Sorkin State of Affairs

Sure, I watch HBO's The Newsroom. I do this because, as someone who's spent a good portion of his life in the news business, I'm a vain and shallow creature who desperately seeks the validation of strangers, loves talking and hearing about himself and especially enjoys anything that paints the profession he chose years ago in any light other than thoroughly, hostilely negative.

While the new season of the show does seem to prove that Sorkin at least took a little of the relentless criticism he received last year to heart, The Newsroom is still The Newsroom.

And maybe that's why I enjoy this so much.

The Onion: Nation Hoping 'The Newsroom' Ends Before Trayvon Martin Storyline/7.15.13

Quote of the Day

"The scene is raw, it’s brave, and it’s the boldest thing we’ve seen Dunham do yet: a smart, unsanitized comedy of errors that perfectly captures the experience of being at the ob-gyn."

-- The Onion, in a story called "Next Episode Of 'Girls' To Feature Lena Dunham Shitting Herself During Gyno Exam While Eating A Burrito"

As always, the Onion's satire is pretty much indistinguishable from reality. For all the stories the site has done that have fooled a people into thinking they were for real, this may be most understandable for somebody to fall for. All you had to do was watch even five minutes of this past week's Girls episode, with Dunham's character puncturing her eardrum with a Q-tip because she's insane and Adam Driver's Ugliest Hipster on Earth coming all over his inexplicably adorable girlfriend's breasts because he's a tortured artist, or something, to realize that there's nowhere the show won't go to be unwatchable.

Yes, I once again sat through an episode On Demand because I was curious to see what all the "controversy" was about -- what was making the fingers of a million little New York City-based liberal arts grads work at warp speed banging out blog posts for Slate, Salon, Jezebel, XOJane and Feministing -- and, as usual, I was really sorry I did.

As The Onion kind of alludes to, it doesn't take much thought, talent or even courage to show ugly people doing really ugly things to get people talking.

The Girl You Don't Want

Today's column for the Daily Banter takes a second look at Lena Dunham -- and pretty much finds the same thing I did the first time around.

Here's the opening shot:

"When I first started my site, Deus Ex Malcontent, back in the spring of 2006, the original personal bio on its front page had a line in it that slammed Sarah Jessica Parker. I can’t remember the exact words right now but I basically said something about how I didn’t like Hollywood trying to convince me that she was attractive. It was, I admit, a really obnoxious thing to say right out of the gate but being that the blog was in its infancy and I wasn’t sure what I wanted it to be or what I’d eventually be writing about a good portion of the time it made sense to just come out swinging. Even at the time, though, my point was never that I didn’t like Sarah Jessica Parker — I simply didn’t like what the arbiters of pop culture were constantly telling me I should like about her. In other words, my issue wasn’t with SJP the Person, it was with SJP the Product.

I try to keep that thought process in mind these days every time I read one screed or another defending Lena Dunham."

Read the Rest Here

Reality TV

Today's column for the Daily Banter expands on something I wrote a while back regarding The Newsroom. The question: Is there one American TV news organization that could actually pull off the kind of broadcast Sorkin dreams of in his HBO series?

Here's an excerpt:

"I’ve been giving the whole 'Newsroom' impact thing some thought again after this week’s season finale of the show, which featured upper-management being forced to take the leash off Will McAvoy, the fictional anchor of News Night, and his staff. The result of that plot point led to one of the best-articulated summations of our current political crisis that I’ve ever seen expressed in pop culture or, really, anywhere. But something else got me thinking about the potential for the kind of supremely ethical news broadcast that this country has been sorely missing: CNN’s very serious recent ratings slide."

Read the Rest Here

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...

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being (Complete)

The Full Piece that Ran Yesterday at the Daily Banter

Let’s start with the obvious: HBO’s new series Girls isn’t for me. What I mean by that is that I’m not its target audience. I’m not a millennial; I’m not female; I’m not a Brooklyn hipster who’s perpetually drowning in his or her own insufferable ennui; I don’t recognize even a hint of myself or my life in any of the dingbat characters or torturous scenarios the show traffics in. I’m sure Lena Dunham is a nice enough person, but there’s nothing about her that makes me think she’s someone I really need to take seriously as a creative talent, let alone the supposed voice of her generation (God help them all).

Granted, I lived in New York City for quite a while and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t familiar with the kind of “girls” Dunham and her cast try to represent for the TV audience; the city is crawling with them. I just don’t think they’re interesting enough to merit the representation. On the contrary, my reaction to any encounter with them typically lies somewhere between cringing painfully and going full-on Inspector Dreyfus whenever somebody mentioned Clouseau’s name.

With that in mind, though, I think that the criticism Lena Dunham’s been on the receiving end of from some in the black and Hispanic community is unfair. In case you haven’t been following -- and for your own sake, I hope you actually have better things to do than concern yourself with this kind of “controversy” -- a host of socially conscious journalists of color, many of them female, have complained that Dunham’s show is too “white,” that none of the titular girls on Girls are black or brown. The argument is a little dumb at face value, simply because Dunham herself is white and it’s not like that’s something she can change -- and while New York City, both real and the depressing hellhole depicted on the show, is indeed a melting pot, let’s be honest and admit that it’s not exactly unlikely that people like Dunham’s character on the show and her small cadre of friends would all be the same shade of white.

Hell, the show wouldn’t be what it is -- cloying and insipid -- without the pervading stench of white privilege and the ability for characters to mumble complaints about the kind of shit only privileged white kids have the luxury of complaining about. It’s been a common refrain among critics of Girls, but it’s a show about white people problems -- and like everyone else, I say that as derogatorily as possible -- and trying to shoehorn a demographic into the equation which undoubtedly brings a different set of concerns to the table would be a ham-fisted nod to political correctness and little more. There wouldn’t be anything the least bit honest about Dunham taking that tack -- and anyone willing to admit to the world that she’s this tiresome, irritating and unsympathetic is honest if nothing else.

