Amph The Newsroom

I don't like either. That whole Jim/Maggie/Don/Lisa story line made me want to drink massive amounts of liquor, so any continuation of that is a bad thing. Despite that, I found it to be a very solid episode, although I found it hard to believe that someone in the News Night staff would ask the question "Does anyone know who Anwar al-Aulaqi is?.

 

Actually couldn't believe Will stayed off during the 9/11 anniversary coverage. I thought they'd change that by the last minute. Interesting that he started as Anchor around 2001. That's not nearly as long as you would think given the comparisons to Jay Leno in Season 1.

 

Maggie drives me batty. ANYONE in a training position needs help; it has nothing to do with men=powerful, women=weak.

I love the rest of the show. But I need to be in the right state of mind. It is too mentally stimulating for after a crap day at work (that is what video games are for!).

 

I thought it was uneven. Yes, Waterson has been brilliant (I don't think there's has been a bad Waterson moment yet in this series), but I thought the Will/Nina Howard story line was flat (and it looks like we'll be getting more of it... yikes). The best stuff came from MacKenzie's & Neal's conversation about Occupy Wall Street, and Jim's issues with the Romney campaign. It looks like we're getting more of Marcia Gay Harden next week, and Maggie in Africa. Should be a better episode.

 

The Jim storyline is pretty insufferable so far. I like Jim, but the whole "Jim teaches a whole presidential election press corps how to do their jobs" thing is pretty contrived. And pretty nonsensical, since we all know how the coverage actually did turn out. Also finding it really hard to believe that Mac would keep him 100% in the dark with the whole Genoa thing. How hard would it be to call him in New Hampshire and say, "hey, crazy Jerry is balls deep on this thing, do some checking?"

Really having a bad feeling about how next week will turn out. Maggie probably getting assaulted, Gary probably getting dead...yeesh. Not looking forward to it at all. Not the least because, like everyone else, Maggie-centric plots really grate.

 

An improvement from last week to be sure (though Jim's off the Romney campaign, have we seen the last of the Vassar woman? I'm not so sure), though I'd figured that Maggie & Gary would get multiple episodes in Africa. Oh well. Obviously Dantana will be the fall guy at ACN when the Genoa story falls apart, but I'm curious as further repercussions among the staff. Didn't expect a mention of the Martin/Zimmerman shooting so soon, but so it begins next week.

 

Agreed that it was a great episode and getting me to actually care about Maggie is a pretty big sign of that.

But man, Jim wouldn't just get pulled home for that. He'd get fired, for sure. And it's so crazy out of character. That really grated.

 

Last night's entry was, as I see it, one of the better Newsroom episodes to date... the fallout from Sloan's "posed pictures" (who knew Reese isn't always a complete ****?), her relationship (friendship for now) with Don, Maggie's way of dealing with what happened in Africa (and her slowly becoming a more tolerable character) & the Zimmerman 9-1-1 tape subplot, Will dealing with his father's heart attack, and Charlie's conversation with his spy friend/contact were all intriguing. I'm also quite conflicted about the Genoa story line... while the conversation & thinking it provokes are interesting, since we know it's going to turn out to be a lie (with Dantana the apparent fall guy), I want that revelation to happen already.

 

Olivia Munn killed this episode. She's still the best thing on this show, both in character and acting. Other things that really stood out to me in this episode:

The entire plot of Don and the WND story. When Don started screaming at the guy over the phone, I damn near lost it.
The conversation between Reese, Charlie and Sloan, as pointed out, nice to see Reese not acti like a total tool all of the time.
And a so quick I almost missed it bit: Sloan's walking out of the Newsroom, Charlie's walking in and as they pass, there's just a quick hand grab between the two. I love the dynamic that has been developed between them.

 

He didn't. John Wells did, at the end of Season 5. Sorkin was gone by then.

 

That certainly was unexpected, but I liked it. Adding a little spice to the proceedings (since we know how some of it will play out) makes for a more interesting story line... Jerry so wants the Genoa story to be true! Loved Stephen Root as the general* willing to speak about Genoa, and Don & Jim's skepticism during the 2nd Red team meeting. The rest of it? Ok, nothing special. Finally, though, for next week, the **** really hits the fan about Genoa, and that (hopefully) will be great... despite knowing in part what's to come, we still don't know why the story is even out there to being with. Someone somewhere had to start the lie.





*I rolled my eyes & yelled at the television after his assessment that March Madness is the best sporting event out there.

 

Because I have far too much time to think about this nonsense, allow me to assert a somewhat well reasoned theory: Charlie's Naval Intelligence guy and General Stomtonovich conspired to destroy ACN's credibility in reporting on Genoa because it's a true story and they support chemical weapons usage, and they found quite a friend in Jerry.

Both made the point that chemical weapons usage would be perfectly legitimate in these supposed circumstances, which I think we should be comfortable assuming is decidedly not the editorial bent that Jerry is going to be going for. It doesn't seem too out of line to me to assume that these are two men who would be aware of each other if not possibly acquaintances or even friends. Breaking down the sources on this story, we have...

Cyrus West - sort of crazy Neocon friend of Jerry's who has a specific tip but no other information
Hamni8 - supposedly in the village and tweeting
Leon Deet - worked for an NGO but saw the aftermath
Sweeney and Herman Whatshisname - participated in the operation without specific knowledge of what was going on

All of those things independently create a reasonable circumstantial case but obviously nothing iron clad. The Naval Intel guy came to Charlie because he had gotten wind of Jerry poking around. Why is it so unreasonable that he took it upon himself to derail a story that would pretty much crush any public support of chemical weapons usage forever? Not that that level of support is high now, but he and Stomtonovich seem to be of identical mind here. If the manifest he gave Charlie was a fake - and I'm sure it will be, both as a parallel to the Bush story and its MacGuffinness - that by itself would be enough to derail the story. Then he gets word they've contacted Stomtonovich (as those wiretapping intel guys are want to do), calls him up, and fills him in on what's going on. Note that they asked the General to confirm that the manifest was genuine but no one else. Why not either of the soldiers? Anyway, the General insists on Jerry being the only one involved in the interview because that's who he had checked out. What would he find in checking him out? That he's been all over this story from the beginning. That makes him the perfect fall guy. Whether Stomtonovich expected Jerry to falsify the interview footage or whether he just intended to screw with him through vagaries and non-denials (and I'm sure it's the latter), there's no one else there to back him up.

I think it's also notable that we discovered that Charlie has refused to ID his Naval Intel guy. I think it's safe to assume they're old friends of some sort, and the guy could have easily abused that trust to feed Charlie the bad information.

Bottom line, I think the answer to this is that the operation probably did happen, they probably did use the gas, but the Naval Intel guy and the General did enough intentional misleading that the story will never be taken seriously. Jerry just helped it along. Hell, maybe that's what his lawsuit is based on. The Navy guy is definitely not his source, and Charlie and Mac were just as complicit in screening the General as he was. If he's the only one who gets the ax he could easily file for wrongful termination if Mac and Charlie are still there.