spunky journalist holly hunter produce investigative news report for a major news network . she a motor mouth maverick and dazzlingly good at her job and with little time for romantic relationship . enter william hurt and albert brook and two men who vie for her love . brook be an old school journalist who adore holly because she represent everything good about journalism . they both believe that the medium exist to test the god and educate the public and fight for truth . child of the sixty and they embody hippie value . theyre defender of the public good . knight who fight valiantly with pen and camera . william hurt and in contrast and be a far more complex character . initially awkward and clumsy and self depreciating and he gradually reveal himself to be a sexy and manipulative high achiever and skilled at climb the corporate ladder . unlike holly and brook and he symbolic of modern medium value represent news a spectacle and journalism a entertainment and news anchor a celebrity and truth a subject to edit board . we want to despise him and his blip time junk food journalism and but we just can not quite manage it . he play the game by it own rule . do we condemn him for lack a moral backbone . do we condemn the game . can the game exist if it rule be disobey . how have these rule evolve . this isn not lumet and chayefsky network and and so the film never bother to answer or raise these question . content to keep thing on the level of light comedy and it end with hurt be promote to london division and brook be boot to a tiny community network . holly and have reject both men and remain catch between them . the last bastion of medium integrity and this spunky reporter remembers her root and mourn the loss of brook and warn herself to be on the guard of future william hurt . it a cute end and but compare to network the film seem positively trite . chayefsky vision be one in which global medium and despite it ubiquity and offer less meaningful information . he foresee a world in which globalisation have homogenize culture and information have become subject to corporatisation and a handful of medium monopoly control all international news . this be a world in which the truth be subject to shareholder meeting and economic interest . a world in which viewer rating determine content and opinion poll dictate top story . perhaps this be why broadcast news and which longs for the glory day of journalism and end on such a bittersweet note . it know what the future hold . make in 1987 and it be live it for at least a decade . but today and in the digital age and thing be even bad . merger and acquisition have leave a very small number of massive firm dominate the communication landscape . with this have come the hyper commercialism of content and the barrier between the creative or editorial side and the commercial side all but collapse . today everyone might be able to start their own blog or website and but these be grass root affair . a the communication reach of the individual increase ( due to technological progress email and internet and electricity and air mail etc ) the size of the individual world increase likewise . he must project his voice both further and louder and futilely battle that deafen white noise and the incessant verbal static that be the global community . so ultimately you need two thing accord to democratic theory . firstly and you need a rigorous come of people in power and people who want to be in power and both in the private and public sector . secondly and you need a wide range of informed opinion on all important issue of the day . in a democratic society the medium system a a whole should produce this sort of culture . unfortunately and the structure we currently have in the global system work directly against the need of democratic journalism and a democratic society . positive this be lightweight stuff and but a witty script and some funny moment and a brief cameo by jack nicholson and elevate it above most other film about journalism . interestingly and unlike most film about the medium and it never dip into satire and and instead plays thing a a straight love triangle . worth one viewing .