re: Has their ever been a more self-important TV show than "The Newsroom"?

I equate it to the move The Contender. That movie had some pretty heavy starpower. Jeff Bridges is a great POTUS and Gary Oldman is as solid as ever. The main star is a former Republican who claims the party left her, but she is pretty liberal and preachy in a movie that it liberal and preachy. We see nothing in her political life that indicates that she'd ever be a Republican. If the Contender had shifted more to the middle, then it would've probably gone down as a really good political thriller, but it just had to have a major slant.

The Newsroom had potential, but it chose to go a different route.