The opening credits of HBO’s The Newsroom loop various shots of familiar graphics: “Special Bulletin,” “Special Report,” “Breaking News” along with shots of the most venerable of newsmen. There was a time when the rare use of one of those graphics with a serious news anchor gravely stating “This is breaking news!” would send alarm bells, catching the attention of anyone within listening range. It shouted “this is urgent; this is important.” 
These days, at least on cable news, those jarring words are as likely to introduce the latest Hollywood divorce, the winner of Wimbledon, or a snowstorm (but only on the East or West Coast). There is no longer a sense of gravity, of urgency attached to "breaking news." No sense of "stop whatever you're doing and listen to this. You need to know it."
But even when the story is important, like last year’s remarkable Egyptian revolution, the continuing coverage, wall to wall, 24/7, can either strip an event of its urgency as loops of the same (often horrific) scenes are played over and over again—or conversely inflate it so far beyond its immediacy, that other, immediate, important, yet not as showy stories are ignored completely.
One of the subtler messages of last night’s (and very little about The Newsroom is what I would call subtle) episode of The Newsroom concerns the cable news tendency towards coverage overkill.
Framed around the 2010 Congressional elections, this week’s episode “The 112th Congress” takes on the Tea Party and the Koch brothers. But within that main story thread, news anchor Will MacAvoy (Jeff Daniels, in a wonderful performance) and his team also touches on the thwarted May 1, 2010 Times Square bombing attempt. They gave the story a shade over three minutes, enough to cover it, but not enough to bring in talking heads to drone on about terrorism, Muslim extremism, and not enough time to bring in the usual left and right suspects to argue about whatever they might find as political fodder. They also pick up on a largely ignored fact, missed or ignored by mainstream media as they debated terrorism by Muslim extremists: the bomb was reported originally by a Senegalese Muslim immigrant.
Article comments
1 - Andi
So enjoyed your comments on the Newsroom. I was especially happy to see the show address the issue of media-created stories and the idea that any comment about a situation is valid even when it's ridiculous. One other moment that made me giggle was when Charlie and Will were drawing the parallel between the formation of the SDS and the roots of the Tea Party. I thought to myself, "wait they're talking about Jane Fonda's ex-husband, Tom Hayden, and Jane is on the show portraying a female version of another ex-husband, Ted Turner. Wow, what a maze!". BTW, check out Jane Fonda's blog. Such an interesting woman and I loved her posts about visiting Chicago in June.
2 - barbara barnett
Hey, why do you think I said Jane's casting was ironic. :)
I'll have to check out Jane's blog. Chicago's my hometown.
3 - kaylee
You summed up the show perfectly! It's cool that I can gossip about The Newsroom on both a superficial level, like if Maggie will choose Jim, and on a grander scale, like pointing out our flawed system of information distribution. I don't know how HBO keeps coming out with this amazing stuff! What are they putting in the water over there? LOL! I was just looking through my DVR, and it's chalk full of HBO shows, like Girls, The Wire, and Boardwalk Empire (all series you guys should also check out). I'm lucky I have a DVR box with heaps of recording space so I can stay up to date on all of them, because they have me hooked! I'm really curious to see where The Newsroom takes us from here, and the impact it may have on how we view the news today!
4 - barbara barnett
Thanks kaylee. I'm a little behind this week with Comic-Con just now finished. I will, of course, post my Newsroom commentary in the next day (hopefully today). Didn't get home from San Diego 'till late and haven't watched this week's show yet!
5 - John
You people in hollywood are all bunch of faggots yous all take in the ass