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The denigration of his journalistic ideals reads like a fairy tale gone wrong, and Will McAvoy sits at the center of it.
The promising young man graduates with honors from his university and leaves for the city, dreaming of things best left to the young, like making a difference and seeking out the truth, truly on his own for the first time in the city that never slept except to rid itself of a hangover. He lives in an apartment he can’t afford, drinks more cheap beer than he ever did as an undergrad, and it doesn’t matter because soon enough he’s working for the top cable news show in the country and finally, he thinks, he’s that much closer to living out his dreams.
And then Will shatters the illusion. He stalks into the newsroom, barking orders at no one in particular, and fires Don’s coworker on the spot for taking too long to answer a question. They have a meeting in the conference room to go over ideas for the evening’s newscast, and every single idea by the employees is shot down by Will for being too bland, or too broad, or too anything.
Don very quickly learns that Will stays on top of his game because he engages in the network politics – don’t be offensive, don’t be biased, and most importantly don’t jeopardize the ratings.
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In the three months Don works as Will’s EP, he loses more hair than he ever thought possible, consumes enough caffeine to send a normal person into heart palpitations, and gives up completely on thoughts of utilizing news as a tool to bring awareness of social issues to the masses. Will, and by extension the network, have made it more than clear that he is to stick to what’s popular. Lindsay Lohan graces the show’s itinerary more than once. Don’s letters to Troy Davis go unmentioned, even to Maggie, the sweet, albeit naïve, girl he meets at the water cooler. When he’s offered a position to move to ten o’clock with Elliot, who is far less demanding and far more affable to work with, Don nearly leaps out of his seat. Suck my dick, he thinks resentfully about Will and all that the anchor comes to stand for.
And then Mac comes along, in all her principled glory, with Jim practically bounding at her heels, talking about reforming the show and even getting Will on board with a “mission to civilize” and Don can’t get the bitter taste out of his mouth that they’ve taken everything he’s wanted all along.
Every story needs a villain, he thinks, and he’s more than happy to be the antagonist as they try to launch News Night 2.0. He hopes they choke on their smug rhetoric.