Guest Post: 3 Reasons "The Newsroom" Is Remarkably Problematic And 1 Reason I Can't Stop Watching (For Now)

Jeff Daniels plays a news anchor dissatisfied with the state of network news on The Newsroom; via salon.com

By Kayla Safran


As a huge fan of The West Wing, The Social Network, and other work by Sorkin, I was extremely excited for the premiere of the new HBO drama The Newsroom last month. The promise of a clean, flashy new television show with Sorkin’s whip-fast writing and an excellent cast was alone enough to shake my summer television blues. But, like many other fans and critics, I have found each episode increasingly painful to sit through, and I’ve come to a point where I feel I am only continuing to watch in order to collect more evidence about its issues.

Here are three of the problems that I have been able to sort out:

1. Politics

I knew going in that I would struggle with Sorkin’s politics, as I had occasionally with The West Wing, but I had the hope that because the story was centered around a news program there would be extra effort to present both sides of the issues with equal respect. The West Wing, I thought, had done a good job of presenting conservative characters and their viewpoints as being just as earnest and decent as the liberal ones. However, to my grand disappointment, The Newsroom has managed to be more liberal and more self-righteous about its liberalism than The West Wing ever was.

The perfect example of this is the lead character, Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels). He is rude and moralizing, a self-dubbed “civilizer,” and the show constantly applauds him for it! Although it’s been noted in passing dialogue that Will is a Republican, he hasn’t yet in five episodes presented a single conservative viewpoint. In fact, his rants about the economy, the Tea Party, and the Koch Brothers sound to me like those of your average left-wing progressive.

My problem here is not necessarily Sorkin presenting these viewpoints (although I strongly disagree with most of them), but rather him presenting them as the moderate and reasonable viewpoints of all educated people—it leaves the impression that anyone who thinks differently must be crazy, stupid, corrupt, or all of the above, which as a young conservative I find incredibly frustrating and even a bit offensive. Even if you agree with Sorkin’s political opinions, you can’t deny that the tone of his writing is incredibly closed-minded and its politics skewed, while simultaneously parading about being the exact opposite. I see this tendency among many liberals in real life, but never with such a lack of subtlety as on The Newsroom.

2. Women

Others have critiqued Sorkin in the past about his female characters and the gender stereotypes he perpetuates in his writing, but I think my friends may understand why a feminist-y critique coming from me suggests a really serious problem. I like that Sorkin has written smart and powerful female characters for this show. But on The Newsroom he gives all the women a characteristic that makes them look ridiculous next to the men: they are all absurdly socially incompetent.

For example, newly-promoted assistant producer Maggie (the awesome Alison Pill), is talented and hard-working, but also a bit lacking in confidence, which makes her a very believable character. But her love life—specifically the love triangle between her, her boyfriend Don (Thomas Sadoski) and the very handsome and goofy Jim (John Gallagher, Jr.)—turns her into an unprofessional, irrational mess. More than once during a production meeting Maggie blurts out inappropriate comments about Jim sleeping with her roommate for the whole room to hear. (Don’t even get me started on the roommate—I’ve never seen so many female stereotypes rolled up into one character without any intended irony.) In real life, Maggie’s behavior, I would hope, would get her fired, but on The Newsroom it just makes her a ‘typical woman.’

The show’s economics analyst Sloan (Olivia Munn) is also presented as socially incompetent—hyper-educated and beautiful, she amounts to what I imagine Aaron Sorkin would consider the perfect woman…with the exception of her one ‘gigantic flaw’—she can’t give good relationship advice, engage in chitchat, or generally function in a social setting. If, in the character of Sloan, Sorkin is trying to write a quirky character—like a Zooey Deschnael on New Girl, or an Ellen Page in Juno—it’s simply not good writing. But if my instincts are right, I think that Sorkin is revealing that he can’t handle or doesn’t like the idea of woman who is not ‘stupid’ in one way or another. In Sorkin-World (or at least The Newsroom), only men can be charming, good-looking, and intelligent at the same time.

3. Cable News

A main plot point, and frequent topic of lecture on the show, is the idea of “doing the news right.” McAvoy is first introduced as the “Jay Leno of news anchors,” who receives consistently good ratings because of his neutrality. He is quickly encouraged by a number of other characters, especially MacKenzie McHale, his ex-girlfriend/exec-producer and Charlie Skinner, his boss, to forget the ratings and speak his mind.  The only problem with this premise is that they’ve got the whole thing backwards—today’s network news industry is characterized by extreme bias receiving high ratings (hello FOX News, MSNBC) and the quiet, more neutral reporting falling behind (hi CNN). While I noticed this mix-up on my own, Joe Muto, writer for Slate and ex-FOX producer, writes on the subject more eloquently and has the insider knowledge to back it up. Check it out for yourself.

Additionally, I think that being bias and vitriolic (like The Newsroom’s McAvoy) only makes the news worse, not better. But maybe Aaron Sorkin and I simply disagree on the premise that news should simply tell the news, and not try to lecture the public on what and how to think…. I guess I’ll let that one go.

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As the season has progressed, the show has only gotten worse. Not just because of the three reasons above, but also because the narrative arcs are pretty boring and the characters insist on preaching at one another (and the viewer) rather than talking. Additionally, in terms of the plot, because all of the news stories are pulled out of last year’s headlines (rather than realistic but fictional stories like Sorkin used on The West Wing), nothing can really surprise us when all the major development are literally old news.

The one and only reason I won’t stop watching, at least for now, (besides wanting more reason to hate on it) is that I am a huge sucker for TV romances, and I won’t be satisfied until Maggie and Jim get together. They are young and good-looking and their relationship/flirtation is rather adorable. So, I’ll give you that one, Sorkin.