David Simon found himself Monday afternoon bunkered down in the bowels of the law school building on the USC campus, discussing the demise of journalism as it relates to the fifth -- and sadly, final -- season of "The Wire." To summarize Simon's thoughts on the fall of newspapers and how the show weaves that depressing topic into politics, crime, corruption and, basically, the decay of civilization, he addressed it this way: "Everyday human beings matter less. The game is rigged. The house odds are against you."
Never the optimist, Simon said the foundation for The Wire was built upon the Greek tragedies -- "Both Stringer and Omar had to die. There was never a doubt." -- and the film Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas, which he called the only important political film of all time, except for 10 minutes of The Candidate with Robert Redford. Simon, still a Baltimore resident, toiled at the Sun for seven years, which included some time off to focus on his books Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner, both of which were turned into TV projects, the former a critically beloved but low-rated series for NBC, and the latter a miniseries for HBO. He still loves the paper and it kills him to see it decimated by lay-offs that ultimately followed the Sun's local ownership to that of the Tribune company.
Never the optimist, Simon said the foundation for The Wire was built upon the Greek tragedies -- "Both Stringer and Omar had to die. There was never a doubt." -- and the film Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas, which he called the only important political film of all time, except for 10 minutes of The Candidate with Robert Redford. Simon, still a Baltimore resident, toiled at the Sun for seven years, which included some time off to focus on his books Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner, both of which were turned into TV projects, the former a critically beloved but low-rated series for NBC, and the latter a miniseries for HBO. He still loves the paper and it kills him to see it decimated by lay-offs that ultimately followed the Sun's local ownership to that of the Tribune company.
"I'm heartbroken at what's happened to the Sun," he said, and even though he's much more well known now for his TV work, he still considers himself a newspaperman (and can be seen in a cameo in the Wire finale, slaving away in a newsroom cubicle). "The Sun went from being a paper trying to get it right to a flashier, dynamic paper that knew less of the city than before (Tribune took over)."
When asking the assembled students what was the overriding theme of this season in regards to what happens at the fictional Sun, he shoots down many theories: Yeah, Templeton's making up of sources and quotes play a part but it's not the overriding theme that Simon wants to get out, and, no, it's not just about the strive for Pulitzers. Rather, it's the "do more with less" theory that managing editor Thomas Klebanow asks his writers and editors at the beginning of the season. It failed miserably.
"The whole season of The Wire is about what didn't happen," he explains. "The governor cooking the stats didn't get in the paper. The No Child Left Behind stories that didn't get in, and Prop Joe's death is just a brief."
With management's mantra to make the Sun a Pulitzer Prize-grabbing operation, the Sun's already limited resources can't find the time -- and the paper certainly doesn't have the manpower -- to adequately address the real needs of Baltimore; such as why the schools are failing the city's children, why the police can't make a dent on crime, the backroom politics and decisions that can, ultimately, make a difference in people's lives. Instead, the paper focuses on the homeless. Not an unworthy topic certainly, but not at the expense of everything else.
Remember the scene early on this season when Gus looks out the window and sees a fire blazing in East Baltimore and nobody's covering it? Simon said it was a metaphor for journalism burning to the ground. He recalled being on the newspaper staff and watching in horror, under the tenure of Sun editor John Carroll, as the paper spent hundreds of column inches on the ills of lead paint poisoning, blaming it for the increased drug trade, kids dropping out of school, overcrowding in the city's jails, the Orioles falling to last place... OK, not so much the O's descent into baseball oblivion, but you get the point. And, Simon said, when a Sun reporter met with the governor and the paper's self-obsessed topic of lead paint poisoning didn't come up, the writer falsely included a conversation with the governor anyway into his piece. At that point, Simon walked away from the paper, disgusted as hell.
Simon's other diatribe was mounted against the Internet. Not so much against the vast availability of information, but how that information is given away for free and that there's no regulation of bloggers, the vast majority of them ill-concerned about truth and news gathering. He partly blames newspapers themselves for their current predicament, for not charging readers to access stories online and that readers get what they pay for. It's easy to post comments about the coverage of the war in Iraq, and to use the news gathered there for your own blogging, but he warns that online readers don't have the moral ground to criticize a paper's coverage unless they're footing the bill. You want to do your own reporting in the Middle East and express your own opinions? Fine, he says, just make sure you pay the tab for what it costs to send journalists over there.
The session ended with more Wire-related questions. One student was blown away by the revelation that Cheese is Randy's father (though maybe that shouldn't have been all that surprising consider their surnames are both Wagstaff). Another asked why there's no music in the show -- except for the opening and closing credits -- and Simon said it's because he hates a score and believes it's meant to manipulate the audience. Also, he still considers himself a novice on the set and leaves most of the film-making decisions to his production team, and keeps his focus on the script.
Finally, Simon said he was grateful for the 10.5 hours HBO gave him to conclude the series -- the final episode was only supposed to be an hour but HBO's Carolyn Strauss gave him the OK for an extra 30 minutes when Simon wasn't able to wrap up the series in the allotted time -- and that if he had a full 12 episodes, more would've been shown about the Randy-Cheese relationship and a plot-line about Cutty -- the former gangster who did time and then came back to the neighbourhood to run a makeshift boxing gym -- could've been explored.
But, as The Wire ends its glorious run, this is no time to get greedy or ask what could've been. What viewers have received for five season is pure manna, a gift from the TV gods. Where we're normally given "The Housewives of Orange County" and "The Hills," here we were offered a study on the rise and fall of America's free-market system seen through the eyes of the entrepreneurs of the media, the warriors of the drug trade and the politicians from where it all trickles down.
Simon's other diatribe was mounted against the Internet. Not so much against the vast availability of information, but how that information is given away for free and that there's no regulation of bloggers, the vast majority of them ill-concerned about truth and news gathering. He partly blames newspapers themselves for their current predicament, for not charging readers to access stories online and that readers get what they pay for. It's easy to post comments about the coverage of the war in Iraq, and to use the news gathered there for your own blogging, but he warns that online readers don't have the moral ground to criticize a paper's coverage unless they're footing the bill. You want to do your own reporting in the Middle East and express your own opinions? Fine, he says, just make sure you pay the tab for what it costs to send journalists over there.
The session ended with more Wire-related questions. One student was blown away by the revelation that Cheese is Randy's father (though maybe that shouldn't have been all that surprising consider their surnames are both Wagstaff). Another asked why there's no music in the show -- except for the opening and closing credits -- and Simon said it's because he hates a score and believes it's meant to manipulate the audience. Also, he still considers himself a novice on the set and leaves most of the film-making decisions to his production team, and keeps his focus on the script.
Finally, Simon said he was grateful for the 10.5 hours HBO gave him to conclude the series -- the final episode was only supposed to be an hour but HBO's Carolyn Strauss gave him the OK for an extra 30 minutes when Simon wasn't able to wrap up the series in the allotted time -- and that if he had a full 12 episodes, more would've been shown about the Randy-Cheese relationship and a plot-line about Cutty -- the former gangster who did time and then came back to the neighbourhood to run a makeshift boxing gym -- could've been explored.
But, as The Wire ends its glorious run, this is no time to get greedy or ask what could've been. What viewers have received for five season is pure manna, a gift from the TV gods. Where we're normally given "The Housewives of Orange County" and "The Hills," here we were offered a study on the rise and fall of America's free-market system seen through the eyes of the entrepreneurs of the media, the warriors of the drug trade and the politicians from where it all trickles down.
All that, and Omar too.
