When the Operation Genoa coverage begins next week…several “News Night” team members may be forced to leave. (Photo property of HBO)
By: Jacob Elyachar
It has been a busy year for the News Night with Will McAvoy crew.
The team tackled multiple news stories including the Middle East crises, the 2012 election and the Trayvon Martin shooting. However, one of the biggest stories that they went after, Operation Genoa landed them in hot water with the Atlantis World Media (AWM) legal team.
So what were the events that lead them to this debacle? Read on to find out…
Mac assembled the Operation: Genoa Red Team. The team consisted of veterans Mac, Charlie, visiting producer Jerry Dantana, Maggie and Neal plus new recruits: Don, Jim and Sloan. If viewers watched the episode closely, all three rookies were dumbfounded and argued about the evidence that the team gathered from the past several episodes.
Jim argued with Jerry that his original source, Cyrus West, was an unreliable source and both Don and Sloan added that it needed more credibility. It turned out there was a three-star general who knew about Operation Genoa and Jim asked about how he is going to do interview. Mac stated that the cover would be the crisis in Libya.
Mac and Charlie traveled to Maryland and met with the eccentric three-star general who was much more interested in March Madness than talking about Operation Genoa. That was…until Charlie dropped some key terms including sarin gas. Then, the three-star general began to negotiate his terms.
The three-star general requested that he would only work with Jerry Dantana and that News Night would disguise his voice and put a black outline on his persona. After Jerry met with him, he raced back to the ACN offices and did the most unethical activity a journalist could do…play around with the tape, so he can use it for his own political agenda.
When he presented the tape to the Red Team, Charlie stated, “They were not ready to air it” and Mac wanted one more source. Angrily, Jerry revealed his cards and exploded at his teammates. Months passed before the team found their second source and it turned out…there was a soldier who confirmed everything.
As the episode ended, Charlie met with Rebecca Halliday and told her that they received 6,000,000 viewers for the primetime special on Genoa but added, ”None of it was true.”
Across the News Night office, Sloan and Will bonded while the News Night anchor finally dumped Nina Howard after listening to her bad ideas.
Meanwhile, Jim’s girlfriend, Hallie Shea, visited the city and brought an unwelcomed surprise…his “favorite” sparring partner Taylor Warren, who revealed that the Romney campaign fired her. Jim also saw Maggie drinking alone and found out that she could be an angry drunk while Mac and Don bonded over lost love and if they trusted…Jerry Dantana.
Next week: the Genoa episode airs and its consequences will rock “News Night” to its core!
