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Since the second season premiere of “The Newsroom” aired last Sunday, many journalists have criticized it for being unrealistic.
Business Insider’s Steve Kovach called it “delightfully horrible,” and Jeff Jarvis said “it put me to sleep.” amNewYork’s Tim Herrera, meanwhile, called it “the worst show ever.” The Wrap collected some more negative tweets.
Still, not everyone’s a hater. The real writer behind the fictional Will McAvoy (@WillMcAvoyACN) account — whom I profiled last year — said he hears more positive than negative responses from journalists.
The writer, who has wished to remain anonymous out of “dramatic necessity,” told me via email:
I think it is a show that inspires great passion, and that there are of course people who are not going to like it. Because it is about journalists, it’s going to get some attention, as they have a natural platform to speak about their problems, more so in the Twitter age. I don’t know how police officers feel about Law & Order, but I imagine there are some that don’t like it because it does not seem credible to them anymore.
I can tell you that I have a number of members of the media who follow the Will McAvoy account and I got a lot more positive tweets than negative ones sent to me on Sunday when the show was airing. But most of my followers are fans of the program, or, at the very least, interested in the show. Also, Dan Rather doesn’t follow me on twitter, but he loved it.
(Dan Rather wrote a Gawker piece saying the second season premiere was “good, very good, if not downright terrific.”)
In other news about journalism TV shows, “House of Cards” has made Emmy history. CBS News explains:
The political intrigue saga received a best drama series nomination Thursday, marking the first time that television’s top awards have recognized a program delivered online as equal in quality to the best that TV has to offer. It earned nine nominations in all, including acting bids for stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.
Significance of the Emmy noms for Netflix: “It solidifies that TV is TV, no matter pipe brings it to the screen.” http://t.co/ZRCkRgzxy1
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 18, 2013
Related: “The Newsroom” season premiere grows from last year: 2.2 million | House of Cards continues grand Hollywood tradition of fake newsrooms | In House of Cards, Slugline is the new Politico
