I love how Scott looks at the bosses as he’s walking to his desk to make sure they’ll see and hear his chair push. It’s exactly what a slimeball like Scott would do. Brilliant acting.
Its important to distinguish the difference between using an anonymous source correctly and incorrectly. In this case, Gus is uncomfortable using an anonymous source when there are plenty of people who would have gone on the record and there is no good reason to not go on the record. There are times where to protect the source from backlash, you need to keep a quote anonymous. There is also a difference between anonymously quoted in the media and known amongst the journalists. In some situations, a reporter may share the identity of a source with the editor/others within their organisation, but publicly the identity will not be published. In a lot of political situations a source will even tell a reporter, you can only identify me as a "senior figure in the administration/campaign". Just because its an anonymous source, doesn't mean it's not on the level and its important to remember that.
Being called a fabricator as a journalist is the gravest insult, especially by a colleague, and he just walked away and whined to a higher-up rather than stand his ground whilst his peers were watching. What a wretched individual Templeton was.
Favorite segment: He yelled "it's all in my notes!!". He slammed his notebook down and walks away. His colleague picks up the notebook, glances through it and says "it's empty..."
"First it's a little quote they clean up, then it's a whole anecdote. Pretty soon there're seeing some amazing shit. They happen to be standing on the right street corner in Tel Aviv when the pizza joint blows up and the human head rolls past with the eyes still blinking."
@@stephengrigg5988 she probably only got the job in the first place because of what was in between her legs, or the things she let in between them. Justice served if you ask me.
This is such a move on Gus' part. He got the Metro Editor to sign off on a clear policy ruling, and then didn't let Klebanow talk him into going into a private conference room and sharing the blame for putting the quote back in. Finally, he saw Templeton's tantrum and raised by stating his opinion calmly and clearly but loud enough that everyone heard, and then walked out. It put Klebanow in a position where he could not put the quote back in without wearing it all by himself.
Lots of ppl hate the news storyline but I found it pretty clever and insightful. It seems very frustrating to keep up with the digital age but also keep ethics.
@@sumoni I don't think people hate the news storyline because it wasn't clever or well written or anything, I think they hate it because Scott is a piece of shit that never gets his comeuppance. But that's just the kind of show The Wire is, not every hero gets an award, and not every villain gets punished, just like in real life. And that's doubly true with the newspaper storyline, since that was based on David Simon's time working on a newspaper, and Scott was based on a real guy that David Simon hated.
That subtle look over to the managing editor as Scott walked back to his desk after being creamed by Gus before slamming his chair to get his attention. Then the look on the ME’s face, knowing it’s bullshit but eager to push it forward anyway. The little details in this show are great.
All the pieces matter. There’s always one or more details hidden in the scenes of The Wire that speak volumes on the quality of its screenplay and direction.
Scott was a great liar. Every time Gus expressed his doubts about the veracity of his reporting, Scott's indignation was on point. The management saw awards as the ultimate way to 'do more with less'. It took another liar to catch Scott Templeton out.
I love that term, to catch out, I remember hearing it in a british TV drama, a female spouse in exasperation saying to her spouse, "don't try and catch me out" - you just rarely hear it used, but it's one of those euphemisms that stands the test of time.
i'd say he was a terrible liar since gus was suspicious from the jump lol. he was definitely good at faking (or maybe it was real to him) indignation tho
@@tonyameredith7081 he was found at by mcnulty because He was faking the serial killer murders but Scott was making up that serial killer called him but mcnullty didn’t say anything as it was helping his cause and would have implicated him.
Scott was such an odious character. It's not only the fabricated stories, but also the arrogance, entitlement, laziness, and petulance. The way he throws a very visible tantrum so his daddy Klebanow can come running is just so cringeworthy.
@Joseph Mason McNulty is a piece of shit in a lot of ways, but he and Templeton have very little in common. McNulty is extremely smart, competent, and dedicated - much of his behaviour is driven by his obsession with the job. Templeton is a lazy, self-absorbed moron who can't even be bothered to do something as simple as calling for react quotes. God I hate that fucking character.
