Misogyny
Perhaps one of the most damaging early criticisms of The
Newsroom was that it veered, in its portrayal of the female characters, towards
sexism. Certainly, the female characters tend to follow female stereotypes. Slone,
for example, is an intelligent woman, able to get ahead in her chosen career
which she is passionate about – but still caves into requests from producers
when a wardrobe of complimentary clothes is dangled in front of her.
The accusations of Sorkin’s misogyny remind me of similar
claims which were aimed Jonathon Franzen. Both seem to struggle to portray
their female characters in a positive light, but this comes not from a dislike
of women, but from having to stray from their comfort zone. Both Franzen and
Sorkin are white, male, middle-class intellectuals – the blueprint for all
their good characters, and the type of characters which they feel confident,
and are able to, write about. They write from experience, in the same way that
someone who did not live in the Amazon for six years could not write about that
situation in the same way as someone who did.
I don’t think Franzen is sexist (snobbish, yes, but not
sexist), and nor do I think Sorkin is sexist.
Technology
Where would news media be without the internet? In a more
financially stable place, for one thing. The Newsroom’s two main characters,
Will and MacKenzie, both reject the new way in which news is gathered and
dispersed, and it can be assumed, given his romantic and idealistic view of the
way real-life newsrooms are run, Sorkin does as well. Early on in the series
MacKenzie fails to understand how to use e-mail, and inadvertently sends
information about her and Will to everyone at ACN. Will, it is remarked, ‘can’t
even find Will’s blog’. And so on.
The lack of realism constantly jars – would two people,
still in their forties (roughly) really not know how to use online technology?
Especially considering their industry is effectively run by it? The only person
who really seems to embrace the online world is Neil – he is therefore
portrayed as a nerd for much of the series, and is relegated in one episode to
the role of a prop for a dreadful running joke about Bigfoot.
Humour
The Newsroom is not a funny programme. What is unfortunate
is that it tries to be. Like the Bigfoot joke mentioned above, Sorkin’s
attempts to inject a bit of comedy almost all fall flat on their face. Two
other examples stick out, both from the second part of the blackout episode.
First, Jim and ... attempt to lure Sarah onto Newnight
because she went to college with Casey Anthony, and they are desperate to find
a different angle. They head to her work in a high-fashion store, where Jim’s
awkwardness is played up to new heights, attempting to both talk a customer
into buying a dress and invite Sarah on a date. Jim has regularly been
portrayed as awkward (when it suits the script) but at one point he asks ... if
he thinks Sarah and the customer are making out in the changing room. ... is
shocked, and so are we – Jim is merely an awkward journalist, not a sex-crazed
social disaster.
In the same episode, Sorkin attempts to wring some humour,
for some reason, from Will putting on trousers. First we see him complaining to
his tailor that something is wrong with his trousers – a few scenes later he is
bouncing into the newsroom with his trousers around his ankles, because he
cannot get his other leg into them. He falls flat on his face, in a scene which
juts out as a failed attempt at pointless slapstick.
Politics
It came as something of a surprise when Will was revealed to
be a registered Republican, and a Tea Party supporter at that. Going into the
show, everyone was expecting Sorkin’s liberal background to influence the
politics of the show. It certainly did. Will is not a Republican in the Fox
News sense – his Republican party is that of Abraham Lincoln, not Mitt Romney.
What Will ultimately believes in is truth. This is what he
hopes to attain through his broadcasts. His search for the truth, and the
relentless assault on the lies of the Republican party, mean that, to those
outside ACN, he is a liberal. What Sorkin has done here, interestingly, is show
that, in his attempts to find the truth, Will is perceived to have liberal
values – therefore, liberal values are the
truth. Sorkin says here that by simply looking at the facts and figures which
you have easy access to, you will find that the Republicans are indeed wrong.
Will’s Republicanism also serves another purpose – he is the
sensible Republican. He is not the one who believes that Obama hates white
people, is a Muslim, wants to take away your guns etc. His relative saneness in
comparison with the rest of the party shows them up to be the ridiculous
fantasists they are.
Simulacrum
Earlier I used the words idealistic and romantic – no other
pairing could better describe The Newsroom. It’s regular name-checking of
legendary American news anchors – Walter Kronkite, for one – shows the view
that Sorkin has of news broadcasting. It is a noble, vital format. This he tries to capture with The Newsroom. The team
consistently go against the orders from bosses, who are concerned only with
advertising revenue. In ACN’s Newsnight, Sorkin has laid out his utopian vision
of Habermass’ Public Sphere. He wants to reclaim journalism from profit and
partisan politics.
The main problem is whether this type of journalism ever
really existed. Mainstream press, radio, broadcasting – unless it is government
owned, it has its eyes on profit. Outside the mainstream, the issue of
one-sided politics is likely to be evermore present.
I have no doubt that broadcast journalism – journalism as
whole, in fact – has seen better days, both financially and ethically. But the
dream chased by Sorkin – it seems to be more a view of the past preserved in
amber, with the dirt and sleaze wiped away.
