HBO has a new show it’s called the ‘News Room’, made by Aaron Sorkin, creator of the ‘West Wing’ and screen writer of the ‘Social Network’ and ‘Moneyball’. ‘News Room’ shows the behind the scenes of a nightly cable news program.

The series talks about the different obstacles journalists have to face in order to fulfill their job. It centers on a network anchor (Jeff Daniels), his new executive producer (Emily Mortimer), the newsroom staff (John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel) and their boss (Sam Waterston).

The show intends to show how difficult it is for the protagonists to fulfill their job, obstacles are various, sometimes it’s a corporate obstacle that impedes them to fulfill their task. In other occasions it could be a commercial obstacle where a client is affected by the information they are trying to communicate. Other times the problems are their own personal entanglements.

‘The Newsroom’ has been criticized by some journalists, who said it was an unrealistic portrayal of the media. Creator Aaron Sorkin responded that ‘The Newsroom’ is intended to be fantasy, he said, “I like writing about heroes that don’t wear capes and disguises.”

‘The Newsroom’ star Olivia Munn also defended Aaron Sorkin’s show; “I don’t believe the show is his soapbox for him to lecture the media on how to be better. On the contrary, I believe his show is an opportunity to help the audience fall in love with the news again. I felt bad for Aaron.”

A show about a newsroom is a risky bet in a time where a lot of people are talking about the internet. But Sorkin has already proved that he’s able to take the public to places that at first seem boring and inaccessible like the White House (‘West Wing’) and make them interested. So far the show has been a success, nearly three million people watched the launch of ‘The Newsroom.’

In his review of the show, Dan Rather, editor and anchor of the television news magazine ‘Dan Rather Reports’, talked about the huge audience that ‘The Newsroom’ is getting. He said that considering the show’s “shocking lack of nudity, graphic sex and violence, severed heads of former presidents on sticks, dragons or vampires,” it is a big accomplishment.

To see if this team is capable of doing the best show of news they can, you can watch’ The Newsroom’ every Sunday at 10 pm on HBO.

Share This

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

About the author

Gerardo Jose Torres Montalvo
Student of Philosophy and Journalism in Universidad de Navarra, Spain. Interested in world politics, especially in Latin American issue and in political philosophy. I was born in the United States, but raised in El Salvador.