Please understand that I’m certainly not saying that women of color don’t occasionally obsess over some of the same trivialities that a show like Girls attempts to address; everybody has his or her own version of navel-gazing. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a larger forum for shows that either catered specifically to black and Hispanic female audiences or were able to draw the parallels between all women without trying to force the issue in an effort to ward off exactly the kind of criticism that’s been leveled at Dunham. Those upset about the show’s lack of color, so to speak, have a point when they argue that a series like Girls with an all-black or all-Hispanic cast would very likely never be given the cachet of a time slot on HBO -- but again, it’s not like that’s Lena Dunham’s fault, and again, it’s not as if she should be required to adjust her vision for the show simply to satisfy the PC police.

It’s a show about a Lena Dunham-type character and the people she interacts with. And if you’re not included among those people, trust me, you shouldn’t be complaining. You’re a hell of a lot better off.

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being

It's being called Sex and the City for the aptly named Generation Y -- which means you probably already know what I'll think of it.

Still, does Lena Dunham's Girls really deserve all the criticism being heaped on it? No, not all. It doesn't deserve to be called racist -- insipid and irritating, that's a different story.

My latest piece for the Daily Banter takes the show apart.

Here's the opening shot:

"Let’s start with the obvious: HBO’s new series 'Girls' isn’t for me. What I mean by that is that I’m not its target audience. I’m not a millennial; I’m not female; I’m not a Brooklyn hipster who’s perpetually drowning in his or her own insufferable ennui; I don’t recognize even a hint of myself or my life in any of the dingbat characters or torturous scenarios the show traffics in. I’m sure Lena Dunham is a nice enough person, but there’s nothing about her that makes me think she’s someone I really need to take seriously as a creative talent, let alone the supposed voice of her generation (God help them all)."

Read the Rest Here

Remember, kids: To "Like" and RT is to care.

Quote of the Week

Yeah, it's from four days ago, but there's no way I can let this kind of hilarity pass by without popping it up here. Plus I so enjoyed the ridiculous outrage the last time I brought up the subject of Jesus's favorite lousy quarterback.

Needless to say, angry conservatives are now calling for a boycott of HBO. That should be effective considering how many hardcore Christians are big fans of True Blood and Hung yet will now be forced to cancel their subscriptions.

Adding: Big props to Andy Levy of Fox News's Red Eye, who's consistently one of the cleverest and genuinely smartest things on that otherwise barren wasteland of a network. This was his response to the Maher tweet "controversy" on Hannity last night: "He's a comedian. People need to stop being outraged by what comedians say. Part of their job is to say things that are outrageous... He's not a politician, he's not running for office. He's got a show on HBO, and he's a comedian. Who cares?"

Bonus Quote of the Day

"I didn't meet Jack. I hope I will now in the future. Sometimes, for some reason, I don't take access to that, and sometimes I do. And I felt with Jack it would be because I thought the script was so well was complete in its portrait. I mean, it felt as though there was room, and I had so much research. And with the media the way it is, there's so many things you could see and study and to read his books and get close to him in that fashion. Also, Jack was about ten years older then because he had gotten out of prison. We don't do him that age. We're when he's younger. And I wanted to I just felt this instinctively. Now, Barry Levinson met him and got a great deal out of it, and there were times when I wish I would have. But in the end, I felt close to him in another kind of way. There are characters you do it with, and it works, and there's some characters you just you back away from doing. I don't know why. I didn't do for instance, I'll give you examples. With Frank Serpico, I studied and went with Serpico everywhere. I got to know him, to go back into the past. Anyone who saw that movie, it was him that I got to know. With Dog Day Afternoon, I didn't feel like I wanted to know that guy for this role and my interpretation. Now, I may have made a mistake. I don't know. I still to this day think I did. And with this, who knows. I probably did here too. But if you have the opportunity to meet someone as an actor, it's just great fodder for you. It's wonderful source stuff that we die for. And so that I didn't take access to it, you know, is a question, and I don't know why I didn't."

-- Al Pacino, who plays Jack Kevorkian in an upcoming HBO special, when asked during an interview yesterday, "Did you ever meet Jack Kevorkian?"

Raising Hill

Hopefully, you got the chance to see HBO's damn good movie Recount, about the underhanded machinations and near-psychotic fight for votes that ensued in Florida immediately following the 2000 presidential election. In addition to being a snapshot likely to trigger depressing alternate reality fantasies that wipe away the nightmare of the last several years, it paints a picture of the sickeningly Machiavellian lenghts that Republicans went to in an effort to stop the vote recount -- in particular, the staged protests (read: near-riots) designed to terrorize adversaries to the breaking point.

An exercise in irony that's beyond description, however, is to watch Recount, then pay close attention to the behavior of Hillary Clinton's supporters yesterday at the Democratic Rules and Bylaws Committee hearing. Clinton's frighteningly rabid apostles -- who've been conditioned by their leader not to take no for an answer, no matter what -- bear a resemblance to the bullying GOP warriors of 2000 in ways that would be hilarious if they weren't so damn sad. (Protests are one thing; shouting, booing, making pseudo-extremist threats and otherwise being disruptive inside the meeting room itself is something else entirely.)

Hillary's journey to the dark side has been complete for quite a while -- but there's no need for her zombies to rub it the hell in.

(CTV: Hillary Supporters Furious with Hearing Decision/6.1.08)