I'm glad to see someone pointing out how unlikely it is that Lester would jump on board in one of the most professional -- and human -- breaches of ethics imaginable: defiling a crime scene, and defiling a corpse. It's pretty dubious.

I hope Omar doesn't come back and clean up the streets like an avenging Batman. Ok, I hope he does, BUT I WON'T LIKE IT!

http://theethicalscumbag.blogspot.com/

Damn it, by defending the Steve Earle arrangement and evoking the Dramatic Chipmunk (isn't it really a prairie dog or something?) in adjacent breaths, you've merged them in my head.

It works, too.

We'll be safe from Satan (--CHIPMUNK STING!)
When the thunder rolls (--CHIPMUNK STING!)
Gotta keep the Devil (--CHIPMUNK STING!)
Way down in the hole--

Damn it.

Broke my heart to see Michael playing hooky, going on rides and flirting with pretty girls, the way his life should be, knowing he'd just have to go right back. You just wish you could stick him in that time bubble forever.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the enthusiasm for "Michael the child," until you remember that he's murdered people in cold blood for no reason other than his employer told him to.

Childhood over.

Same thing with Bodie. I admit Bodie was very likable, and an obvious fan favorite, but no matter how many indignant speeches he gave, or no matter how many times he justified it to himself, he still murdered one of his childhood friends in cold blood, for almost no reason, because his employer told him to.

It strains one's ability to sympathize doesn't it?

--is selling his soul to protect his baby brother. I only hope he at least does get that out of the bargain. He wouldn't have gone down this road for any other reason.

And when he saw the mirror image of his brother running from that house, he couldn't do it. If they get him to the point he can kill another little kid to save his brother, they really will have flushed all of his soul. But--it's your little brother, you have no other resources, what would you do?

That's why it was nice to see him put all that corruption on the shelf just for one afternoon.

To me Scott's not Jason Blair - he's Judith Miller. He's Bill O'reily. He's Brian William's doing comedy shorts. He's the cast of The View. He's John Stossel.

Scott's the Employee of The Month for Big Media.

I see James Whiting and Thomas Klebanow as big business.

And The Wire is showing what happens when those worlds meet. Business wins.

Just as politics is trumping police work for Carcetti.

(And we know Rawls is gay from season 3 when lamar is going to gay bars looking for Omar. We briefly see Rawls drunk, and gay (happy, AND homosexual.) Here's a screengrab http://www.flickr.com/photos/79495787@N00/366614877/

Yes I realize his motivations, but for some reason today I am having trouble letting that mean anything.

I agree that Scott is not exactly a three dimensional character. He probably does practice his wha-ha-ha-ha in the bathroom, but it bares repeating that we need a little of that every once in awhile. Marlo is pure evil and no one seem to complain about that.

I take the Salon staff's fussing with the newsroom story line to heart (it's like hearing doctors talk about ER ... ), but it seems to me that Simon is lining up a few broader lines of convergence here: What is worse? Scott the fabulist, who obviously concocts the reaction lines and the crippled kid scenario, or McNulty using the reporter who wants to do it right to plant his own bullshit scenario? Journalism is abused in both cases, and the innocent are knowingly injured. Throughout its run, The Wire has also concerned information: how it's gathered, spread, and used. Now the institution that's supposed to safeguard the flow of information to the public is being manipulated to the point that no information, no story, no lead is untainted. The only thing that makes information "true" is the power to inflict it upon another. Foucault is laughing in his grave.

"The street is so REAL."

"The newsroom is just not up to it"

Sorry but exactly what do any of you know about the street? I worked in Baltimore and was more then happy to leave it alone. I don't know anything about the mean streets except to avoid them.

Anyway, the only part of the entire scene that anyone knows about first hand is print journalism, and the reviewers are having problems with it. Finally this week some positive comments, but a general disdain for how Simon deals with the Sun.

I would say that if any of the reviewers had first hand knowledge of any of the other institutions that provide the setting for the Wire, they would have exactly the same sorts of problems. Does anyone believe that ANY of this is realistic? Omar? Please. Or even the entire drug business. We would like to think it is a parallel world. But notice how official institutions seem horribly incompetent but the drug business has 6 sigma like efficiency? Not likely.

Unfortunately the newspaper is the most realistic thing Simon has ever done. Compare this to the longshoremen in season 2. Print journalism is bankrupt, and it isn't good guys or bad guys. It is just a business that is doomed by bad economics. If it was bad in 1995 it is much worse a decade later.

I like the way that the serial killer thing is drifting. The point being that it doesn't matter what McNulty does, no one cares or is going to care. It doesn't make sense -- if you are going to go that far over the line, why not just go star chamber and kill Marlowe? We need a little police misconduct, so this is an interesting way to work it in. It would work best if Simon keeps it moving in this direction -- the plan gets no traction because no one cares.

But back to the newsroom. When it doesn't work, it is because the reviewers have seen it or something like it, and know it is always more complex and that this is just a little slice of Simon's point of view. Anyone that thinks the drug scene is realistic should check out Gang Leader for a Day http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/1594201501/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199884476&sr=8-1/marginalrevol-20 .

This is fiction. Be happy it is as good as it is.

And remember that Simon is just as biased and agenda driven in all areas of the show. Sorry to have to remind you.