The more things change ...

I put an old chestnut in the DVD player last night: Frank Capra's "Meet John Doe," starring Barbara Stanwyck as the desperate-for-work reporter who invents a guy so disillusioned by the injustice in the world that he plans to jump off the roof of City Hall on Christmas Eve, and Gary Cooper as the hard-luck case who is hired to be John Doe after Stanwyck's stories about him sell newspapers.

It's not one of Capra's more well-known works - after all, the guy also did "It Happened One Night," "Lost Horizon," "You Can't Take It With You," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "It's A Wonderful Life" - but it's an outstanding entry in the Capra canon, with a sharp screenplay by longtime collaborator Robert Riskin.

And some of the issues it addresses are still surprisingly timely 64 (!) years after it was filmed - beginning with the opening scene.

The camera closes in on the sign etched in granite at the front of an office building: "The Bulletin: A free press means a free people." Suddenly the tip of a jackhammer enters the picture, and the name and slogan are slowly obliterated from the building's face.

A snazzy new sign is bolted over the remains of the old: "The New Bulletin: A streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era." Yep, the paper has been purchased by a brazillionaire, whose first act is to lay off a bunch of the long-standing employees for efficiency purposes.

And you thought sacrificing journalism on the altar of the bottom line was a recent problem! Nope, it's just that the brazillionaires are selling out to mega-corporations that own dozens and scores of newspapers, who have efficiency practices the brazillionaires could only dream of.