"The West Wing" Sucks

A rant.

When people find out you are a political reporter, one of the first five things they say to you is this: “You must LOVE ‘The West Wing’, right?????”

To which I have always sort of nodded pleasantly — and then tried to change the subject. Immediately.

Because the truth is that I don’t LOVE ‘The West Wing.” I don’t even LIKE the show. In fact, I HATE it.

I was thinking about this loathing recently when the Internet got up in arms after Max pulled the “The West Wing” from its streaming service. As Oliver Darcy reported in his excellent “Status” newsletter:

The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streamer quietly pulled “The West Wing” from its service during the holiday break. I’m told the decision was made as part of a cost cutting measure after a ROI evaluation. In other words, the David Zaslav-led company didn’t want to dish out for a show that wasn’t pulling in a worthwhile audience.

Amid the uproar, Max quickly reversed course — reinstating the show’s availability, all 7 seasons worth.

Meh.

Before you judge me, let me explain the reasons for my hatred. You (probably) still won’t agree with me but — maybe — you will understand where I am coming from.

Reason #1: The lack of realism

It’s always hard to watch a show that seeks to fictionalize your profession. It makes it really hard to suspend your disbelief when the show diverges from how things actually work.

It’s the same reason that doctors tend not to like “ER” and lawyers and cops aren’t huge “Law and Order” fans.

For me, who knows nothing about how hospitals work or how doctors and nurses conduct their business, “ER” seems like a totally plausible version — albeit dramatized — of how that stuff works.

But my doctor friends? They roll their eyes at how the show portrays their decision-making, the logistics of working in a hospital etc.

Same goes for me with “The West Wing.”

I’ll give you one example. In the early days of the show, C.J. Cregg (Allison Janney) is the White House press secretary. And somehow she is also brought in to be consulted about policy decisions — sitting oftentimes, with the chief of staff and the president.

That would NEVER happen — for a bunch of reasons.

First of all, the press secretary is often walled-off from those sorts of conversations for his or her own good, to give them plausible deniability when asked questions by the reporters who cover the White House.

Second, the idea that the press secretary would be deciding policy is, er, a fantasy. That person might be brought in on the discussion of how to sell the policy to the public (or the media) but the press secretary simply isn’t usually included in those sorts of high level meetings.

I know these are the niggling annoyances of a practitioner of political journalism. And they may not matter to you. But:

Reason #2: It’s a Liberal Fantasy

Aaron Sorkin, who created the show, is a Democrat who has donated to lots and lots of the party’s candidates over the years.

It shows in his, uh, show.

In everything from the way President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen) thinks and makes decisions to the conversations his top aides have — totally unrealistic and not the way real people talk — everything is centered on policy.

What’s the best policy for the most people? What are the pro and cons of this policy? What do thinktanks say? (Of course, all of Sorkin’s characters are familiar with every single white paper ever released on a particular subject.)

When a character injects the idea of political calculation into any discussion, it is looked down on. And Bartlet/Sheen never makes BIG decisions based on politics. All of his decisions are because of deeply-held beliefs. Or some policy paper that he read in the middle of the night that led to a change in his thinking.

This is NOT how politics (or any effective White House) works. The reality is that political calculation sits at the heart of almost any decision that gets made or even considered. Presidents that don’t put politics at the forefront are usually one-term presidents.

The left tends to bristle at this fact. They want our elected officials to be high-minded — debating and deciding on issues based on the policy merits.

Sorkin played into — and fomented — that notion, that if only we elected smart people (who leaned left!), we could have the government we wanted. That we could get back to the greatness of the Founding Fathers and all that.

But, here’s the thing. The Founding Fathers were SUPER political. If you need evidence do a Google search for the 1800 campaign between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It wasn’t exactly a high-minded battle of policy!

“The West Wing” pushed a fantasy about how politics and government could work. And lots and lots of people bought it.

Reason #3: The Sanctimony

“The West Wing” was a TV show, yes. But, like all of Sorkin’s creations, it also functioned as his bully pulpit — where he could scold the people in politics and journalism about what they were doing wrong.

This was most obvious in the laughable dialogue between the aides in the Bartlet White House. From Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) to Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) to Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe), the main characters spoke in monologues. It was like watching a series of lectures about a) what real politicians and real journalists were doing wrong and b) how, if Sorkin was in charge, things would be better.

Like, give me a break.

In retrospect, Sorkin’s sanctimony about news and politics had yet to reach its apogee with “The West Wing.” It wasn’t until “The Newsroom” — Sorkin’s subsequent drama about a fictional cable network — that the lecturing got turned up to 11.

This, from a Hollywood Reporter review of the show in June 2012, hits the nail on the head:

Are the characters exceptionally quick-witted and do they dabble in fast-paced repartee? Yes. Do characters often talk in what could best be described as elaborate, heartfelt and intellectual monologues? They do. Sorkin has historically been prone to what’s called monologueing. But perhaps it should be called soapboxing in his case because there’s always that nagging feeling that you’re listening to a lecture.

The Jeff Daniels character — the lead anchor of this cable network and the one who, gag, is willing to speak truth to power — is just the absolute worst, a caricature of a moralizing windbag.

This Daniels monologue, which was celebrated by liberals at the time he delivered it (see above about the whole liberal fantasy thing, is particularly egregious (and gets lots of its facts wrong):

UGHHHHH.

Look. I don’t hate the “The West Wing” as much as I hate “House of Cards,” which is legit the worst show about politics ever produced.

Sidebar on that — but an important one: The portrayal of the female reporter in “HOC” is downright offensive. As I wrote back when I worked at the Washington Post:

This character, played by Kate Mara, is what ultimately led me to walk away from the show. Let's start with the fact that the way Zoe, a young reporter, begins her source building with [Frank] Underwood is by going to his house late one night to show him a picture of him looking at her butt on the way into an event. That seems both far-fetched and, frankly, offensive to female reporters everywhere. But, wait, it gets worse. When Underwood is off in South Carolina taking care of a local matter and dries up as a source, Zoe tries to lure him back into giving her information by flirting with him via text. Because, of course, that's how a female reporter would get information from a male politician. That's a remarkably insulting idea.

Gross then. Gross now.

“West Wing” isn’t nearly that bad. I just do NOT get the veneration for the show. (My friend Carlos Lozada, who is smarter than me in every respect, recently chose Jed Bartlett as his favorite fictional president ever!)

To me, the show created an image and an expectation of politics and political journalism that doesn’t even come close to comporting with what it’s actually like. And, for people not in this world, they are perennially disappointed that real politics doesn’t look and sound like “The West Wing.”

But politics NEVER looked and sounded like “The West Wing”!

If you want to watch a show that approximates my experience in the world of politics, watch “Veep.” That’s the show that gets at the combination of the ridiculous and the sublime that is what politics is really like.

The best part? “Veep” is available on Max too!