MMMM # 219 -- Sorkin's "The Newsroom"

     I've seen the first two episodes of the new HBO show The Newsroom now, and I believe the critics who panned it were being a little too, well, critical.
     Newsroom is a touch preachy and heavy handed, but it is a message show, after all, and I've found myself rooting for (who else??) Jeff Daniels' character-- cantankerous anchor Will McAvoy, despite his obvious faults, and against the most annoying producer in TV-News history, Thomas Sadoski as Don Keefer. (Why is he still around if he's been shifted to another news show? To provide an annoying presence?)
     Yes, I am too close to the show's topics to be dispassionate, but heck, most folks get most of their news from TV, and although The Newsroom is fiction, it gets into some real newsroom issues and uses recent-past true events for story fodder. 
     I empathized with Will's situation in episode #2, in which he is interviewing three people about the Arizona Immigration Law, none of whom should even be on the broadcast*. 
     I'm watching the show on TiVo because it is on too late for my schedule, but I'll bet HBO has a solid hit on its hands. The net has already renewed it for a second season, though that may be more of a reflection of contractual agreements than a statement of support for the new show.


(*No, none of the comments in this MMMM are about any persons living or not, with whom I have, or am, working! Not really anyway.)


[PLUS: Another of the weekly Q&A columns about the T-DAW* newspaper experiment is out. In answer to one particularly unhappy reader, they write:

The printed paper cannot compete with digital for providing the “latest” news. So, we believe we should build it around analysis and thought-provoking content, and allow digital to continue to grow as the breaking news vehicle. You say you read TIME and watch the nightly news. This highlights the challenge we face as people have more options to turn to for their particular needs. 

     Nightly TV news has been around for about 60 years, and TIME Magazine for a century. 
     I have yet to see a reader letter prompt a single change in their plans. Will they publish on the Friday after Thanksgiving? Of course! (Because they get paid a fortune to distribute all of the "Black Friday" sales circulars.) If there's a really, really big story like the April 2011 tornadoes? Sure! So when it's convenient for them, they'll publish. Now all they have to do is convince readers to remember TDAW's personal publishing schedule. (*Three day a week)]


[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of this website.]