This, on it's own, would actually be a great spinoff show if done on the level of The Wire. A show about the inner workings of press can be Emmy material.
@@RenegadeShepTheSpacer Holy cow! This scene, and the build-up to it, really set Gus apart in the series, he was the exact opposite of so many characters, he was incorruptible and uncompromising.
Best part of this scene is when Scott is walking back to his desk and sees Klebanow and knowing pushing the chair would bring him over to find out what happened.
Every season of The Wire gave us some of the best new characters. Season 2 gave us Sobotka, season 3 delivered Slim, season 4 could honestly go to any one of the kids, and finally, they gave us Gus. The Wire knew how to write their characters.
Can we appreciate how good the guy who plays Scott is? Like that face he makes as he walks over to Gus is the perfect example of "I was fully prepared to be caught out so I'm going to scrunch up my face in confusion so it looks like I'm surprised"
He’s actually a very talented director too - he’s done a few top tier movies, notably “Spotlight” which coincidentally is also about newspaper journalism. He also did the station agent, which is a totally different movie but also brilliant, and was Peter Dinklage’s breakout role
They were all trying to move on to bigger and better things as well. They were bappy to go along and prefer printing lies than a rewrite. Simple enough. They all want more than their station delivers
That's how workplaces, well, work. The bosses choose a cocksucker to be their golden horse and will rise him to the top, while the true pros who have the balls to stand up when the enterprise is fucking up get either demoted or fired
Scott runs straight to daddy to snitch on Gus, but he doesn't even have the balls do it directly, so he throws a little tantrum so Tom will see it and come talk to him. THIS is how you write a conniving weasel character like Scott without overdoing it. This is how real-world passive-aggressive office politics work.
Honestly that was kinda the heart of whole season, maybe the whole show. Whole generation of police and bangers making selfish choices and taking shortcuts to get ahead, doing the game dirty. Its a rough world.
The best part is showing the contrast of this with the other journalist who followed Bubble's story. He spent several sessions with Bubbles and really dug into his story. But Scott ended up winning the Pulitzer..
I saw it differently....not to go race card here but I saw Scott as an over eager mediocre (white male) reporter who desperately wanted the limelight and was willing to exploit the tales of woe in the ghetto to get a leg up...
There is actually a deleted scene in season 5 that explains Scott's character more in depth. Him and slim Charles were friends, and he tells slim about the mcnulty confrontation. This is when slim tells him "if it's a lie. Then we fight on that lie"
Season 5 was so difficult. Rooting for Gus to figure out everything was fake, but at the same time not wanting anyone to find out that everything was fake once the arrests happened
One of the reasons this show was SO amazing. As captivating as the street stuff was the political and social aspects were just as entertaining and insightful!
Never did we get a sense of Scott's internal life or motives beyond Pulitzer glory. I admire Gus' steadfast ethics but the newspaper plotline in this season was a bit thin. The empty notepad bit was too on the nose.
I hope there’s never a full length feature film of The Wire or a prequel series. Its legacy is fine as it is. No need to be like Entourage or The Sopranos.
David Simon said at the Sun the rule was it's no good unless you get a middle name... or maybe it was initials. But he's right, you can't make it look like it COULD be made up in a newspaper.
I underrated season 5 like a lot of people. And now I'm realizing just how significant it's message was. Fox, CNN, MSNBC and many others, are all biased, angle spinning bullshit with an agenda. This just showed the seeds of it.
Brett Bewley exactly!!! Now it’s less about print. It’s all about ratings on these 24 hour “entertainment news” outlets. The accountability for “journalism” is out the window. They would have put Scott’s story on tv before anyone had a chance to vet
@@AlwonDomz I basically already do with Jimmy Dore and Secular talk. And for a more "official" journalism I really like Rising with Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.
