Short Circuit

Don't stop the presses just yet

While Short Circuit was never fortunate enough to be graced with comments or missives from Amanda, apparently she and a fellow student journalist have exchanged some harsh words. Gawker has the story. What do you think? Were Amanda and the rest of The Paper crew up fair game for scrutiny?

The world needs an editor

Today, that editor is you. If you could rewrite history...

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             The series ended tonight with a few mysteries. With an entire semester left to go, I guess we'll go it choose-your-own-adventure style:

Why wouldn't Amanda tell the rest of the class she wouldn't show at the ropes course, which was intended to bring the staff unity? Just because your previous attempts failed doesn't exempt you from this one, college applications or not. Does she ever win everyone over?

Why didn't Alex ever get that he was at his best when he was leading and his worst when he was sulking? Wearing your bad attitude on your sleeve got you noticed for all the wrong reasons. Even Trevor had to concede that Amanda stepped up when a front page story was in peril. Gain respect by doing, not whining. Did he step it up the rest of the year?

Why did the producers wait until the last episode to show The Circuit tackling real issues that were such hot potatoes the administration felt compelled to intervene? It would have been nice to know who wrote the story, more about it and watch the reporting in action. Does a series about student journalism deserve at least that?

Will any editors read this sentence spoken so truthfully by Amanda this last episode of The Paper: "To be an editor, you have to be a crazy person."

The end

This last and final week of The Paper we get a double-episode dose of The Circuit staff to see whether they pulls together or falls apart by the end of first semester. Catch a sneak peek here.

In an effort to pull the strife-plagued together, Mrs. Weiss organizes a gathering at one of those ropes courses so everyone learns to trust one another and not hate so much. Amanda doesn't show. Trevor and Alex spar. Hmmm.

In the final episode, Alex and Amanda have a showdown in which she confronts him about his total lack of support for her leadership.

We won't get to see whether second semester went any more smoothly, but maybe that's for the best. I can't imagine even a few more episodes about the drama at the student paper. Journalism went missing on a series that promised to be different than most MTV fare, and even the staff told Short Circuit they are ready for the series to be over.

Video | Here's the scoop about 'The Paper'

Herald photographer Lilly Echeverria and I caught five members of the cast from MTV's The Paper at the Muvico in Davie last night, where they were hosting a screening of the movie American Teen. The Cypress Bay High student journalists dished about their MTV stardom -- and said they will actually be relieved when the series ends in two weeks. The one thing they wish they could change: putting more journalism in The Paper. Sure, life was dramatic, they said, but they actually did some serious stuff at their Weston high school, too. Go here to read some of their work.

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A prince is born

Whatever drama has taken place until now, this week, Adam shows he's the king of class -- and it has nothing to do with being crowned grand pooba of homecoming.

Mrs. Weiss hopes that splitting up the various hostile factions in class with a new seating chart might be a turn for the better.

Giana and Trevor behave as if sitting apart in class means there's no point in going -- was Giana REALLY in the running to be editor-in-chief? All Alex can do is claim Amanda got special treatment because Mrs. Weiss didn't change her seat. But Amanda was never a part of any of the journalism class cliques, no eye-rolling, no undermining, backstabbing, or hostility. She did yank Dan's column, but that was quite out in the open.

So in yet another attempt at solidarity, Amanda brings an old photo of the staff, when they were happily, earnestly bearing smiles. Adam gets it, and he suggests recreating the moment at homecoming.

(In the meantime, Amanda gets an nerdlicious invite to the dance -- a message in Latin from oft-admirer Joey Hodges, who supplies a dictionary for Amanda to decipher his call to the school courtyard. Phooey on him for later canceling, via text message, on the claims of grounding. And Adam shows up during spirit week in a get up that prompts Mrs. Weiss to say "It's hard to have a conversation with someone with words written across their genitals." Yeah.)

Amanda morphs into Al Gore, at least the scenes I remember after his failed presidential bid, when his personality eclipses the loss. She comes off vivacious and vibrant at the dance, despite the ditching.

Adam's attempt to resurrect last school year's cheer in a photo at the dance fails, with Dan, Giana and Trevor missing.  Alex's grumpy disposition doesn't help. Back in class, Adam displays the new photo with pride, to which Alex can only say "This picture is not going to unite the class."

You got any better ideas?

Pulp nonfiction

In a twist, I get to blog about South Florida journalism observer Bob Norman. Here's a link to his take on The Paper.

Putting the high school in The Paper

                                                                                                                So this week, we watch as one of The Circuit's own, Adam, makes a play for homecoming queenking. I don't know what this has to do with journalism, unless there's a component about the paper preparing a fantabulous issue based on the annual fall activity. Perhaps they'll come up with the cleverest complement of coverage since the advent of Clearasil. I sincerely hope so. Otherwise, I'm not sure where the rest of this series is going. In the meantime, while I won't spoil it for you, you can find out whether Adam is crowned ruler of an inexact kingdom in the October issue. Can anyone give me a hint whether he really ended up getting labeled Most Dramatic or Best All Around?

TV about newspapers

The Paper may be one of the few shows about student journalists, but television producers have had a long-running love affair with shows about print journalism. Last month, Andy Edelstein at Newsday came up with a list of five examples. But missing from his list are the six-episode Bravo series called Tabloid Wars, a documentary series set inside the New York Daily News. Another newsroom drama I just have to plug: one based on The Miami Herald's newsroom, called City Desk. This series, which aired on the now-defunct WAMI back in 1998, chronicled the innerworkings of The Herald's metro section, including following then crime reporter Frances Robles, covering a murder and now retired Herald-ite Arnold Markowitz, managing to get an interview with a family of a young man minutes after they learn their grandson has been killed.

Here's Edelstein's list, courtesy of Newsday:

'The Paper," a reality show that chronicles the tension at a high-school newspaper, debuts Monday at 10:30 p.m. on MTV. Who knew that tension exists at a high-school newspaper, but leave it to MTV to come up with a concept that undoubtedly will play like a hybrid between "The Real World" and "The Front Page." Newspapers may be dying, but TV shows set in newsrooms have been plentiful for years. Here are five:

I Cover Times Square (ABC, 1950-51) - I've never seen this show, but I love the title and concept. Harold Huber (the "Charlie Chan" movies) played a crusading Broadway columnist (as opposed to a non- crusading Broadway columnist?) who hung out at the out-of-town-newspaper stand in Times Square.

Adventures of Superman (Syndicated, 1951-57) - Ace reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane, cub reporter Jimmy Olsen and editor Perry ("Don't call me chief!") White seemed to put out Metropolis' Daily Planet all by themselves. (The same characters showed up in ABC's 1993-97 series "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.")

Lou Grant (CBS, 1977-82) - When "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ended, Ed Asner's gruff character went back to his newspaper roots, signing on as the crusading city editor of the Los Angeles Tribune in this fine drama.

New York News (CBS, 1995) - Moore, too, transferred into the city room. Not as sweet Mary Richards, but as the tyrannical Louise "The Dragon" Felcott, editor of the New York Reporter, a struggling tabloid.

Everybody Loves Raymond (CBS, 1996-2005) - Well, Ray Barone did toil as a sportswriter for Newsday, even if no one ever saw him in the newsroom.

Everybody's a comedian