Before going on to a brilliant Hollywood career – and four Best Director Golden Globe nominations – Rob Reiner found fame as the beloved Michael Stivic (aka Meathead) on All in the Family. That multi Globe-nominated sitcom (including five for Reiner) is now routinely held up as a seminal example of television comedy with a social conscience. Reiner himself has always remained engaged in social and political causes, and his last directing effort, Shock and Awe, takes a cue from films like All The President’s Men to chronicle the run-up to the US invasion of Iraq through the eyes of the investigative reporters who question the Bush administration’s official line about (nonexistent) weapons of mass destruction. We talked to him about the film and why a tale of free and critical press resonates especially loud in the present context.