found it really useless that before the names were published, the majority of news articles just said "78 and 68 year old persons found dead [RIP] at Rob Reiner's home", but I had to search for his and his wife's age to correlate that it's him and his wife. I think only 1 news article said, "authorities have not said the names, but those are the ages of Rob Reiner and his wife".

        • philistine 37 minutes ago ago

          It's because they don't want to be wrong, while at the same time having to rush to publish because if they want clicks they need to be first. So they publish only what the cops initially tell them, even before they had time to inquire that the couple killed were indeed the residents.

          That's a telltale sign of a news organization that doesn't have access to backroom sources.

        • oneeyedpigeon 5 hours ago ago

          I've always found it weird that the police cannot name them, but they can give out clues, even clues that are, to all intents and purposes, naming them.

          • byronic 5 hours ago ago

            In the interest of preserving anonymity, let's call him Rob R. No, er, wait, let's do R Reiner. There, that should do it

          • philistine 36 minutes ago ago

            That's not what was happening there. They weren't hiding the identity, it's that they had not positively identified the victims. The cops talked to journalists very fast.

      • schmuckonwheels 2 hours ago ago

        In a remarkable coincidence, the Reiners' son has just been booked on suspicion of murder:

        https://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/director-rob-re...

        Maybe the cops were reading People in between scarfing down donuts and chain-smoking Marlboros.

      • nephihaha 8 hours ago ago

        The claim is that there was no sign of forced entry, implying whoever did it was already in the home.

  • ilamont 4 hours ago ago

    There’s a really good interview with Rob Reiner on Fresh Air, recorded as Spinal Tap 2 was being released a few months back. He talks all about the many movies he’s worked on as well as growing up in the household of a comedian. Well worth 45 minutes of your time:

    https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/g-s1-87790/fresh-air-...

  • mellosouls 11 hours ago ago

    I'd forgotten what an unusually strong and culturally-resonant line of movies the man had without (I think) the popular acclaim you might associate with them, like a low-profile Spielberg.

    Spinal Tap

    The Princess Bride

    When Harry Met Sally

    Sleepless in Seattle

    Stand By Me

    etc

    A great loss, RIP

    • bambax 8 hours ago ago

      A Few Good Men is also a great movie IMHO.

      And he was quite excellent in The Wolf of Wall Street (playing I think Leonardo's father?)

      Very sad development.

      • losvedir 4 hours ago ago

        Oh wow he did A Few Good Men, too? These comments are just crazy in how many influential movies he made to me, without me realizing they were by him. And how are you the first to mention AFGM? That's the best of the bunch!

        • mellosouls 4 hours ago ago

          He also co-wrote the pilot for Happy Days...

    • jeffwass 8 hours ago ago

      He was also brilliant as Michael “Meathead” Stivik in the phenomenal TV series “All in the Family”.

      Amazing how many classics he worked on throughout his career.

      • nobodyandproud 5 hours ago ago

        I only ever watched the re-runs (1980s). Still, somehow I never made the connection that “meathead” was Rob Reiner.

        • fortyseven 4 hours ago ago

          It's definitely interesting seeing him physically morph from his younger days to today. When he first came on my radar as a director, I wondered if it was just another guy with the same name, I had to go look it up, and I was surprised. Seemed like a really great guy. :(

      • DonHopkins 7 hours ago ago

        Throughout his entire career I have always thought "Meathead has done so well for himself! He really showed Archie."

        Talking about Rob Reiner:

        https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/people/rob-reiner?c...

        https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/rob-rein...

        Rob Reiner: The 60 Minutes Interview (2 months ago)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLeBquj8LKI

        • tanseydavid 3 hours ago ago

          I remember a radio host in the 90's remarking about how ironic it was that three of the biggest movie directors at the time were: Opie (Ron Howard), Laverne (Penny Marshall) and MeatHead (Rob Reiner).

        • jzb 6 hours ago ago

          Indeed. I grew up watching AitF, and I remember being totally floored when I realized he directed “When Harry Met Sally.”

          Really sad end to a great career and as far as I could tell, a decent human being.

    • js2 11 hours ago ago

      I'm just commenting to mention The Sure Thing, a delightful and endearing romcom with John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga, with small parts by Anthony Edwards, Nicollette Sheridan, and Tim Robbins.

