The Newsroom: The Election is Not the Entire Night

"Our elections are the envy of the world." Charlie tells the newsroom this before the night of election coverage begins. They see the Chinese pretending to vote and India having viewing parties, and it seems true... voting is an area where the US is envied by countries around the world. However, with all of the hoopla taking place recently, one must wonder how many people are tuning into ACN for election results where there are other options which may seem much more trustworthy.

However, the choice to focus on more than just whether Obama will be returning for a second term and the crumbling of the network as a whole is an interesting yet delicate one. There was certainly no need to include Hallie's questions, Sloan's book ordeal AND story-stealing, Mac's biographical errors, but Sorkin featured them all. Plus, it seems that another extraneous plot, Don's insider info on a major military resignation, is only just beginning...

The Newsroom "Election Night, Part I" (S02E08): It's the day after the craziness (and only a week after the interrogations began, as Jim tells Hallie that Maggie cut her hair a week ago), and Charlie tries as hard as he can to get Reese to accept his resignation before the suit is filed the next day. [why does Jim feel the need to tell Hallie all about it??] But, Reese's mother won't hear of it. [Will firing Mac just because he can was amusing. I had forgotten he had that power.] 

Taylor is visiting ACN to help with Election Night coverage, and everyone is trying not to make any mistakes. Still, it happens. Jim messes up the abbreviation for Mississippi, and accidentally call a race in Michigan instead. [hahaha!] He doesn't want to lose his job, so he pulls it from the scrolling results but doesn't retract it, betting that the race will play out as they reported in the end. Sloan tries to steal Elliot's story on the air, but she messes it up and it doesn't go anywhere. [that was terrible!]

However, there were other mistakes not aired on television, like Gary signing a book as Sloan, but his German mis-translates "love" for "shred," and she is determined to get it back from the person who won it for $1,000 in a Hurricane Sandy fundraiser. [she implies the elections aren't as important as finding out who bought the book, which is a bit odd.] Another error caught is Mac's Wikipedia page, which states she went to Oxford, not Cambridge. She demands Neal fix it, but apparently they won't accept information directly from a source. And, Don is being sued by Jerry because he gave him a bad recommendation and called him a "sociopath," which is a clinical term he can't legally use in New York. [ouch. hate Jerry!]

And, there's a juicy story that Don gets sources for but it's almost a problem to run... see, Maggie told Don about a 1990 speech where a congressman states that "it's a sad fact that women cry rape," and later mentioned he doesn't support abortion for rape-only circumstances because it will encourage more people to "cry rape." [oh goodness!] Don calls an old buddy for confirmation, but a deal is arranged to trade information and the fellow reporter offers two on-the-record sources about David Petraeus' upcoming surprise resignation. The problem is, ACN can't really report on government and military stories right now. [right between a rock and a hard place!]