The Angriest Man In Television

The Atlantic has an article on The Wire and its creator David Simon, The Angriest Man In Television. It seems his fifth season, where he takes on the newspaper Simon used to work, is becoming the most controversial. Probably because it's got the most people who can write about it.

"The essential difference between writing nonfiction and writing fiction is that the artist owns his vision, while the journalist can never really claim one, or at least not a complete one—because the real world is infinitely complex and ever changing. Art frees you from the infuriating unfinishedness of the real world. For this reason, the very clarity of well-wrought fiction can sometimes make it feel more real than reality. As a film producer once told me, 'It’s important not to let the facts get in the way of the truth.' Fiction can explain things that journalism cannot. It allows you to enter the lives and motivations of characters with far more intimacy than is typically possible in nonfiction. In the case of The Wire, fiction allows you to wander around inside a violent, criminal subculture, and inside an entrenched official bureaucracy, in a way that most reporters can only dream about. And it frees you from concerns about libel and cruelty. It frees you to be unfair."