The Newsroom: "Bully"

This episode really struck me. While super stoned, I felt myself incredibly empathetic to both parties in every situation that would turn into a fight. This "bullying" that happens in every day life, happens in many different situations. The bully is always the one at fault, in the end, no matter who they are.

But one wonders, what is the purpose of the bully, to commit such an act upon another human being? Why would someone push another to the edge of their beliefs, their pride and dignity, and to make them feel like they are inferior because of that person's justification for their pride and dignity?

Aaron Sorkin is great at jumping through his story to explain different things that have happened to lead us up to where we are now. He lets the audience piece everything together and I deeply appreciate that. Thanks for not making us feel stupid, Aaron.

Point is, it begins with Will screwing up the closing of a broadcast, and Mack asks him if there's something wrong. Will reveals he literally didn't sleep at all the previous night. He says he's going to see his therapist of 4 years ago, whom he's had a Business Manager pay for, even though he hasn't seen him at all in those 4 years. His old therapist, turns out, died two years prior. Will now has to talk to his old therapist's son, who is 29, and weird. I don't like that actor who played him. Not anymore, at least... But that... Is another tale.

Anyway! Will goes into detail about how he basically bullied, LIVE on air, a black, gay republican who had just resigned from the Santorum camp, and Will pressed him and pressed him about why he would work for a man who thinks he's less than human because of his sexual orientation, and played clips of Santorum saying horribly "politically-worded" bias about how one can't control their skin color, but they can control their homosexual behavior.

In the end, Will pressed the man too hard, and he shouted back, saying that Will was defining him by his skin color and sexual orientation, and that are not the only qualities about him. Will ends the argument, solemnly, by asking him, not a question about his sexuality, or color, but rather, of his career. Will asks, "Does Rick Santorum think you are fit to be a teacher?" and to which the man, sadly replied "No".

Okay, I understand Will's argument for trying to reveal to the American Public, the hypocrisy in politics, especially from a seemingly self-hating gay black men who willingly chooses to stand behind a man who has, in every possibly media platform, stated how "Gay marriage threatens my marriage." To Will, it was like a slave not only choosingto be a slave during the Civil War, but wanting to be one.

To this ex-staff member of Santorum's, his argument was pretty weak, honestly, but in the argument he did finally manage to pull out of his ass, he made a couple interesting points. He isn't really being defined by his skin color or sexuality, it's the fact that being Gay and Gay Marriage is a hot topic in culture right now, the same way that being Black during the civil rights movement was a hot topic then. It MUST be discussed, openly and honestly. This Log-Cabin Republican was dodging Will's demand for an answer as to how HE, beneath the politics of his career, how HE felt, being denounced publicly by the very man he is choosing to support. He couldn't give Will an answer because his dignity had been slapped in his face. He was broken. Will broke him.

Later, in another argument, Sloan, the half-Japanese anchor, had to fill in for a fellow anchor during his news segment, and report about the Nuclear reactor radiation levels after the Earthquake in Japan. The man Sloan was interviewing had a translator who wasn't translating the exact things Sloan was asking. The translator was insisting the reactors were stable at level 5 radiation. However, Sloan had just had a conversation with this man, OFF the record, that the reactor's radiation level had reached level 4, then level 5, and then 7, which is equivalent to Chernobyl.

When it came time to getting the answer from being "off" the record, to "on" the record, Sloan went to Will for advice. He told her to push him until she gets the answer she needs.

When she attempted to do so, she ended up speaking fluent Japanese on LIVE television, and didn't have a translator of her own to interpret to viewers. She didn't even get the answer she was looking for. Instead, she claimed on TV that she had a conversation off the air with this man, and he told her that the reactors were at Level 7 and "that's that" basically "you've got to believe me because I said so".

Basically, after the madhouse ended, Sloan was then verbally assaulted by her boss in the middle of the newsroom, in front of all the writers and producers. Sloan wanted the story, but she just wasn't prepared to be able to get it out from her source. Sloan knew that, in Japanese media, they are told to play down bad news, so as not to cause panic, and also because it's very hard for the Japanese to admit fault, because it means a loss of honor. The man SHE basically bullied on TV, resigned from his position and felt shamed. She felt so horrible about it, and the repercussions she was going to have to deal because of it, that she quit.

They ended up finding a way to save her job, and her image. Even though it was officially later reported that yes, the reactor's radiation level had in fact reached level 7, meaning she told the TRUTH on television, and she was right, she was told she had to go on television, and claim that she isn't as fluent in Japanese as she proposed, and that she confused the word for "4" in Japanese with "7". She was going to lie on television to save her ass, and she hated the very idea of it. The whole purpose of their news network is to report the truth. Now, they were going to willingly choose to become just as bad as the politicians they try to unearth in their deceit.

Heavy fucking shit, man. I loved the episode, it really had me fighting internally. Looks like next week is the revelation of Osama Bin Laden's death.

- Posted using BlogPress on iPhone 4S. The Dark GaGa Knight