A Journalist Is Missing in the Congo | The West Wing

[@ethanpan2335]

I appreciate how Leo just puts the Congolese ambassador right back in his place when he decides to groan about CJ daring to be rude to him

[@Uthic]

It's nonsense that the press officer is talking to an ambassador like that

[@atwenga]

Yeah, it was fashionable to treat Africans as less than in the series...they wouldnt treat the chinese that way

[@Laneous14]

@@atwenga This is the last TV show that showed the Chinese as dangerous adversaries. Maybe watch the show before commenting, huh? Oh, wait, is it racist of me to assume that the African guy doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about?

[@atwenga]

@@Laneous14 I am not even sure what you are yapping about now, to be honest with you. Did you comprehend what I said? Stop shouting non-sense from the rooftops. There is no piece of West Wing or any of Aaron Sorkin's work that I haven't watched multiple times, so your assumption is moot. Try again and stop seeing racism in everything.

[@FrogHarlot4708]

@@atwenga Yea it's really obvious looking at "those" scenes just how often Aaron Sorkin clearly wrote in Black characters to be explicitly positioned as "ontologically wrong" in the face of usually the show's voice of "wisdom" either the President, or in more cases, Leo McGarry. I mean hell that one where he yells at Secretary O'Leary cause she called a conservative racist in public and he goes "your job is to serve the president you have to apologize blah blah blah". You can just tell how badly Sorkin was inserting himself and yelling at Black women that had made him uncomfortable irl. In fact most of the time he would use characters in the show to position his reactive urge to talk down to minorities as being "rational and progressive"

[@fyremanjef]

The scene that was left out was Donna telling the wife how CJ loves and stands behind her reporters, no matter what side they are on

[@shadout]

- Bill's written... I know he's written negative things about the President... - No. - And he and C.J. don't really... - Nobody cares about that tonight. - Okay. - And you want to know a secret about C.J.? But you can't tell your husband this, really. She battles with them everyday, but she loves reporters. She's very protective of them and it, it doesn't matter whether... you know? I liked especially the "Nobody cares about that tonight" Donna said it with such compassion.

[@Bum_Hip]

This was a different time. I don’t think all of our recent leaders would feel the same about a reporter thought to be uncooperative.

[@Stannerino]

​@@Bum_Hip This was also a different time when journalists weren't as extreme as some in the press room are now *cough* OAN *cough*

[@Bum_Hip]

@@StannerinoI don’t know, I remember it differently. I’m 53, maybe we have different exp with the media.

[@BlackDiamond2718]

At the end of the day they are americans like you and I so we will defend our own.

[@woohooboy]

The scene at 3:40 demonstrates why "The West Wing" was the best drama on American network television during the 2000's. The writing, acting, direction and overall production values put the show into a special category on its own.

[@jamiestewart48]

That moment Josh gives the bad news is heartbreaking, but to see the wife break down. Jesus. This all starts off with the guy saying he knows the reporter was a pain in the ass to the white house and CJ immediately doesn't give a shit about that and talks to that Congo representative like he's a piece of shit LOL

[@wonder528]

Its one of the sadder stories on WW because it happens in-house but not to one of the main cast. So its a gut punch to a now widow but not to people like Josh who just turn away sad and go back to work.

[@mikephalen3162]

You've hit on an underlying problem with politics. The major players win some and lose some, always sure they'll still be playing the game another day. Meanwhile, the wins and losses involve programs and policies that affect the lives of anywhere from hundreds of thousands to hundred of millions of real Americans. What is a day's setback for a politician may adversely affect my life for decades.

[@BlackDiamond2718]

They always lose people whether they report it or not, whether they know about it or not, and whether it is their people or not.

[@pbdye1607]

This is another scene that telegraphed CJ becoming the Chief of Staff. Every time anyone underestimated her, she'd become Leo.

[@firstname4337]

no

[@rd2783]

No, CJ was never qualified to be CoS

[@ScorpiusZA.]

Selmak really gets around, doesn't he.

[@leonkernan]

He’s got a real thing for this backwater little planet

[@charleshetrick3152]

THANK YOU! I was recognizing him but couldn’t place it.

[@melissamiranti4858]

It's part of Tok'ra actions against the Trust

[@alexanderg1935]

I like this comment thread. You are my people.

[@LynTheAce]

I barely recognized him at first but the voice gave it away instantly

[@Bazookatone1]

That significant look Donna gives Josh at the end is becauase earlier in the episode she was offered a job in a political news website with a salary so large she thought it was the sites annual operating budget, and Josh had been telling her about how what they do at the White House is important and she'd somehow be selling out if she left. I always thought it was odd that THIS is the scenario the writers used to show that, because the White House was utterly impotent, the journalist had been killed before the editor even told CJ about it, and nothing they did affected the outcome in any way. they did a similar thing with Ainsley Hayes, where she is offered a job the day the president from Equatorial Khundu is at the white house to negotiate for AIDS medication, and while he is there, thre's a coup at home and his government falls and his family are killed or arrested. Ainselye sees the President comfrting the man in the Oval Office and it inspires her to take the job, but we learn in the final scene he returned home and was executed at the foot of the aeroplane steps. the White House couldn't offer any help or anything.

