The series, though filled with enough clichés about the news
business to choke the most lenient journalism professor, did get off to an
interesting start in its inaugural show. It dealt with the 2010 BP oil platform
explosion off the coast of Texas that poured millions of gallons of oil into
the ocean.
On last Sunday's show fictional producer MacKenzie decides
the BP story is old news, even though in reality that story was being covered
by every other major news organization on the planet because of riveting images
of the oil rig sinking beneath the waves.
Instead, she wants to lead with SB 1070, Arizona's Support
Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.
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| Emily Mortimer as Producer MacKenzie McHale |
Ahhhh yes, here is where we see Hollywood flexing its
liberal biases. The SB 1070 story is good because Gov. Jan Brewer is a racist,
as is apparently every other person living in Arizona who believes that
something must be done to protect the state's borders from the daily and
nightly invasion of illegal immigrants.
When anchor Will McAvoy protests that the BP oil rig story is
good television, MacKenzie climbs aboard her contrived journalistic soapbox and
barks back: "We don't do good
television, we do the news!"
Oh, I get it. The BP story is not news. At least not when
"News Night 2.0" (the new name for the fictional news show) can
attack a conservative governor who is trying to get the federal government to
do its job and protect the nation's borders.
Maggie, a young producer who wears her politics on her
sleeve like a Valley Girl wears a tramp stamp, is assigned to do the
pre-interview with Jan Brewer's office. Naturally, she has to let the Brewer
staffer know just what she thinks of SB 1070 (a racist bill aimed at Mexicans).
Then we find out she dated the staffer when she was in college and a remark he makes about Obama leads her to make a vulgar remark about his skill (or lack thereof) in the sack.
Then we find out she dated the staffer when she was in college and a remark he makes about Obama leads her to make a vulgar remark about his skill (or lack thereof) in the sack.
The result is that Jan Brewer bails on the interview with
Will McAvoy and goes to CNN instead. In reality such a dumb performance by a
junior producer would get her fired. But not on News Night 2.0. She is, after
all, the correct political flavor. Perhaps if she had been right of center....
None of this stops our executive producer MacKenzie from
soldiering ahead with the SB 1070 story. Just 90 minutes before air time the
show rounds up three other guests: a second runner up in the Miss USA pageant who
insists her support of the bill cost her a chance to be first runner up; a
wacko militia-man who does the interview holding his rifle (which he has named
"Jenny"); and a self-published "professor" from an online
diploma mill.
Is it a coincidence that all three come across as callous right
wing nut cases while the Newsroom's left wingers are allowed to demonstrate
their decency via PC homilies about immigration? Or am I letting my misgivings of
Hollywood show through? Nope, I don't think so.
The show makes another point about obtuse conservatives when
it airs footage of Sarah Palin making a gaffe about Norway and The Netherlands
(she confuses the two during a short sound bite), and the beat goes on.
Is News Night 2.0 in the tank for President Obama? I am
willing to take bets on it. Is the Newsroom spiraling into a soapy newsroom
version of General Hospital? It appears so, but I hope not.
There is much about journalism and those who practice it
that is worth watching. It just hasn't become apparent with this show--yet. Maybe
it will.
Maybe the show will forgo all of the cliché-ridden interpersonal
relationships (who is sleeping with whom? and why? and why not?) and actually
show how good reporters, editors, producers, etc. work a story. To date, that
has not happened. In fact, no one ever leaves the newsroom to pursue a story.
They just seem to drift from one office to another with an occasional
appearance in the newsroom.
Maybe the reporters in The Newsroom (by the way, where are
they?) and producers (plenty of those) will
curtail their overt left wing biases and focus on how exceptional journalism is
done, rather than behaving like a collection of unpleasant narcissists who see
journalism as their personal ladder to fame and wealth.
On the other hand, maybe The Newsroom will continue to
devolve into nothing more than another Hollywood left wing political vehicle
that views the world as an "us and them" proposition--where
"us" equals good and "them" equals evil.
Whatever happened to objectivity, fairness and accuracy?
Stay tuned. Maybe those critical journalistic qualities will appear in future
episodes of The Newsroom.
I'm not holding my breath!
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