Highly overcriticized and underrated

It was up for a globe for best drama and Daniels beat out Cranston and Hamm for an Emmy one year. It was up against some of the greatest shows of all time, it did as well as it deserved

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I just finished watching the whole thing on Amazon Prime--

I thought it was well written and performed-- enjoyed it through and through.

It has the Sorkin touch all over it-- the rapid fire, witty repartee' between characters-- and we all know that people don't speak like that in real life but what the hell.

My issue with the show is that it was rather "old school" in its basic premise-- that the viewing public needs a person to tell them the news, and that the organization behind this person has to have the highest standards and highest journalistic ethics.

That its more than delivering the news-- its about creating a dialog and lifting the discussion to a higher level. Its about educating the public.

It's also the media having some sort of "sacred trust" with the public to act as a watchdog of the Republic-- the so called "fourth estate" and all that.

The problem with all that is this: it sounds good, but doesn't reflect reality. Journalism as a profession has fallen so low in the eyes of the public that its now on the same level as ambulance chasing lawyers.

There's also a not so subtle swipe at the internet-- blogging, tweeting, texting, "citizen journalists"-- SOrkin through the series bemoans the fact that the internet has opened up a gigantic can of worms-- where ill-educated, shallow, and non professional people have a great deal of influence (and gasp! a voice! and they're not even trained journalists!).

The show is old school in that although it takes place on a cable network, its resembles (and pines for) the old days when there were only 3 networks, and the news divisions were the flagship within those networks.

Where what the public saw, heard, and learned were controlled by a handful of people, mostly living either within the beltway or the confines of the NYC metropolitan area.

So when it comes to the internet there's this current running in the background of the show about how its contributed to a loss of respect, ethics, and professionalism-- but its really about a loss of control and influence. The desire to put the internet genie back in the bottle and regain a privileged status.

Sorkin-- like journalists themselves-- takes the profession WAY to seriously. As if the public still had any respect for it.

The days of Murrow and Cronkite are long since gone-- that kind of respect and integrity has long since been squandered. The bias in the media is well known-- the refusal to report on or follow through on certain stories, the setting of agenda's-- the lack of professionalism from the so called "professionals"-- all mixed in with the "holier than thou" and "we know best" attitudes-- it just makes it laughable when one of Sorkin's characters starts a monologue about "raising the bar of discussion" and "journalistic ethics"

Plus the fact that many of the old guard journalists are dead or retired, and the so called "new breed" are just not up to the task.

Perhaps Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, summed it up best when he said in an interview:

"All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus. Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing"

He was taking about print journalists, but the comments can be applied to broadcast journalism as well.

In other words, facts take a back seat to agendas and narratives. It's about power, control, and shaping the public's opinion. How you get there is not so important anymore. But it used to be.

AE36

Personally the only reason I don't rate it quite as high as "those other shows" is that it too often resorts to some pretty corny comedy writing. The sort of thing you'd find in a lame sitcom or romcom. e.g. How many times did they do the bit where a character (usually a woman) says something and immediately afterward spits out some cutesy quip to acknowledge that they realize it was a dumb thing to say? I like that it has a good amount of comedy and humor, it just seems to go for some surprisingly low hanging fruit at times.

I totally love the show, I just don't put it up on Mt. Olympus.