Watching ‘The Newsroom’ Now… Here’s My Review & Endorsement

Since getting Amazon Prime recently I’ve been catching up on TV series whose synopses have intrigued me. I’ve read and now seen Good Girls Revolt (terrific), Transparent (edgy and upsetting in more ways than I will articulate here, like watching a train wreck in slow motion, but impossible to look away from; an excellent series about an angst-ridden family whose transgender parent–portrayed by Jeffrey Tabor–appears to be the most sane and humane of the bunch, which is lovely!) and The Newsroom (so far beyond fabulous that mere words will not serve).

 

If anyone ever wondered how we got from where we were in the 1970’s and before to where we are now as a soon-to-be Trumped-up nation, The Newsroom is a riveting, history-based “course” on how it happened and the corporate news media’s complicity in the savaging and sabotage of voters.

 

Written by Aaron Sorkin–no introduction required since he’s been one of the best, hottest writers on the Hollywood scene for decades–the series follows what happens when a news program decides to return to its vaunted roots and actually report “need to know” news for the benefit of the voting public (a la Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Huntley-Brinkley, Dan Rather et al  without adding political spin to the topic reported on), including calling out the lies and propaganda that are spewed on a minute-to-minute basis these days not just by Fox and Breitbart on the far right and Addicting Info and Natural News on the left but–at least to some degree–by every mainstream, corporate-owned broadcaster.

 

There is a reason we end up with the top two candidates for President that we end up with every four years –candidates who are commonly decried as ‘extremists’ or ‘severely sullied’ from the other end of the political spectrum. And much of the reason rests with The Fifth Estate–mainstream media–individuals who used to be deemed reputable, reliable reporters with a degree of reverence and respect–as opposed to today’s spinners and disinformation specialists.

 

Far too many of today’s so-called journalists have dropped the ball, bowed to their corporate masters, and done their bidding. The big corporations are the entities signing their paychecks so, by golly, they give them what they want: a megaphone to convey their preferred products and services (candidates and policies)  to the world.  And as most of us have long since surmised, corporations are composed of American elites with billions of dollars–too little of which gets circulated to the actual folks who keep them in the spotlight, and too much of which goes to paid lobbyists to keep them in the position to “hire” the politicians most likely to accept their “assistance” when they get down to the business of creating policies, writing laws, and paying federal subsidies.

 

The Newsroom shows what would likely go on behind the scenes if news producers actually decided to do the right thing: report the news and call out the spin and outright lies that pass as “fair and balanced news” these days.  Ratings drop like a rock before they begin to recover because most news is policy-related (far from sexy) so voters get the facts they need to make informed decisions at the polling booth; corporate sponsors begin to bail as viewership falters and their political spin disappears from the segments; and increasing pressure is applied from the top to “moderate” what gets aired so that it doesn’t expose the most egregious bullshit that passes for “news” every day.

 

It’s a ballsy series. It’s a dangerous series to the powers that be. Perhaps that’s why it’s produced by one of the few corporations with the clout and guts to speak truth the power.

 

The introduction to the series explains that the time slot–which has since become known as the news hour–was created to be sponsor- and spin-free so journalists couldn’t be influenced by corporate interests. 23 hours of each day could be commercialized–sell all the soap and Viagra you want!–but  the news hour was to be a revenue-neutral or revenue-depleting  public service free from corporate and political influence. It was to be the Fifth Estate’s hour to “tell it like it is,” so an informed electorate could make informed, misinformation- and disinformation-free decisions when they voted.

 

Walter Cronkite famously ended his news broadcasts with “And that’s the way it is…”   He did not append “…and this is what we want you to believe/think/feel about what we’ve just told you.” Back in the day, Cronkite et al reported what happened and left it to the viewers to decide what it all meant and how to vote when they entered the voting booth next time.

 

“If it bleeds, it leads.”

 

Today’s mainstream news is rarely about policies. It’s frequently entertainment-news driven, and it’s too often biased in favor of the news corporation’s political slant.  As a result, Bernie Sanders never had a chance against Hillary Clinton because news corporations decided for their viewers that she was the best candidate on the Democratic side. It’s a public-driven miracle that he got as far as he did. Sanders was given ten-second sound bites on an almost rare-as-hens-teeth good day while spin-discredited Clinton and Train Wreck Trump were given megaphones to amplify their philosophies of governance. And look how that turned out…

 

When you watch TV news these days, make a list of the topics aired then ask yourself the following questions:

 

Do the new programs inform you without trying to influence your opinion on a matter? If not, turn them off. You have a perfectly good brain, influenced though it is by a lot of disinformation that has been fed into it for most of your life.  It’s time to start deprogramming yourself so you can begin to spot where spin is being used to influence your vote, against your own best interests.

 

News reporters and analysts should be emotion-neutral and politically independent.  Sure, when it comes to “emotion-neutral” there are obvious exceptions: assassinations, terror attacks, the death of beloved national treasures, human and non-human. But even these should be reported with as much objectivity as possible, not ‘colorized’ by sensationalized spin.

 

Get news from all spectra, not just your favorite flavor. If you’re going to watch MSNBC or Fox, also watch at least a half hour of the polar opposite news source every day. (Don’t worry: you can’t be brainwashed by so-called “the opposition” station. You’re waking up now!) When you do this, you’ll learn to discern when your preferred news source is spinning/editorializing instead of reporting.

 

Read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn so you come off your high horse about how magical, magnificent and marvelous the United States has always been and is. You do know you were fed a sanitized version of U.S. history, don’t you, written by the rich, white conquering male elites who ravaged the rest of us “peons” (Native Americans, African Americans, Asians, poor white people, women and children) to gain the advantage over us, don’t you?

 

Prepare to be depressed and disappointed by what you learn. Prepare to join the political revolution that is dedicated to ending the despoiling of our environment and the subjugation of the “unwashed” masses whose blood, sweat and tears built this nation not to please our overlords but to advance our own lives and fortunes so our children and grandchildren can live less-stressful lives than we do…

 

The oligarchs and corporations are pushing for austerity measures as they relate to our pocketbooks and futures–yours and mine–not their own. They continue to rake in the bucks while making policies that benefit them at our expense.

 

It’s time to wake up, stand up, and get involved.  Watch The Newsroom for a fabulous primer on how to do that, and let’s get this thing together.

 

The elites that wake up and join us will survive and thrive. The ones that don’t, won’t.

 

That’s the plan. Are you IN?