      • exasperaited 9 hours ago ago

        This is indeed a delightful film. I tend to forget that Nicollette Sheridan was the titular character. It’s unusual (but perhaps explains some of Reiner’s interest, I wonder) that this film has an identifiable, personified McGuffin.

    • fatbird 11 hours ago ago

      His last film was Spinal Tap II. I think if you could tell him that Spinal Tap would bookend his life, he'd be tickled by that.

      • nephihaha 8 hours ago ago

        The second installment isn't good... But he has more than enough decent work to be remembered by.

        • fortyseven 3 hours ago ago

          No, it isn't a patch on the original. But I did find it better than I expected at least. A low bar, but at least it passed it. ;)

          • hnlmorg 2 hours ago ago

            I personally preferred the sequel to the original.

            I loved the original but its pacing wasn’t all that great. I also felt II had better cohesion too.

    • CaptWillard 3 hours ago ago

      Amen. I can appreciate films. Reiner made Movies. Great movies.

      Spielberg is an apt comparison.

    • n1b0m 3 hours ago ago

      Misery is another classic

      • stack_framer 29 minutes ago ago

        Wow, I didn't know he directed Misery! Great film.

  • teddy-smith 4 hours ago ago

    Journalism has always been hated by those in power and by proxy their followers.

    It's arguable thats a sign that they're doing a good job.

    Few profession I have more respect for than journalists and police.

    Most of them are trying to fight evil and make society better and are disliked for it.

    They are a gritty grizzled bunch.

    • indoordin0saur 3 hours ago ago

      Sometimes journalists (or "journalists") are the ones in power or they are controlled by those in power

      • hiccuphippo 2 hours ago ago

        I'd argue once it is controlled by those in power it stops being called journalism and becomes propaganda.

      • consumer451 2 hours ago ago

        I have a hard time thinking of any such example.

        Certainly their editors and the publisher/owner, but journalists themselves?

        • ltbarcly3 2 hours ago ago

          The Soviet Union? China right now?

          If you own the owners of media, you own all the journalists by virtue of the fact that to be a journalist requires someone to get a job as a journalist. In a place like the US you might have a handful of top people freelance and still be able to eat, but that is very rare.

  • llbbdd 11 hours ago ago

    Rest in peace. "The Princess Bride" is a really fun, unique and beautiful piece of art that my wife and I revisit all the time. Nobody deserves to go like this and he'll be missed.

    • rashkov an hour ago ago

      You might enjoy the pandemic-era Princess Bride Home Movie, which Rob Reiner and his father Carl Reiner had a scene in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29s1yU3nGkQ

      It's a crowdsourced home-movie version produced by dozens of actors in the midst of pandemic lockdown, recording on their phones and using home made props. The actors rotate through the individual roles so you get a real range of performances. I found it delightful.

      Worth checking out the opening scene to get a sense of it

    • VikingCoder 3 hours ago ago

      In college, we printed out the screenplay, and picked parts, and read it together. It was tremendous fun. Highly recommended.

    • jeffwass 8 hours ago ago

      Same. It’s a wonderful movie that can be thoroughly enjoyed by young and old alike!

      • DonHopkins 7 hours ago ago

        It's inconceivable how good that movie is.

        • stack_framer 24 minutes ago ago

          You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

        • UncleSlacky 7 hours ago ago

          Anybody want a peanut?

          • matwood 5 hours ago ago

            As you wish.

        • binary132 4 hours ago ago

          And so quotable…

    • phantasmish 4 hours ago ago

      The book’s outstanding and different enough to be worth reading even (especially?) if you’ve seen the movie a hundred times.

      It’s got a framing and woven-in narrative of the author stand-in tracking down this book his dad read him, discovering it was mostly awful, dry crap, and editing it down (and translating it) to a “the good parts” version like his dad read to him. The (kinda pathetic and melancholy) adult story going on is interesting to an adult reader, and… creates the opportunity to read the actual novel with a “the good parts” approach when reading it to a kid (this has to have been on purpose, it works great).

      The author (William Goldman) was a screenwriter so the action scenes are snappy and great and the dialogue tight, but he also filled the book with jokes that only work in print, so you won’t just be getting a repeat of the movie on the humor side (though many of those jokes are in it, too).

