Three episodes of HBO’s ‘Newsroom’ series are in the books, and there is once again an ‘important’ show on television. What make ‘Newsroom’ important? It’s the fact that the show takes viewers into the world of the people who  decide what Americans will be thinking about. After the first episode, the show causes one to ask ‘what is news?’  Is the news about entertainment, infotainment or something more?  An argument between the anchor of the cable newscast, Will McAvoy, and his newly-hired Executive Producer, MacKenzie McHale, frames this question quite clearly:

The scene shows that the Producer, Ms. McHale, believes the ‘news’ a platform upon which to form important, intelligent debates for the American public to mull. The show’s anchor/star, Mr. McAvoy, believes the exact opposite: that Americans are stupid, the country is politically polarized, and that the ratings will suffer significantly is the show is ‘too smart’. McAvoy’s stance is cynical, but probably the more realistic assessment of the role that cable news plays in American life: it is primarily entertainment. When something ‘big’ happens, it becomes ‘must-watch-tv’. But to McAvoy, his show has no further responsibilies.  Presenting ‘debates’ and ‘starting conversations’ is useless to McAvoy because, quite frankly, it is ‘impossible’ to force most Americans to pay attention to the details (mostly political) of incidents that are not ‘critical’.

The second half of the show provides drama in the form of a ‘big’ story/event, the type that cable news thrives on: the Deep Water Horizon explosion. It is ripped directly from real-life  headlines, as text appears on the screen indicating that the date is April 20, 2010. The viewer now learns that ‘Newsroom’ is set in the recent past, not the present. The episode becomes engulfed in the ‘drama’ of a supposedly-typical newsroom when ‘big’ breaking stories come in. The ‘Deep Water’ story also forces Will to make a decision tied directly to the argument he just had with his Producer: do I ‘go with the flow’ or do I ‘frame a debate?’

In the first case, ‘going with the flow’ entails covering the Deep Water explosion from angle of the  search-and-rescue operation (human interest), the angle expected to be adopted by the other popular newscasts. A more in-depth story – the one MacKenzie’s Senior Producer, Jim Harper, has the scoop on – entails exploring the issues of the environmental impact from the oil spill, and the possible negligence of the oil-rig’s builder, Halliburton.  It is a crossroads moment for McAvoy. He chooses the latter option, in essence, choosing the ‘idealistic’ story from MacKenzie’s – the idealist’s – protege.

The theme of ‘idealism’ versus ‘realism’ is a constant undertone in ‘Newsroom’, not only for the fictional world in which the show takes place, but the HBO drama itself. There are many times within the episodes in which it seems characters start to ‘preach’ facts about some aspect of American life, and one cannot help but feel that it is Sorkin (the showrunner) himself stating his personal politics to the viewer. In fact, the very first scene of the very first episode provides one of those moments:

One can be forgiven if, at some point, the rapid-fire facts and statistics that Will McAvoy spews at the crowd of college students starts to become a jumble. Jenny, the college sophomore whose question sparks McAvoy’s tirade, is a member of the ‘..worst – period – generation – period – ever,’ according to McAvoy. She is supposed the percieved ignorance and apathy of generation y, otherwise known as generation ‘me.’

McAvoy’s ‘sermon’ to the college class, however, starts to feel shrill, and pointless.  The show does a clever turn in depicting the ‘virality’ of Will McAvoy’s ‘rousing speech’ in the form of the students producing smartphones for which to record his every word. However, the viewer begins to tune out. Why? Because the ‘statistics’ that Will McAvoy spits at the assembly, which he (or Sorkin?) uses to draw his ultimate conclusion that ‘….America is no longer the greatest country in the world,’ don’t matter.  The two other members of the panel, a ‘liberal’ and a ‘conservative’, answer Jenny-the-Sophomore’s question about America’s greatness much more sensibly (and concisely) : freedom, diversity, and opportunity. Those are the things that people who emigrate from around the world are pursuing when they come to America. Those other ‘stats’ are irrelevant.

There is therefore a bit of a disconnect in the direction Sorkin’s ‘Newsroom’ is looking to take viewers. On the one hand, the show is to provide a peek behind the curtain into’news’ production, while on the other, it seeks to moralize everything from pop culture, to politics. This disconnect is on full display in episode 2, which is, frankly, a bit of a mess. Again, the idealist/realist paradigm is put forth, in two key scenes with Reese Lansing (Chris Messina), the ‘numbers guy’ at the news division:

Again, the show’s writer hints at the possiblity that ‘Newsroom’ will be sort of an expose of some of the cynicism, and sordid details of the kinds of factors that influence the individuals who ‘produce’ the news. That cynicism (borne of the reality of working in a commercial medium) is portrayed excellently by Lansing, who may not be ‘nice’, but is most bluntly honest. That is the slant I myself ( a cynic) hope the show takes.

I might just get my wish. Sandwiched in between those two scenes, viewers are treated to the debut appearance of Sloan Sabbith, played by the beautiful Olivia Munn. This is by far the most compelling part of the episode, despite the fact that Munn gets only about 5 minutes of time on-screen.

This is an excerpt from medialifemagazine.com:

“…MacKenzie admits that looks are a factor in the hiring of a total babe named Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) as
economic correspondent, but she points out that Sloan has a Ph.D. from Duke. We later learn that Sloan actually
has two Ph.D.’s, both, oddly, in economics. But the fact that Sloan doesn’t appear until the second episode
suggests that in a case of life imitating art, Munn’s hiring was a post-pilot decision designed to add some sex
appeal to the cast.” (italics mine)

In a previous post, I wrote about the importance of ‘attaractiveness’ to ‘attention.’  Olivia Munn is an incredibly attractive woman,  so much so that her face on-screen can certainly drive eyeballs towards HBO on Sundays at 10pm. As I said, ‘Newsroom’ feels as if it is still sorting out whether it intends to try and ‘preach’ and ‘teach’ people something (doubtful since it happens in the past), or whether it ‘gets real’ not only about the world it explores (news), but about the show itself. The truth of the matter is that in this attention era, whatever will get people to pay attention (ie, watch) a ‘production’ is fair game. I have yet to watch episode 3, but here’s to hoping there’s ton more Munn……