Unreality Show

My latest piece for the Daily Banter is now up -- it deals with Aaron Sorkin's new HBO series, The Newsroom. The show has many of the very good hallmarks of a Sorkin production, as well as more than the usual number of very bad ones. The important thing, though, is that it tries to bring West Wing-style nobility and heroism to the world of modern TV news -- and given what we all know about TV news these days, that's a pretty comical conceit that requires a hell of a suspension of disbelief. What the NBC suits are now doing to Ann Curry proves it.

Here's the opening shot:

"Like just about anybody who’s spent a good portion of his or her career in the TV news industry, I watched Aaron Sorkin’s new show, 'The Newsroom,' on HBO a couple of nights ago. I did this because, like anybody who’s spent a good portion of his or her career in the TV news industry, I desperately seek the validation of strangers, love talking and hearing about myself and especially enjoy anything that paints the profession I chose years ago in a light other than thoroughly, hostilely negative."

Read the Rest Here

Once You're Done with the Piece, a Few Extra Thoughts on The Newsroom, in No Particular Order (Beware of Spoilers)

1. One complaint I can tell I'm going to have with it is one I always have when Sorkin writes a show with any sort of "political" content: since, as I said, every character acts as some sort of surrogate for Sorkin himself and exists mainly to preach the gospel as Sorkin sees it, they'll all be varying degrees of liberal. This isn't necessarily a problem when there are characters on-screen who openly display progressive political tendencies, but it'll be noticeable when, say, Will McAvoy claims to be a Republican. In Sorkin's world, liberalism is the only political opinion espoused openly and Republican "conservatism" is centrist and reasonable. In other words, Sorkin paints Republicans not as they are these days but how he, as someone who's liberal, believes they should be.

2. I have to imagine that at least a couple of the characters on the show are based on real people within the TV news industry -- e.g. McAvoy's personality lines up almost perfectly with that of Keith Olbermann except for the fact that McAvoy's not clinically insane -- and with that in mind I'm almost positive I know who Don Keefer, the youthful, brash, arrogant, sort of asshole-ish former EP of News Night, is supposed to be. While he certainly has the kind of attitude and view of himself that grows up out of the carpeting in most television newsrooms, there's one very well-known figure in the business who mirrors his personality and mannerisms almost flawlessly. He's a former high-powered executive producer in cable news who's now very high up the network food chain. Good guy, overall -- but especially years ago? Yeah, that was him.

3. I feel sorry for Alison Pill. I really hope her character develops into something better than it is now. That said, there actually are thousands upon thousands of kids just like "Maggie" toiling away thanklessly in TV newsrooms these days. Some are talented as hell, some are in way over their heads, but they do exist. And I very much appreciated the moment when McAvoy looked her in the face and simply acknowledged her by saying her name. I remember the first time that sort of thing happened to me, two decades ago, and the feeling of validation is something you hold onto for a very long time.

4. Loved it when Mac playfully put her foot down and let McAvoy know who's really in control while the show's on the air. The relationship between the producer or EP and the talent is always one of trust, with each side having to rely on the other and know that he or she has the best interest of the show and the other person at heart. That kind of trust is integral for the daily high-wire act that is a TV news show -- whether it's at the local or national level. But I'll never forget one of the earliest stories from my time coming up in local news. I had a story break in the middle of a show and attempted to get one of my anchors to read it live; for whatever reason, he refused to, wanting instead to wait on it a few minutes. When I tried to get his co-anchor to do it, she also refused as a show of solidarity with the guy sitting next to her on the set. I was maybe 22 years old, it was one of my first times out and I was admittedly letting them manhandle me because I was afraid of them, their popularity and their authority. So I picked up the phone and called downstairs to my EP. Her response: "I don't want to see either of them for the next two blocks. Kill any face-time they have." And so I did. We wiped between stories; went right into full reporter packages; even killed tosses to weather, instead coming right up on the segment without an intro. My EP's advice to me when I came down after the show? "They need to know at all times that you are in charge and if they forget, remind them." There's a reason it's called the control room.

5. The news consultant on the show is Nancy Bauer Gonzales, former long-time news director in Los Angeles and a truly terrific lady. She's the one who hired me at KNBC in 2000 and I actually had dinner with her and some old friends from that era a couple of weeks ago. Despite the fact that by the end of my tenure at KNBC I was hiding a nasty little drug habit, Bauer is kind enough to still look upon me pretty fondly and I couldn't be more proud of that given that I respect her very much. She's a great choice when it comes to advising on the technical aspects of working in a newsroom and covering breaking stories.

6. On that note, while it's true that a cable news outlet would have hundreds more people than just those within one small room working a big story -- even as proprietary and competitive as the individual shows can often be -- it was thrilling to watch the "breaking story" unfold in the last quarter of the show. It made me miss it. Covering breaking news is, admittedly, a thrill you never quite get out of your system.

Adding: This bit of brilliance...