absence of malice

for some reason the only movie channel still on in mumbai is sony; and it specializes in long forgotten films from the 70s and the 80d- some of them not half bad. ‘absence of malice' was not one of them. sally field plays an incredibly dumb new reporter who prints anything she can get her hands on no matter how contentious and implausible. paul newman and the fbi are caught up in a game of one-upmanship and are blatantly using her to fight their battles and the dimwit has absolutely no clue. if the film was a little less pompous about its ‘insights’ into the manipulation and responsibility of the media i would be willing to forgive it its lapses. instead, it dons the garb of a prospective oscar entrant when all it is really is a tepid tale of nothing much.