IAN MCSHANE TALKS JOURNALISM FOR SCOOP

(VIDEO) Deadwood star Ian McShane has the inside scoop on American and British journalism.

British born Deadwood star Ian McShane plays a journalist in Woody Allen’s Scoop who comes to a horrific end when he is poisoned for having the inside skinny on the Tarot Card killer stalking the women of London. Ian talks about who the inspiration was for his reporter Joe Strombel.

Growing up in a town where tabloids are king, Ian discusses the differences between American and British journalism.

“The character I didn’t base it on but remembered a dear old friend of mine who is Ross Benson who is a reporter and did everything from beauty pageants to films to wars all over the place. He’s married to a good friend of mine who sadly died a year and a half ago with a touch of Christopher Hitchens thrown in there, the British hack that you employed in America.”

Ian says he prefers the written word over watching the evening news because in television there is too much room for interpretation.

“I think American journalism has been a bit emasculated in the last few years. Fleet street journalism, well the ones that get out there like Robert Fisk of the Independent or whatever are real investigative journalists who live there. English journalism for all of us, how many national papers do we have, eight. There’s still a combination of opinions there whereas this country has become more homogenized. It’ll shift around again when the administration changes and you get more respect for journalism going on.”

Scoop opens today in theaters nationwide.rn

“But I think in this country there’s been too much on television journalism and then it goes down to print journalism. Print journalism is the standard. I never watch television news. I get my news from the papers so I always respect the written word rather than the assumed word. You know coming from this box that can spit out anything and you have to disseminate it from what your own personal opinion is, your own gut instinct is so it’ll all change around again.”