[@klinmayhem4310]

I seem to remember Bartlett offering the president asylum, but he refused. He wanted to return to his country and face the music regardless of his personal safety.

[@PaxKishania]

I think being there for the failures is as important as being there for the successes, and these moments are meant to show that choosing to serve (at the White House) isn't all glamour and winning: it's gritty, exhausting, and brutal. It involves frequently discovering the limits that reality places on even the most powerful country, and that impotence is the norm.

[@larrysmith2638]

​@@PaxKishaniaPerfectly said.

[@quinnreilly7681]

These clips are great, but they are cut so strangely. This one finishes with half of an unrelated scene and cuts off halfway through a sentence.

[@kjtube83]

Yes! Please put a bit more effort in telling the stories as a whole.

[@pBlackcoat]

I'll bet it's so they can make five minutes and the monetization.

[@noregretcoyote1808]

Donna’s expression…

[@michaelhayden725]

Reporters are often the first victims! Their families often fail to understand WHY they have been killed; murdered?

[@danielk5780]

4:30 More proof that Sorkin based The West Wing on Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister - Bartlet went to the London School of Economics!

[@Hesitatedeye]

You now make me wish that Paul Eddington was still alive when this started I'd have loved to have seen the meeting between President Bartlet and his old friend Jimmy who happens to be Baron Hacker of Islington, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Leo and Humphrey would have been hilarious too and Toby and Bernard just drinking together and complaining about their respective lords and masters.

[@melissamarsh2219]

@@HesitatedeyeLeo would have been so annoyed by Sir Humphrey and that would have amused Sir Humphrey immensely

[@Hesitatedeye]

@@melissamarsh2219 very much so. He thought Lord Marbury was bad. I’d be more than willing to be John and Humphy were at Oxford together

[@melissamarsh2219]

@@Hesitatedeye John is rather younger than Humphrey, I’d rather believe that John was in the first form at Eton when Humphrey was Head Boy. If they wanted to make it awkward, John might have fagged for Humphrey though which would have been amusing if the Americans found out. Bartlett and Humphrey would also be able to converse in Latin.

[@Hesitatedeye]

@@melissamarsh2219 very good point I didn’t think of that. That conversation would be amusing as you’d have Leo and Hacker standing there feeling ignored.

[@cdjhyoung]

I sure hope the casting director of West Wing got an Emmy year after year. Arkin as the Psychiatrist to the President was spot on casting.

[@Comicsluvr]

I don't know how a person can tell another that their loved one has died. I've done it once and it was terrible. But to do it all the time? Wow.

[@albertjester]

What did Josh actually at 3:09 ? I got the "A crew that was filming" and "He was killed in an ambush" but the rest just isn't picking up for me."

[@SamShannon]

" (Akim Whambo?) who's the Mai Mai rebel commander sent word through a crew that was filming in Ghana." and "Embassy is gonna get the body"

[@albertjester]

@@SamShannon Thank you

[@BlackDiamond2718]

Wtf is selmak doing here?

[@deliagroer2613]

American tv shows just keep highlighting how arrogant they are as a political nation. 😢

[@wonder528]

The totalitarian, authoritarian, and theocratic political nations in today's world aren't arrogant?

[@deliriousdavies7552]

Did you watch the clip? The White House tried and failed to perform one of the most basic roles of government: protect one of its citizens. Where is the arrogance?

[@orangecrusch1987]

Lol what nation that has any clout or influence on the world stage doesn't demonstrate arrogance lol?😂

[@libbybollinger5901]

I don’t know if this clip is the best example of something like that. Hell, in this show, there’s better examples of American exceptionalism.

[@hailhydra7959]

@@wonder528This is just whataboutism. If the US wants to claim it is better then it needs to be better.

[@JanBruunAndersen]

Meanwhile in Gaza...

[@andrelastname1992]

20 year old show doesn't reference current events? Shocker.

[@JanBruunAndersen]

@@andrelastname1992 - the shocker is the concern for a single person who voluntarily went to place with civil war and whatnot and died, versus the many civilians who died and continue to die all over the world. I mention Gaza because I doubt many remember the civil war in Biafra and the million people, mostly children, who starved to death there. Some might have weak memories of the genocide in Rwanda, the ethnic wars in Serbia, Bosnia Hercegovina, and Kosovo, etc. The war in Gaza is just another one in a long row of conflicts causing 1000's of deaths. Compared to all that, I am not able to shed a tear for a white journalist who chose to put himself in harms way.

[@steveverhage9965]

Oh please!!

[@Carthodon]

@@JanBruunAndersen The United States does not have an inherent obligation to protect people around the world, if it did then you would be arguing for the US to be the world police. The US, as well as any nation, has an obligation to protect its own citizens and it is actually not abnormal for people this high up to respond to journalists being abducted. When Daniel Pearl was abducted in Afghanistan apparently the President was aware of the situation as it played out.

[@JanBruunAndersen]

@@Carthodon - I agree. Noone should aspire to be the world police. And noone should aspire to be world mother. Adults who travel abroad and get in trouble, be it a journalist who travels to some fictional African country plauqed by civil war, or turists going on vacation in south east Asia and is hit by a tsunami, should not ask, should not expect, their home governments to come to their rescue. People need to be responsible for their own actions.