      Some sequences are greatly expanded and especially notable are large and effective back-story chapters for Fezzick and Inigo.

      • timeforcomputer 4 hours ago ago

        I really enjoyed Fezzick and Inigo's chapters. And the Zoo of Death! As I remember, the framing narrative was quite different, something about a screenwriter with some glaring personal issues IIRC. Worth reading if you love the movie, definitely.

    • sillyfluke 6 hours ago ago

      Incidentally, just the other day I thought a scene in a recent Pluribus episode was echoing it.

      • fullstop 4 hours ago ago

        We were thinking the same thing! ;-)

  • BLKNSLVR 12 hours ago ago

    Three great movies that he directed that everyone around my age would be relatively intimately familiar with: This Is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally

    > Police are treating the deaths as apparent homicides. According to the L.A. Times, authorities have questioned a member of Reiner’s family in connection with the death. As of Sunday night, the LAPD have not officially identified a suspect, but Rolling Stone has confirmed that Reiner’s son, Nick, was involved in the homicide. A source confirmed to Rolling Stone that the couple’s daughter, Romy, found her parents’ bodies.

    Alternative source:

    > Senior law enforcement officials report that both had stab wounds

    Tragic.

    • jmkni 9 hours ago ago

      Also Misery

    • monero-xmr 12 hours ago ago

      Stand By Me as well

  • delichon 13 hours ago ago

    He is still Archie Bunker's annoying son in law to me. I hear he did some interesting things since then though.

    My best friend died in a family murder like this. A decade later the wounds of the survivors haven't healed.

    At least Carl didn't live to suffer this.

  • hypeatei an hour ago ago

    According to POTUS, he died because of Trump Derangement Syndrome[0]. Very classy and totally normal behavior from our highest office.

    0: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/1157241415688...

  • Lio 8 hours ago ago

    This is very sad news.

    No one else has mentioned it but among all his other great performances his hair-trigger angry dad in Wolf of Wall Street is hilarious.

    I think being able to be both funny in his anger but also a bit intimidating and then go to being a warm father figure is something he would not have been able to portray without genuine charisma.

  • deeg an hour ago ago

    RIP Rob Reiner. The Princess Bride is one of my all-time favorite movies. I have a theory (born out by experience) that most American-born software engineers can quote at least one line from TBL. I often use it as an opener with new hires.

    Death can not stop true love. It can only delay it for a while.

  • jedberg 9 hours ago ago

    FWIW, if you have HBOMax, you can watch what is now, sadly, his final film, Spinal Tap 2. It just arrived there yesterday.

    (They also just got the original if you want to watch it again)

  • lizknope 5 hours ago ago

    I just watched Spinal Tap 2 last week and enjoyed it.

    RIP Rob and Michelle.

    • linsomniac 3 hours ago ago

      I had really high hopes but low expectations for Tap 2, just because it can be really tricky to follow up on a cult classic without totally stepping in it. I drove way out to see it on IMAX, and the entire family loved it.

      May Reiner, as they say, Tap into the afterlife!

      • mixmastamyk 2 hours ago ago

        What is the benefit of seeing a regular film on an imax screen? Just bigger (too big?), or do they have taller footage?

  • _alaya 12 hours ago ago

    Completely tragic. Rob Reiner's movies brought so much good into people's lives. The Princess Bride still remains a favorite. Today is a very sad and inconceivable end.

  • anshumankmr 5 hours ago ago

    I only knew him from directing Harry Met Sally and Wolf of Wall street where almost all of his scenes are hillarious, especially the one where he burst into the room abusing DiCaprio and his gang over expenses.

    RIP.

    • khannn 5 hours ago ago

      He directed The Princess Bride, This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, and Misery. Didn't know this, but he directed a sequel to This Is Spinal Tap.

      • anshumankmr 4 hours ago ago

        Yes,I know BUT of his personal works, those two remain the only ones I have seen. And also A Few Good Men (I did not know it was one of his works till now)

  • toomuchtodo 14 hours ago ago
  • PaulDavisThe1st 2 hours ago ago

    I'm not going to link to it, but the POTUS posted overnight about this, and even by the standards of that particular social media account, it was probably a new low. Someone in another forum I read regularly said of it "I'm going to show this to my kids to help teach them what the word sociopath means". It's not even the usual "politicizing a tragedy", just the complete inhumanity and self-centeredness on display. Look it up yourself if you want, but bring a bag.