@@brettbewley5798 These are opinion shows, not necessarily news. They source AP and all the "alphabet outlets." They don't have money to do any real journalism. Opinion is fine. Sometimes well intentioned analysis is great to hear. I don't know about listening to Dore though, he's lazy. What's scary is that too many people think this stuff is news. Nothing is wrong with opinion but real journalism requires people on the ground and sometimes moving like a crafty detective. For instance; the Miami Sun's reporting on Epstein was great. Assange was also good at what he did, getting internal sources to leak. Greenwald did good work with Snowden. The Pandora Papers reporting was good. The majority of people never read these articles and would rather stories be delivered in short soundbites.
People say Scott never got what he deserved. But McNulty, Gus... they gave him that. If a newspaper company is run by people who tolerate such work ethics, the whole newspaper deserves to die - and if the market benefits newspaper companies like that, the whole market deserves to implode. But Scott was shown multiple times that he is despised by everyone who could be considered a real professional. He might get the prizes, but they will never let him forget that he is an impostor.
Gus played this beautifully. 1. Made sure the ME had his back before starting. 2. Refused to allow his boss to talk him into reversing the decision quietly ("let's go to my office"), forcing him to pull it back and reedit himself. 3. Was a bit loud about it to make sure everyone heard why. 4. Said goodnight and left, forcing the boss's hand if he wants to protect their pet.
@@noimnotnice True! What's more insidious about the outlets you named, they spread disinformation just like Fox but do it with that veneer of legitimacy. Fox is cartoonish but I still read their harder news articles, same with the other alphabet outlets. They do have billions dumped into the news but you have to consume with a skeptical eye and compare info if you really care about the truth.
I never understood why people hate(d) the newspaper storyline. It was great for a change of pace/scenery and it helped tie in what McNulty was trying to do in regards to trying to catch the so called "Homeless Serial Killer". I felt the same way about Dock/Stevedore storyline. People get on a one-track theme and don't want to change lanes. 🤷🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
Carver was so underrated Daniels was so underrated Lester was so underrated Mcnulty was so underrated Rawls was so underrated Landsman was so underrated Sydnor was so underrated Cutty was so underrated Watkins was so underrated Brother mouzone was so underrated Dr Frazier was so underrated Elena mcnulty was so underrated Donette was so underrated Mcnulty’ s sons were so underrated The camera that Marlo stole was so underrated The pit sandwich was so underrated Anyone else? I thought I saw a janitor at the courthouse who was also underrated
I was just trying to tally my most despicable characters in the whole series. Valcheck Cheese Templeton Marlo (although he was consistently sociopathic) Stringer (controversial, but he did sell Avon out after all) There's some caveats to the two guys who order brutal, torturous murder, but the other three are pure, slimy bastards.
1. Michael Steintorf (Small Role but i hated him so much) 2. Scott 3. Brianna Barksdale Notables are Namonds Mum, Herc, Levy, Cheese, Marla Daniels, Tommy Carcetti, Herc, Burrell, and even Rhonda at times.
Okay, I’ll preface this comment with how season 5 was fantastic, and I loved Clark Johnson as Gus. Having said that, I think David Simon’s personal connection/ bias towards the media storyline of season 5 was really apparent at times. It was pretty clear that he really had an axe to grind. Sometimes it just stood in contrast to with the other aspects of the city in prior seasons, you could tell there was more of a neutral telling of the story.
Total bullshit. Critics loved the wire cause it ripped on corruption in all aspects of the city and David turns on them and they start bellyaching about how he's out for vengeance. Like it's the topic he was most qualified to talk on and they toss that out because it attacks their bosses
“Neutral telling of the story”? The Wire called bullshit in every institution it showed, from the police, unions, federal agencies, politics, schools, and, yes, newspapers too. The only shortcoming that season 5 had was that it was shorter than the others (HBO’s fault). The authors had less screen time and less ability to present a nuanced and detailed view of newspapers at the time. What they did managed to show was quite compelling, though.
Francesco Tamburini what I meant by neutral was an unbiased and honest portrayal of said institutions, and as you put, calling bullshit on them. I’m just saying that the shorter episode order wasn’t the only only shortcoming, when it came to the portrayal of the newsroom.
