Will McAvoy Goes to Jail: Reporter's Privilege and "The Newsroom"
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I’ve enjoyed watching The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's HBO series that will soon end its third and final season. If you’re not a fan, the show chronicles the behind-the-scenes action at a fictional cable news network, ACN, as the staff confronts the many thorny issues facing the modern media. Jeff Daniels stars as Will McAvoy, the anchor of ACN’s hourly news broadcast, “News Night.” The last few episodes have featured a storyline in which McAvoy is jailed for contempt after refusing to reveal a confidential source’s identity to a federal grand jury. The source illegally leaked 37,000 classified documents to ACN. The documents detail a failed U.S. covert operation against a foreign government in which dozens of people were killed. The government believes the disclosure has compromised intelligence operations and endangered lives, and wants to prosecute the leaker. The federal prosecutor investigating the leak subpoenas Will to testify in the grand jury and name the source. Will refuses, despite an order from a federal judge that he comply. Although Will is confident that he is “too big to jail” and the government would never seek to lock him up, that confidence turns out to be misplaced and he is jailed for contempt of court. The story is no doubt inspired in part by the recent events involving James Risen, the reporter for the
Will McAvoy Goes to Jail: Reporter's Privilege and "The Newsroom"
Will McAvoy Goes to Jail: Reporter's…
Will McAvoy Goes to Jail: Reporter's Privilege and "The Newsroom"
I’ve enjoyed watching The Newsroom, Aaron Sorkin's HBO series that will soon end its third and final season. If you’re not a fan, the show chronicles the behind-the-scenes action at a fictional cable news network, ACN, as the staff confronts the many thorny issues facing the modern media. Jeff Daniels stars as Will McAvoy, the anchor of ACN’s hourly news broadcast, “News Night.” The last few episodes have featured a storyline in which McAvoy is jailed for contempt after refusing to reveal a confidential source’s identity to a federal grand jury. The source illegally leaked 37,000 classified documents to ACN. The documents detail a failed U.S. covert operation against a foreign government in which dozens of people were killed. The government believes the disclosure has compromised intelligence operations and endangered lives, and wants to prosecute the leaker. The federal prosecutor investigating the leak subpoenas Will to testify in the grand jury and name the source. Will refuses, despite an order from a federal judge that he comply. Although Will is confident that he is “too big to jail” and the government would never seek to lock him up, that confidence turns out to be misplaced and he is jailed for contempt of court. The story is no doubt inspired in part by the recent events involving James Risen, the reporter for the