    • kemayo an hour ago ago

      To elaborate a bit for those who don't want to go read that sort of thing: Trump said Reiner was killed because he made people so angry by being opposed to Trump. There were a bunch of asides about Reiner's talent and mental state, and it closed with trying to brag about (fictional) administration accomplishments.

      Trump's a piece of work, all right.

    • Applejinx an hour ago ago

      I don't take from it personality judgements, so much as it makes me want to look into how Reiner was trying to develop a series called 'The Spy and the Asset' on how Putin and Trump met and began working together.

      That tracks for me, so Trump has personal reasons for behaving the way he does, though arguably self-preservation would induce him to not carry on the way he has done. But then he cannot be quiet about things he's guilty of, so I can't see his behavior as anything other than having a motive for just what's happened. I can't imagine he would take Rob's proposed series with equinamity: I'd love to know what Rob knew.

  • kalterdev 11 hours ago ago

    Thanks for The Princess Bride and Sleepless in Seattle. Rest in peace.

  • donatj 8 hours ago ago

    Oh dang. Last night before falling asleep my wife told me "some guy from Spinal Tap died" while scrolling on her phone. Didn't think much of it.

    Wake up and first thing I do is read this...

    Rob Reiner? Really? What a terrible shame. What a loss. His films and even his time on All in the Family really helped shape the cultural landscape.

    Nothing had as large an impact on my sense of humor growing up as This is Spinal Tap. Just thinking about the movie now I chuckle to myself. Most of his other films are certified classics.

    He will be greatly missed.

    • nephihaha 8 hours ago ago

      Spinal Tap is a great film, but he did so much more.

  • alsetmusic 6 hours ago ago

    Well that's just terrible. I went to a trade school for learning audio engineering. One of the instructors always used a day to show "Spinal Tap" to his class. I didn't realize it was fiction for about the first 40m. The guy made some great films.

    • cptnapalm 3 hours ago ago

      Having been in a metal band and known guys that toured, I can assure you that This is Spinal Tap is a real life depiction of being in a metal band.

    • oneeyedpigeon 5 hours ago ago

      > I didn't realize it was fiction

      Amusingly, neither did Liam Gallagher until he was 30:

      > https://www.loudersound.com/features/oasis-liam-gallagher-sp...

      • spacechild1 5 hours ago ago

        > This story was subsequently related to Harry Shearer aka Derek Smalls, who was most amused.

        > "It's fair enough," he responded. "I was under the impression for some time that Oasis was a real band."

        I'm dying!

        • UncleSlacky 5 hours ago ago

          Aren't they a Beatles tribute act?

  • locusofself 12 hours ago ago

    So sad. To me, he's primarily the "Spinal Tap" guy, but he did so much more.

    • nephihaha 8 hours ago ago

      True, Marti di Bergi and all that. But he made so many other popular films.

  • auggierose 12 hours ago ago

    Jesus Christ. "When Harry met Sally" is easily the best romcom of all times.

    • nephihaha 8 hours ago ago

      Definitely up there. "Misery" is one of the best Stephen King adaptations and "Spinal Tap" is the greatgranddaddy of stuff like Parks and Recreation and the Office.

  • nephihaha 8 hours ago ago

    Terrible. I enjoyed many of his films, and count Spinal Tap, Misery and Stand by Me among my favourites. Rest in Peace!

  • spacechild1 5 hours ago ago

    RIP! What a terrible way to go...

  • butterlettuce 11 hours ago ago

    “What da fu*k you sayin? Jordan, are you f*ckin’ high?!”

    RIP

    • kleiba 6 hours ago ago

      Something is wrong with your keyboard.

      • pmarreck 4 hours ago ago

        It's a Wolf of Wall Street quote.

        • plasticsoprano 2 hours ago ago

          I don't think the source was the concern .

  • thx4explaining 3 hours ago ago

    I'd like to honor Rob Reiner and This is Spinal Tap by mentioning my work and other peoples' successful projects:

    Jimmy Fallon, manager, and band Stillwater in the film "Almost Famous".

    Ari Gold in Entourage

    And Wayne's World, I would have to say.