July 8, 2012
Newsroom Review
by Alan Sepinwall
Despite the potential warts, I still love Aaron Sorkin shows.
First, it's fascinating how much Good Sorkin and Bad Sorkin are simultaneously on display in Will's speech announcing the new mission for "News Night." The message about how TV news lost its moral compass because Congress let Paley, Sarnoff, et al sell advertising way back when was an interesting one, but also one that wouldn't apply to a non-broadcast outfit like ACN. (Unless Will/Sorkin is suggesting that the FCC would have managed to get sway over cable and... what? Told cable news channel owners that they couldn't sell ads around the clock? In that case, no one would bother starting such an operation. And if it would have just meant one hour per day without ads, well, the other 23 could still be spent on Bubble Boy, Natalee Holloway, etc.) The speech is simultaneously self-effacing (Will admits he screwed up along with everyone else) and self-important (by placing it on a level with the 9/11 Commission), positioning this new direction as both an underdog approach ("I'm going with the guys who are getting creamed") and as the only reasonable position of people who are awesome ("Who are we to make these decisions? We're the media elite."). It's a lot of strong rhetoric (one of Sorkin's specialties) in service of an idea I largely agree with; I'm just not sure it hangs together at all as presented here.
Ten Best Sorkin Rants
Just in case you have no clue what Sorkin is about.
by Alan Sepinwall
Despite the potential warts, I still love Aaron Sorkin shows.
First, it's fascinating how much Good Sorkin and Bad Sorkin are simultaneously on display in Will's speech announcing the new mission for "News Night." The message about how TV news lost its moral compass because Congress let Paley, Sarnoff, et al sell advertising way back when was an interesting one, but also one that wouldn't apply to a non-broadcast outfit like ACN. (Unless Will/Sorkin is suggesting that the FCC would have managed to get sway over cable and... what? Told cable news channel owners that they couldn't sell ads around the clock? In that case, no one would bother starting such an operation. And if it would have just meant one hour per day without ads, well, the other 23 could still be spent on Bubble Boy, Natalee Holloway, etc.) The speech is simultaneously self-effacing (Will admits he screwed up along with everyone else) and self-important (by placing it on a level with the 9/11 Commission), positioning this new direction as both an underdog approach ("I'm going with the guys who are getting creamed") and as the only reasonable position of people who are awesome ("Who are we to make these decisions? We're the media elite."). It's a lot of strong rhetoric (one of Sorkin's specialties) in service of an idea I largely agree with; I'm just not sure it hangs together at all as presented here.
Ten Best Sorkin Rants
Just in case you have no clue what Sorkin is about.
Today's Photo:
Finally played tennis.
I could tell it had been a while because all of the balls in the hopper were dead. We had to crack open some new cans.
So we got to hear the >PFFTT< sound.
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