‘Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press’

George Seldes (pictured) was cursed with the curse of living in interesting times. The great iconoclast of American journalism, a voice who couldn’t be stilled, he did more than cover every major story of the 20th century. He was, as press critic Ben Bagdikian notes, “an incorruptible man,” often the only writer willing to present the facts without fear or favor. The inspiration and role model for I.F. Stone, Ralph Nader, Daniel Ellsberg and many others, Seldes is the subject of Rick Goldsmith’s informative and enlightening 1996 documentary about the man Nat Hentoff called “the trombone of muckraking journalism.” The heart of “Tell the Truth” (the title comes from one of Seldes’ 21 books) is the journalist himself. Interviewed in 1989, when he was a sharp and feisty 98 years old (he died at age 104), Seldes wears an “Aged in Vermont” button and delivers pithy observations about the life he led and the people he got in trouble with. Seldes’ lifelong lesson on the folly of taking authority at its word is one we ignore at our peril (KCET Sunday at 3 p.m.).