"Smug" Newsroom

For anyone who appreciates the power of the written word projected onto the screen, be it big or small, Aaron Sorkin is a God
among men.

Whether he’s winning Emmys for his work “The West Wing” or an Oscar for his brilliant 2010 screenplay “The Social Network”, expectations for a Sorkin project are exceedingly high.

This summer, Sorkin-holics, including me, were especially amped for HBO’s “The Newsroom,” a scripted, one-hour dramedy detailing the revamp of a cable nightly news show and its traditionally moderate host, Will McAvoy.

So June 24 finally rolled around, “True Blood,” enjoying a frightfully uneven fifth season, ended, and I tucked in for what I was sure would be my newest television
addiction.

I found Jeff Daniels, who plays news anchor McAvoy, incomparably fantastic, the writing as quick and witty as ever and the collective cast able to spurt Sorkin’s fast-paced dialogue with the perfect amount of poise and authenticity.

It never crossed my mind that any sort of backlash would be brought against “The Newsroom.”

Metacritic, which assigns grades to films, TV shows, music and video games based on professional critic reviews, gave “The Newsroom” a 57/100 grade for its first season.
While it wasn’t universally panned, an alarming amount of them found it “smug,” “self-congratulatory” or “manipulative and shrieky.”

I was floored. Did everyone see the same show I did?

I saw political and economic relevancy presented by way of riveting
entertainment.

Sorkin’s choice to fictionalize a format in which real news and current events gave us both a sense of timeliness and real world consequences.

But the critics’ message began to make sense to me. Rarely an episode goes by in which a character or five doesn’t take a few minutes to preach about declining public awareness and the dangers of our present media climate. “Self-congratulatory” suddenly made sense.

But what if the characters on “The Newsroom” are right? It is their duty to inform a voting populace.

Maybe if real newscasters were this gung-ho about presenting unbiased, important news, American citizens would tune in every night instead of watching “Dancing With The CSI: Miami Gossip Girls.”

Maybe if newscasters shared news in a way more riveting than any scripted show, “The Newsroom” wouldn’t seem so smug.
So I say, you go Aaron Sorkin.

Phenomenal work will always rally a hater culture.

Regardless, you’ve made my Sundays that more
entertaining.

­— wdmcdona@indiana.edu