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I’m one of the people who was concerned that the portrayal of the characters in the Baltimore Sun newsroom in the season premiere of The Wire was a tad unsubtle. Actual newspaper employee Fred Clark disagrees:

I’ve read reviews complaining that Haynes seems unrealistically heroic, or that the newsroom scenes are overly explicit, with the lines of right and wrong drawn in uncharacteristically broad strokes. We’ll see. That can happen in a series’ final season, when the writers sometimes feel a now-or-never pressure that can override a previously subtle touch. But to me the scenes in the newsroom were painfully real. The dialogue rang true with words and phrases I’ve heard — or said myself — dozens of times.

The whole post is worth reading, as it explains the David Simon ethos of craftsmen versus careerists. Great stuff. If you, like me, don’t know what a “local information center” is, you definitely need to read it.