Most of the working journalists I’ve read have shown disdain for HBO’s Newsroom.
But I say this: How unrealistic is it when compared with any other profession portrayed on series television?
You really think that every week is as exciting as an episode of Law & Order, Suits or Grey’s Anatomy for cops, lawyers or doctors?
The fact is, newsrooms are unrealistic places. On the average day, they’re calendar listings, city council meetings and a quiet desperation of “how in the heck do we fill the space alloted us?”
When there’s big news, though? Nothing like it.
There’s nothing like the adrenaline of a newsroom on a night when the President of the United States is announcing he’s captured Public Enemy No. 1.
There’s nothing like the adrenaline of a newsroom on a night when the incumbent sheriff is knocked out in a primary by an unknown helicopter pilot.
There’s nothing like the adrenaline of a newsroom for weeks after a major hurricane hits and a city is nearly destroyed.
This is not to make light of any of these news events. There’s also just no way to explain how the blood flows in a news(wo)man’s veins when big news breaks.
And that’s what The Newsroom does: It shares those moments and gives you the ever so slightest idea of how that feels.
For someone who’s been out of a newsroom for closing in on four years, that’s kinda cool.