When journalists are not covering their beats or griping about the death of newspapers, chances are they watching “The Wire.”
For anyone out of the loop, “The Wire” - not to be confused with the AP wire (another thing journalists like) is the much loved but little watched HBO series.
There are a lot of reasons why journalists flock to this show.
Maybe because its under appreciated - a characteristic journalists tend to like.
Perhaps it’s the fact that the series creator, David Simon, is a former journalist, actually found a way to make a buck. Or that the fifth
season focuses on the Baltimore Sun’s newsroom, and echoes a sentiment
all journalists are familiar with. Or journalists like the show because
“The Wire” makes “Law and Order” or “CSI” look like an episode of “The
Brady Bunch.”
Whatever the appeal, and there are many, the show deals with some weighty issues that journalists like to think is going on in their own back yard. Be it drug runners, prostitute smuggling, dirty politicians, police corruption or rouge assassins; it is all front-page material.
While the majority of journalists will never get to report on a “New Hamsterdam,” where drug use is legalized, they like to think such a story is right around the next corner.
However, as good as seasons one through four are, it is season five that journalists really like. Going inside the Baltimore Sun’s newsroom for season five, reporters feel smug hearing terms like “main art,” “double truck,” or “below the fold.”
Journalists like telling their non-journalists friends what these words mean, and that they really use those terms in their own newsroom.
The appeal of “The Wire” to journalists ultimately comes down to another like they have - journalists just like seeing themselves on TV
