Some movies exist solely to be background noise for laundry day. And then there are the ones that demand dim lights, full attention, and maybe even a Google search on U.S. history halfway through. The Post falls firmly in the second category. With Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg all on the call sheet, it is less of a movie and more of a cinematic mic drop dressed in 1970s power suits.

While newsroom chaos made headlines in 1971, the film's digital whereabouts today might stir up a little drama of its own.

Streaming The Post on Netflix? Think again. The platform that gave us red jumpsuits in Money Heist and existential monsters in Stranger Things is skipping the newsroom drama. The Post is not currently available on Netflix, despite its heavyweight cast and critical acclaim. Instead, viewers must go sleuthing on Prime Video, Apple TV, or HBO Max, because apparently, freedom of the press does not extend to your Netflix homepage.

This is not your typical journalism flick with messy desks and coffee-stained headlines. Set in 1971, The Post spotlights Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of The Washington Post, and Tom Hanks as her no-nonsense editor Ben Bradlee. Their mission? Decide whether to publish the Pentagon Papers, a classified exposé of decades-long government deceit. It is less a gossip column, more a constitutional crisis, with added trench coats and pressroom pacing.

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While Katharine Graham fought to publish the truth, today’s battle is waged behind studio doors, with licensing deals, streaming vaults, and a custody war over who gets the Steven Spielberg sparkle.

Blame it on licensing, a game of digital Monopoly where studios play keep-away with content. The Post is owned by 20th Century Fox (now under Disney’s umbrella), and HBO Max seemingly won the streaming custody battle. Netflix, which picks content based on potential views and licensing costs, likely passed on the Steven Spielberg special. In the end, it is less about truth or democracy and more about algorithms and ROI, pun intended.

Just like editors chase leads, streamers chase contracts. Licensing deals expire, renew, or vanish overnight. One month, a film is trending on Netflix, and the next, it is trapped behind a paywall on Roku. While Netflix may have tapped a winner on countless originals and buzzy hits, The Post did not make the shortlist. Not yet, anyway. It is just missing in action until the next bidding war breaks headlines.

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What are your thoughts on Steven Spielberg’s historical drama The Post being absent from Netflix’s roster? Let us know in the comments below.