Two of the distinguishing characteristics of contemporary American society are political polarization and low expectations of public figures. Aaron Sorkin’s new television show, The Newsroom, takes on these dangerous–and related–characteristics in a powerful way.

It calls the question: in what ways do we fail to do our best or achieve what we otherwise might because of our awareness of extraordinarily low expectations of leaders of every stripe (particularly, I am sad to say, business)? What if we respected people who, as professionals, attempt to do great things rather than labeling them as naïve?

HBO has requested that their publicly-available pilot episode not be embedded on other sites, so click here to watch the video: http://youtu.be/1U4ZhFDFYvE?hd=1