Connor Rognlin I wonder why we say Simon was biased in his portrayal of The Sun and we don’t say that Burns was biased in his portrayal of the city police, federal authorities, or the school system. I don’t see a big difference between Rawls and Marimow on one side, Whiting and Klebanow on the other. They lead institutions according to logics that betray the nature and the function of said institutions. The fact that we are happy to see the police portrayed negatively but skeptical when journalists are treated the same way may have to do with a liberal bias on our side.
Scott's a scary character. The fact that journalists don't HAVE to reveal sources does kinda mean anyone can make shit up for the headline and people will believe it.
At legitimate news organizations the anonymous sources are known to senior editors and the information is corroborated independently. That's Gus's point.
I love the old boy on the left at 2:11 who looks genuinely awestruck by the righteous gumption on Gus's part, its like a mix of "Is he actually saying that shit?" and "Go get em man!" 😂😂😂
I will say the writing for season 5 wasn’t as tight as the previous seasons, and the fake serial killer plot felt a bit too sensationalized and off tone for the show, but at the same time I recognize that’s kind of the point since the meta narrative of the season is sensationalized media vs truthful media, and I think it was done in a very clever way that not only ties in with the narrative and themes of the show, but is also a statement about fiction and the show itself and how it tried to portray everything as true and accurate to real life as they could, so that bumps it up for me. I do think it’s the weakest season but it is still great in many ways.
The narrative was very loose compared to the previous 4 seasons and major aspects of the plot even seemed pretty nonsensical at times. It's a shame, because the quality of acting was just as high as before - the overall story just ran out of steam unfortunately.
This show perfectly sums up the problem with the news today. Sadly, most of the old-school editors like Gus have long since retired, and we're left with a bunch of Scotts running the show. The bosses don't care because sensationalism sells.
This entire season about the news certainly did not age well. Nowadays, it's about finding stories that fit a certain narrative and overlooking the ones which simply don't.
Scott is the reason I fill angry at the show, because every one in it got what they deserve except him and those higher ups at the Sun. Now I know that probably, like always, they got their punishment later, maybe 5 years later, when someone spoke openly and the word got out. But I think we deserved to see something like that at the end of the show.
@@ImaginationFriend yes ofc sorry for my vague comment. The wire has a kind of absurdist outlook in what people deserve and what reality ends up giving them. For example, we see dukie fall into a life of suffering and drug addiction after being nothing but real and loving to those around him, same way we end up seeing the reporters get awards and success by being liars and backstabbers. Good people get bad things and bad people get away with it all the time, that's just life. Have a great day.
I do love the irony that the actor playing Scott, Tom McCarthy, also played a lousy reporter on Law and Order SVU but then wrote and directed Spotlight.
I worked with a guy like this on Wall Street, unfortunately by the time the CFO and COO realized he was a dishonest stock broker, very good people had already lost their jobs.
I worked in journalism on copy for 3 years. We were pretty insulated from these shenanigans, but every once in awhile an article would come through with some funky shit in the quotes and sure enough, we’d send it back to the desk editor and that reporter would get an earful from the ME or even the EIC.
They saw the whole Brian Williams thing coming. During the Trump years it seemed like every article I read had anonymous source after anonymous source with powerful statements of outrage. It is continuing to this day. This show explains so many things.
I get through rewatching the Scott Templeton story by imagining the day when one of his stories - maybe not the homeless killing and abduction stories but we all know he's not going to stop fabricating stories (or if he does then as the homeless killings fade from public view so will his significance in the journalism world and he'll be working bit stories in either Baltimore or another newspaper) - is proven to be completely and utterly fabricated and then a story of his deceit is published in a prominent newspaper with his photograph in an article that also calls his covering of all his articles into question and even questions if he should return the Pulitzer Prize. And then I imagine Klebanow's face.
The reason why that white guy boss always has Scotts back is because he knows that newspapers are starting to fail, so he's willing to turn a blind eye to some bullshit if it means getting good stories.
its something to me to not only get caught red-handed in a lie but to go a step further by being pissed off while know full well that you are lying is down right demonic- I couldn't do it.
