Inside look at the Times in 'Page One'

Full disclosure: This review of the documentary "Page One: Inside The New York Times" is appearing in a competing newspaper and is written by someone who knows or has even worked for some of the people in it. What's more, the movie's main question -- Whither professional journalism? -- tends to hit home with this reviewer, for perhaps obvious reasons.

Welcome to the echo chamber! "Page One" follows several Times reporters as they cover a story of which they are a part: the worrisome decline of America's traditional news outlets. Filmmaker Andrew Rossi focuses on Tim Arango, a whiz kid who covers media corporations; Brian Stelter, a television blogger so competitive that The Times stopped him by hiring him; and David Carr, the charismatic, tough-talking media columnist.

The reporters are not tracking one central, galvanizing story -- no equivalent to Watergate here -- so Rossi tries to cover the waterfront. He dips a toe in WikiLeaks, another in the Gawker machine. Carr goes after the cynical culture within Sam Zell's Tribune Co., which once owned Newsday; Zell can be seen insulting his employees even while leading them toward bankruptcy.

It's all a bit scattered and insidery, but Carr provides one of the film's more trenchant commentaries. Attacked at a conference full of Web types celebrating the disappearance of mainstream media, Carr merely holds up a sheet of paper representing the aggregator site Newser. All traditional news sources have been cut out, leaving the thing barely able to cast a shadow. That message -- without us, you got nothin' -- should be loud enough to escape the echo chamber.