Newsroom Headlines: News Night Takes on the Tea Party

Episode three of HBO’s new drama The Newsroom, set during the midterm elections in 2010, examines the rise of the Tea Party. Our hero, anchorman Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels), a self-described mainstream Republican, begins the show with an on-air apology “for the failure of this program during the time I’ve been on it to successfully inform and educate the American electorate.” Off camera, news chief Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) defends News Night's newly serious focus (and falling ratings) from the ire of CEO Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda), and handsome young producer Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.) ponders whether to pursue a romance with his equally cute underling Maggie Jordan (Alison Pill). Below, quotable quotes from the third episode of The Newsroom, featuring a cast of Broadway stars:


Will to MacKenzie (Emily Mortimer), on his decision to bear down on Tea Party candidates that make him feel “scared shitless”: “Top story every night until the plant from Little Shop of Horrors goes back to its planet.”

Junior producer Maggie Jordan (Alison Pill), trying to convince her boss, Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.), to get be nice to her boyfriend, producer Don Keefer (Thomas Sadoski): “He’s a great guy, and you two should be friends.”
Jim: In the five months I’ve been here, you two have broken up four times and gotten together five times, so there must be a strong connection.”
Maggie: “Was that sarcastic?”
Will: “No.”

Jim to newsroom blogger Neal Sampat (Dev Patel), when Neal urges him to ask Maggie out after her latest breakup with Don: “I’m not going to ‘get in there.’ I’m not going to swoop in like she’s a rent-controlled apartment.”

Election night correspondent Elliot Hirsch (David Harbour) to Don, after Don berates him for his on-air performance: “Don’t talk to me like I’m a disappointing child…. Let me also say, I’m not the one who wants to be a star, Momma Rose.”
Don: “I don’t know that reference.”

Network CEO Leona Lansing (Jane Fonda), complaining to news chief Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) about Will’s new super-serious persona: “What happened to human interest stories? Obesity, breast cancer, hurricanes, older woman having babies, iPhones—he was great at that shit.”
Charlie: “He was sleeping during that shit.”
Leona: “And whose idea was it to wake him up?”

Leona to Charlie, on Will’s antagonism toward the Tea Party: “A lot of people might argue that Will is on a witch hunt.”
Charlie: And a lot of people might argue there are witches out there.”