Ken Finkleman is not an asshole, but he plays one on TV. The third, perhaps final, season of CBC’s critically acclaimed satire The Newsroom is currently underway, and Finkleman, as well as writing, directing, and producing the show, steps back into his role as pathologically self-absorbed news director George Findlay.
Fans of the cult hit will not be disappointed by these six new episodes, which feature everything from vapid news anchor Jim Walcott (Peter Keleghan) being held hostage in Kabul to a visually impressive animated final episode. Of this major change in the show’s format, Finkleman says, “I thought up this story with all of these fantasy elements, and I thought it would look silly if real people acted it out.”
This type of simple, straightforward answer is typical of Finkleman, who, when asked of the significance of a reference made in the same episode to Kurosawa’s Rashomon, replies, “I just copied it.”
This and other highbrow allusions occasionally get Finkleman in trouble with critics who accuse him of artistic pretension. To this, Finkleman responds, “I think that says a lot more about them than it does about me…if I quote [former Green Bay Packer coach] Vince Lombardi, who said, ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,’ no one’s going to say, ‘Oh, he’s quoting Vince Lombardi.'” However, when asked if he could get away with a show like The Newsroom on any network other than the CBC, his answer is a flat-out “No.”
Indeed, The Newsroom is unique among television sitcoms-if it’s aimed at a demographic at all, it’s that oft-overlooked section of the population who wants something to think about. When asked if his show is in part an indictment of mainstream television audiences, Finkleman shrugs, “I don’t know who those people are.”
Unlike actual television news programs, The Newsroom doesn’t tug at its audience’s heartstrings. The show features an unsympathetic protagonist who is disliked by his jaded staff. As Finkleman says, “The little bit of satire of the news that I do on my show, I mostly go the low road.”
Finkleman takes issue with those who, in criticizing the powers that be, portray themselves as “in some way morally superior”-Michael Moore, for instance. Of the hit-you-over-the-head polemic of Fahrenheit 9/11, he says, “He manipulates the images in such a way to tell a story that he’s obviously scripted rather than pointing the camera at something and letting it tell its story. It’s just sophomoric, and you kind of turn off on it because you know that you’re being manipulated, even though you sense that what is being said is in some way correct.”
This isn’t to say Finkleman doesn’t shed a harsh light on his own work from time to time. The Newsroom doesn’t shy away from satirizing itself. In this season’s hilariously self-aware second episode “One Dumb Idea,” Findlay and his segment producers brainstorm, trying to come up with one lousy idea that could be turned into a lucrative sitcom. Then, in an inspired cameo, left-wing intellectual Rick Salutin unwittingly gives them the idea for a show that is, essentially, The Newsroom itself. A copyright battle ensues.
In the current media climate, spin and intellectually lazy reporting are perhaps more prevalent than ever. Likewise, pointed satire of the news, from The Daily Show to The Newsroom, is more relevant than ever before. Besides, comedians can get away with more. After all, as Finkleman puts it, “When you’re doing real comedy, everything’s in quotes.”
The final season of The Newsroom airs Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. on CBC.
