The Los Angeles Times recently ran an article about the highly criticized HBO show, “The Newsroom,” in which USC Annenberg Professor Joe Saltzman said he watches the show “out of a sense of professional obligation,” calling the show’s “didacticism tedious.”
The show began airing its second season last month, despite reproach from the news media during its first season. One of the primary arguments is that the show is better when it focuses less on commentary and more “on the nuts and bolts of reporting.”
“If the characters would spend more time doing journalism instead of talking about journalism, it would be a far better show," said Saltzman, who is also the director of USC Annenberg's Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture project.
According to Saltzman, the first season's flaws stemmed from news stories being "accompanied by a mélange of self-righteous rants, long-winded monologues and speechifying about and around the issue involved."
