#operation genoa

[ericgeller]

My Newsroom homies will get this one.

[lusnikas]

If Ben Furusho hadn't broken his ankle, if Jim Harper hadn't gone to New Hampshire to cover for him, if Jerry Dantana hadn't been brought up from DC to cover for Jim, if Mike Tapley had been used on the panel instead of Cyrus West, if 17 different things hadn't conspired in just the right order, we wouldn't be sitting here.

[opie-taylor]

I mean, I know people joke about being obsessed with a TV show to the point where they confuse it with real life but... When the news about Syria using chemical weapons came out, my brother and I looked at each other, and we both whispered "Genoa"

[genocidershodan]

The Newsroom season 2 spoilers ahoy.

So, here's something that I'm scratching my head over about episode 7 of season 2.

So, Charlie goes to meet his sauce who drops the bomb that the whole Genoa thing was a revenge ploy.

But what about all the corroborators? Eric Sweeney very clearly and vividly describes the entire scenario, but it turns out he had ABI and it's implied that his experience was imagined, but it somehow completely fits in with everything else?

The tweet from the guy near Genoa also describes people being killed by the gas, but that turned out that his phone service was cut? What about him talking about people dying and things?

The NGO report and the helo manifest I think were explained to be forgeries.

Stantonawicz was just a weird creepy bloke, but why was he so damn cryptic during the interview? I thought that Charlie and Mac's visit made it clear that they were interviewing him about the use of Sarin in Genoa, and all through the interview he described how Sarin would have been used in Genoa distinctly avoiding confirming whether it was used or not, and then he got angry about how the interview turned out. I know he was a little barmy but at this point, it's getting too convenient.

And then Venezuela who was apparently dead but not dead, and he also corroborated the evidence.

So, I'm wondering, were they all in on it? Like had West orchestrated this massive plot with all these people? Stantonawicz looked like he was just along for the ride, and apparently Sweeney hallucinated the whole thing.

Man, I'm going to have to watch this entire season again.

[shelves-of-smithereens]

So I just read this NY Times article about possibilities of sarin gas being used in Syria. How could that be so aligned with The Newsroom episode ? This is just superstitious

[adumbhuman]

[iamthenewsgirl-blog-blog]

The Newsroom vs. Reality

If you've been watching HBO's television series "The Newsroom" then you'll probably be aware of the storyline about the use of chemical weapons, notably sarin gas by the United States against Pakistani civilians by MARSOC. An act that would be considered a war crime. The show created by Aaron Sorkin began airing on the 14th July almost exactly around the time the United States government began talking about Syria's use of chemical weapons against its citizens.

Yesterday, unverified video evidence emerged showing what appear to be the effects of a chemical attack on civilian areas of the Syrian capital Damascus. Figures from various news websites have the casualties between 213-650 but in either case the consequences of such an attack are even greater. The Syrian authorities however denied the use of chemical weapons. William Hague has called on the authorities to allow UN inspectors to investigate these new claims, commenting that these allegations would mark a "shocking escalation" in the civil war. The UN inspectors have arrived in the capital ready to begin working on Monday.

So while The Newsroom may not be predicting the future in exact terms Sorkin is definitely coming close to anticipating future events.

[stirringtheproverbialpot-blog]

What goes on behind closed doors?

So today I was watching the latest episode of The Newsroom, yet another great show by HBO. Anyway I was thinking about the piece they're just beginning to uncover, Operation Genoa. And the combination of me being curious, combined with the fact the purpose of Newsroom is to get people thinking, got me thinking; how often do these coverups happen? My uneducated answer is frequently. I've watched enough Homeland, read enough articles on governments lying and backtracking on statements to think that sadly this is frequent. Not like we drop sarin on the reg, UN resolutions hopefully mean that the reality of an "Operation Genoa" coming to fruition is slim. Mind you the only companies who never agreed to that resolution are more likely to act on the thought of using chemical warfare....North Korea, Syria cough.

Currently in NZ there's this bill, it's been dubbed GCSB, is being rushed through parliament by John Key (why this needs to be rushed, I have no idea). And it's just been revealed that the govt, who repeatedly stated they did not authorise to have a journalists metadata retrieved, did authorise it.

There's a lot of shit going on behind closed doors, and in light of recent government regulatory changes about protesting, privacy in NZ and The Newsroom, combined with reading this it makes me wonder about some peoples ideas behind democracy and morality. Especially those who are in positions of legislative power and are meant to be doing what is best for the countries they are running. 

P.S - Just wonder if everyone stopped pissing everyone off how much nicer the world would be.

P.P.S - I'm going to try be a nicer person. Also if anyone somehow stumbles across this, do something nice for a random person today.