TV JOURNALISM LAID VERY BARE.Byline: David Kronke Television Critic ONE OF the more bewildering be·wil·der tr.v. be·wil·dered, be·wil·der·ing, be·wil·ders 1. To confuse or befuddle, especially with numerous conflicting situations, objects, or statements. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. aspects of American TV is the inability of Ken Finkleman to find a decent cult audience. As a writer/director/star, Finkleman has skewered the mainstream media and corporate-think with two seasons and a TV film of ``The Newsroom'' for Canadian TV. His character, craven news director George Findlay, has appeared in other Finkleman creations, such as 1998's Fellini-esque ``More Tears'' and 1995's early reality-TV satire ``Married Life,'' where his cameras ruin a young couple's wedding. His acid depictions of unbridled self-absorption, pettiness and ineptitude Ineptitude See also Awkwardness. Brown, Charlie meek hero unable to kick a football, fly a kite, or win a baseball game. [Comics: “Peanuts” in Horn, 543] Capt. Queeg incompetent commander of the minesweeper Caine. rival those of Garry Shandling and Ricky Gervais' better-known classics, ``The Larry Sanders Show'' and ``The Office,'' respectively. (Finkleman tackled the business world in the amusing yet compromised 1985 Judge Reinhold movie ``Head Office.'') His latest ``Newsroom'' appeared in Canada last year as the war with Iraq was turning sour, and indeed, the ``war on terror'' is an obsession with his characters. In tonight's episode, Findlay's broadcast's fatuous anchorman Jim Walcott (Peter Keleghan) gets a job on a morning news show in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and quickly adopts the sort of crowd-pleasing empty jingoism jingoism (jĭng`gōĭzəm), advocacy of a policy of aggressive nationalism. The term was first used in connection with certain British politicians who sought to bring England into the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) on the side of the we've seen countless other ostensible Apparent; visible; exhibited. Ostensible authority is power that a principal, either by design or through the absence of ordinary care, permits others to believe his or her agent possesses. TV journalists engage in. Next week, Findlay and his underlings stare raptly at images of the war over daily lunches but avoid discussion of its human toll. When an underling wonders aloud how many Iraqi civilians have died, Findlay quickly and weakly changes the subject: ``Any more hot sauce?'' (All food is comfort food here, as it manages to conveniently obliterate o·blit·er·ate v. 1. To remove an organ or another body part completely, as by surgery, disease, or radiation. 2. To blot out, especially through filling of a natural space by fibrosis or inflammation. everything from uncomfortable reflection to bad relationships.) Finkleman's scripts are witheringly pitiless in their depiction of Findlay's and others' casual, career-advancing callousness. The humor is bleakly deadpan, emphasis on ``dead'': Deaths of colleagues are met in every episode with shrugs or worse. When, in a future episode, a terminally diagnosed reporter asks to work as long as he's able, Findlay considers it a personal affront: The dying, he grouses, ``have this morbid fascination with other people's discomfort with their own death.'' Walcott grandiosely announces his intention to ``visit Ground Zero and pay tribute to the 3,000 killed there''; next on his agenda, naturally, is to ``catch 'Mama Mia.' '' Though Finkleman plies plies 1 v. Third person singular present tense of ply1. n. Plural of ply1. his art in Canada, he clearly has American mass media's psyche in his cross hairs, that peculiar mix of being smugly self-satisfied and blitheringly overwhelmed by the grim rush of contemporary history. It's possible that this material is too caustic and/or close to home to play well with many American viewers. Outside of Jon Stewart and maybe Bill Maher, no one has such a keenly developed and well-deserved contempt for TV journalism (except, of course, for some of those who pretend to practice it). But those who discover ``The Newsroom'' should find it bracing relief from ubiquitous coverage of the world of Teri Schiavos, Martha Stewarts, Jennifer Wilbankses and Michael Jacksons as defined by CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. and its ilk. David Kronke, (818) 713-3638 david.kronke(at)dailynews.com THE NEWSROOM - Three and one half stars What: Canadian black comedy about an utterly amoral a·mor·al adj. 1. Not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral. 2. Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong. TV-news director. Where: KCET KCET Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo (Japan) KCET Kamaraj College of Engineering and Technology . When: 10 p.m. Fridays. In a nutshell: Fans of ``The Office'' and/or ``The Larry Sanders Show'' will be right at home here. |
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