The Newsroom Review: Red Team III

Wow. What an episode. So, let's get down to business.

The News Night team is dealing with the fallout from Operation Genoa now. Don is talking about Jerry Dantana, who as we will find out, has probably become the most hated character in the "Newsroom" fandom. The Operation Genoa story was approved by Will, who was convinced to do it by Jerry. It took a heck of a lot of arguing, but the story aired.

Immediately, though, things started to fall apart. The Marine general they interviewed for the story called immediately after the show in anger that they misrepresented him. He did not actually say the US used sarin gas, just "If". At first, they brush it off, thanks in part to the massive ratings they got for the show. But then the story began to fall apart when Eric Sweeney, one of their witnesses, revealed he had a traumatic brain injury.

Well, now things really get bad. They try to fix the damage but Jerry's shoddy journalism becomes a much bigger problem. Even Charlie's source for the story ends up screwing them over! To put it simply, things are bad.

Then the Benghazi consulate attack happens.

In the end, Genoa falls apart and Mr. Jerry Dantana is gone... kinda. There is the lawsuit that provides the framing device to deal with. We'll see what happens next... IN TWO WEEKS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

But I digress. Put simply, I thought this was an excellent episode that shows what happens when journalists doctor their work when trying to run a story, especially if they have an agenda. Jerry Dantana, who had an ideology that while noble, screwed up a major story and almost brought News Night down. I also liked the speech Will gave about small little events that can lead to big things, like the O-Rings that caused the destruction of the Challenger space shuttle.

I can already tell that the News Night team is going to be on high alert in the next episode. While this season has been an improvement over the last one, I think that this might be the best story arc the show has gone over. There is so much tension in these scenes you can cut it with the figurative knife. Critics keep saying "The Newsroom" is a bad show. I disagree. This is one of the better, more underrated shows on TV right now and this story arc has been proving it. I want to see more.