To be sure, the quasi-monopolies produced some first-rate political journalism, but they also produced a lot of junk: glorified stenography, hagiographies disguised as inside accounts, and "authoritative" books as thick as doorsteps that no living soul could read from start to finish.

When it was shown at the New Directors/New Films series last year, A. O. Scott called it a "wrenching and absorbing" film with "the force of tragedy and the depth of first-rate investigative journalism" - Tuesday at 6 p.m. on Cinemax.

The Bancrofts have owned Dow Jones for over 100 years, and laudably, they have always been passionate about the first-rate journalism produced by The Wall Street Journal.

Using a combination of video taken for Brazilian television and ex post facto talking-head interviews, the filmmakers have made a deceptively straightforward documentary that has the force of tragedy and the depth of first-rate investigative journalism.

The Bancrofts revel in The Wall Street Journal's first-rate journalism, and in the mid-1980's, in an effort to protect that journalism, Dow Jones established Class B shares, with 10 times the voting power of the common stock, to allow the family to remain in control of the company.

The one chapter in which they rely mainly on their own interviews - their detailed treatment of relations between Milosevic and the Yugoslav prime minister, Milan Panic - is first-rate investigative journalism.

Using no voice-over narration, the film allows the subjects to speak for themselves, resulting in "first-rate journalism" (Vincent Canby).

The book is first-rate journalism that grew out of their coverage of the Republican Congress.

After several weeks of poring over the Time Inc. magazines, which include People, Money, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly and Fortune as well as Time, Mr. Pearlstine said he thought they were "in pretty darn good shape and delivering first-rate journalism that provides value to readers."

"Blood in the Face" is first-rate journalism.