If you think journalism has gone to hell, you won’t get an argument from me.
I don’t hate it — I still practice it and am grateful for the income — but the idea and execution of the industry has morphed over the decades from town criers to scandalous broadsheets to principled news organizations to scandalous tabloids to mindless aggregators. Print ruled for ages, but then radio and TV came in to further reshape it, but in any medium, journalism ultimately has to give the public what it wants — and will pay for.
James Graham’s Ink, now playing at Circuit Playhouse, brilliantly describes one of those defining shifts in the newspaper era when, in 1969, a 38-year-old, pre-tycoon Rupert Murdoch bought a failing British rag. To run The Sun, he hired his friend Larry Lamb away from a competitor and challenged him to boost the numbers to surpass the fusty broadsheet that had long led in circulation in the UK.
The play visits all the topics that journalists talk about — newsworthiness, ethics, objectivity — and one of the key insights into the thinking of the new endeavor from Murdoch/Lamb comes in a discussion of the five W’s: who, what, when, where, and why.
But Lamb challenges the need for that last W: “The only thing worth asking isn’t why — it’s: what’s next?”
That philosophy isn’t deep, but sets the stage for how storytelling in newspapers would be trending along with the clearly understood primary goal of making money. Its duty to inform the public would be done by entertaining and titillating readers, not by crafting thoughtful stories for the civic minded. And The Sun would show how a news organization could shape what was next.
The Circuit staging is helmed by Chicago-based Warner Crocker, who keeps the action snappy whether its dialogue between Murdoch (Michael Kinslow) and Lamb (David Hammonds), or chaotic newsroom scenes with the entire cast throwing newspaper bundles, barking into phones, typing furiously, posing for pictures, cracking wise, and arguing tirelessly.
Graham’s script is crisp and purposeful, propelling the story, revealing the characters, and amping up the stakes. It doesn’t set up Murdoch or Lamb as good guys or bad. They have their dreams and in Act One, you may well find yourself pulling for their audacious enterprise to succeed — they are, after all, trying to stick it to the power structure. Act Two keeps the energy but gets inside the consequences of their newspaper’s brashness. How flippant can you be in a life-or-death situation?
The Circuit cast is solid and the production smartly executed. It’s entertaining from the get-go and stirs up enough issues to provoke discussions long after the final bows.
More than 50 years later, Murdoch is still around and still intent on making money from the news business — hence his multi-billion-dollar company named News Corp. His publishing legacy will include taking bold risks and shaping global news coverage as well as shamelessly pushing lies, agendas, and the lowest common denominator.
Ink runs through April 16th at Circuit Playhouse. For info and tickets, go to playhouseonthesquare.org.