The Newsroom (TV Series)

The Blackout, Part 1: Tragedy Porn (2012)

Emily Mortimer: MacKenzie McHale

Photos 

Quotes 

• Reese Lansing : Whose idea was it to not cover the Casey Anthony trial?

  Charlie Skinner : It was mine

  Will McAvoy : It was mine.

  MacKenzie McHale : It was mine.

  Reese Lansing : I think the three of you should have a vaudeville act. I'm not kidding, I'm gonna send you on a fucking tour.

• Will McAvoy : Are we ready for the pre-tape?

  MacKenzie McHale : Yeah.

  Will McAvoy : Just count me down.

  MacKenzie McHale : Will...

  Will McAvoy : Yes, I'm sure I want to do this.

  MacKenzie McHale : Oh God, please give me a sign that I'm not doing a big thing badly.

  Engineers : [Lights go out]  We just lost power. The building just lost power.

  MacKenzie McHale : I didn't know he had that kind of comic timing.

• Sloan Sabbith : Unless there's a rally...

  MacKenzie McHale : I'm sorry I've got to...

  Sloan Sabbith : Listen.

  MacKenzie McHale : Sloan...

  Sloan Sabbith : Unless there's a rally in the next 90 minutes,The Dow's gonna close down about 2.5%,S&P and NASDAQ will close down 2.3%,Let me tell you why.

  MacKenzie McHale : I don't own a lot of stock.

  Sloan Sabbith : Let me tell you why.

  MacKenzie McHale : I really can't.

  Sloan Sabbith : [shouting]  Stop avoiding this!

  Sloan Sabbith : I just got off the phone with these guys. Listen to these quotes. These aren't from liberals. these are hardcore Wall-Street guys,Who whatever the world may think of them,Knows what they're talking about and so do I. Jamie Dimon atChase says, "Voting against raising the debt ceiling would be a moral disaster." The Barclays guys say "This debate is detached from reality." My Goldman source says "If the house Republicans continue this debate, I hope they're willing to mark the end of the dollar as a global reserve currency." Please notice he didn't say if the house republicans don't raise the debt ceiling. he said if the house republicans continue this debate. That's all it takes. Just the uncertainty. That's why the Dow's gonna close down 230 points today. Because just the debate,just the doubt,just the possibility that the House Majority might commit the most self-inflicted damage to the country since the secession of the south has caused billions in value to disappear.

  MacKenzie McHale : Sloan,I understand,I swear to God I do. But you can't say the same thing the C block?

  Sloan Sabbith : Don't pretend you don't know that most people watch 10 minutes of news. The first 10 minutes.

  MacKenzie McHale : The vote isn't until tomorrow night.and it's only the first vote.You said yourself it was cosmetic. Why do we have to feature it tonight?

  Sloan Sabbith : We should have been featuring it weeks ago. We should have been leading with it every night.

  MacKenzie McHale : Why do we have to feature it tonight?

  Sloan Sabbith : To give time for the people to call their congressmen and say "If you fuck with the full faith and credit of the US Treasury,You're fired." to give time for the people to jam the phone lines of the district offices. To give the people time to say, "I'm a fiscal conservative and you've got to put the pin back in the grenade right now." That's why.

  MacKenzie McHale : [pause]  I'm gonna do everything I can.

  Sloan Sabbith : Please do.

• MacKenzie McHale : All right, to give us a crash course in how best to exploit this tragedy and to erase all boundaries of what should be used as entertainment, I've enlisted the help of a master of the dark arts.

  Don Keefer : [Don enters room]  I understand I'm needed.

• Reese Lansing : You chose not to work for PBS. You chose not to work for NPR. You have a ratings obligation.

  MacKenzie McHale : No, you have a ratings obligation. You're in business with the advertisers. I'm in business with the viewers.

  Reese Lansing : You just lost their business.