Newsroom Recap: They Know About Generators, Right?

It’s May 27, and Reese is having a meeting to discuss how Nancy Grace’s viewership soared when she started covering the Casey Anthony trial while News Night’s plummeted. Bullshit. A) I’m pretty sure Ed Schultz didn’t cover the Casey Anthony story and he’s still on the air. B) I know Maddow didn’t cover the Casey Anthony story and she’s the biggest name at MSNBC. C) Anyone who watched a dog like News Night wasn’t looking for an in depth analysis of the trial.

Whatever, Reese just wants to know who decided not to cover the trial so Will, Mackenzie and Charlie can all take the blame. Reese doesn’t think they’re funny and blames Mackenzie. He tells her she chose not to work for public broadcasting, so she needs to bring in ratings. Mackenzie smarms that she’s not in business with the ratings she’s in business with the viewers and Reese points out the glaringly obvious that she’s losing that fight, too. The three stooges have no real comeback so he tells them to do with that information as they wish.

They have a little walk & talk back to Charlie’s office and Mackenzie thinks he’s supporting her but when they realize they’re looking at months-long coverage, Charlie tells Mackenzie they’re covering the story…then goes completely overboard and says they’ll do 15 minutes in the A block with a five minute reset on the half hour. When Will doesn’t support her, Mackenzie goes off on a tirade about how low they’re stooping because this isn’t news it’s entertainment and practically a snuff film, and she can’t understand why she has to give up so much time to this one story. You and me both, and don’t think I enjoy agreeing with Mackenzie.

I am not comfortable being the smart one in the room!

Charlie does, too, but their hands are tied. Will wants “the debate” because the three of them have somehow decided upon a new debate format (Press Your Luck?) that will “fundamentally change how they interview Presidential candidates.” Whuhhh…huh? In June 2011? Wasn’t The Donald still the frontrunner at the time? Although, I can’t wait to see what this new format is. Cattle prods? Shock collars? Anyway, they won’t get the debate if they don’t rebound. Oh yeah, and a ratings hit like that is all Leona needs to shitcan Will. This finally shuts up Mackenzie so Charlie sets them off with a directive to “do it as classy as you can.”

Mackenzie apologizes for the outburst but it segues back to Brian and they’re hedging around the fact that he’s the ex she cheated with, but…it was in last week’s promo. Derr. Then it boomerangs back to the Anthony trial and Will remembers that Murrow used to do all kinds of crap in addition to hard news. Mackenzie draws the line and says Person to Person was fluff but what they’re doing is poison then storms off because it’s so rare that Will can cede the high ground to anyone.