The Newsroom

In 2004, I drove to Denver to watch UTEP play Maryland in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The Miners lost, I spent too much money and drank too much beer, but it was a great time. One of the things I did between dates (they played Thursday, and winners moved on to play Saturday) was visit the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado. I have always been interested in how things are made and how the machine works, although beer is on the short list of things that maybe I’m better off not knowing how it’s created. 

TV news is another one of those things that I’m not so much interested in the final product, but that I like knowing how the wheels turn. This is a big reason why the wife and I now both sit ourselves down and watch The Newsroom on HBO.

I’m a recovering local TV news guy (the therapy is helping), so I have a bit of a working knowledge of how things work, but I was a morning/noon guy, and the pace was a little slower. The characters are in a fast-paced national network newsroom, one in which I would disintegrate quickly.

I suppose another reason is that this is an Aaron Sorkin creation. We were (and are) still big fans of The West Wing, another Sorkin show, and it’s easy to see the similarities. Sharp writing, flawed yet believable characters, and fast-paced shows are all things we recognize.

What also helps is that it helps paint a picture of what newsgathering really is. I know we have national news channels that folks think lean one way or the other. The Newsroom even had a recent episode dealing with this, where a producer edited video to achieve the end he wanted. But I like knowing how the doughnuts are made, and that real people are trying to make real decisions, based on their own experiences and a really tight deadline.

I almost forgot to talk about what big Sam Waterston fans we both are. Really liked him on Law and Order, though you knew eventually he'd get bumped to district attorney. He seemed a little out of place in the big chair. But in The Newsroom, we enjoy seeing him be something very different.

So The Newsroom tells me a story.