Newsroom has become my new favorite show. Did anyone watch last week's episode? They talked about the reported 200 million per day cost of Obama's visit to India. How Limbaugh and Beck and Bachmann all stated that cost as a fact when it was not even close to being true. The day after watching the episode, I read the section in the book where the authors talked about the same subject. I think Aaron Sorkin (the creator and writer of Newsroom), must have been reading the book when he was writing the screenplays.
Neither Newsroom nor the book mentioned whether any of the people who made these claims ever apologized or withdrew their remarks. I guess that is one of the problems with todays media, you can say pretty much whatever you want and not be held accountable for it.
If you haven't seen Newsroom, I wholeheartedly recommend it. Particularly if you enjoyed the West Wing.
Me too! (Obvs) I thought the most recent episode (the 4th?) was by far the best one yet. And I agree with you Joel, Sorkin definitely read this book. Its message is practically the basis of this show.
ReplyDeleteYes, I love this show! I would be interested to know if Sorkin read this book! I'm not that their weren't any apologies made. This is definitely the scariest part of today's media (and it is why I spend a good deal on this with my students in communications strategies as I don't want them to trust or base their opinions on everything they see, hear, or read).
ReplyDeleteWell, we DEFINITELY know he read the book now considering he mentioned the author in the show!
ReplyDeleteThe best of the media require that any news be confirmed by multiple sources (three?) before publishing. But now everyone is a publisher, and everyone has access to an audience. It is critical that we--and our students--learn to evaluate the source of information. When there are errors, the original story gets the big news flash, and the correction gets an asterisk on Page 32.
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