Romney Adviser Debunks 'Newsroom' Plot: Reporters Never Kicked Off GOP Campaign

This week’s new episode of the HBO series The Newsroom apparently took some factual liberties from its “ripped from yesterday’s headlines” format.

The July 28 episode featured several reporters, including the show’s senior producer Jim Harper (played by John Gallagher Jr.), getting thrown off the Romney presidential campaign bus for asking tough questions.

Did something like that actually happen?

Patrick Hynes, an adviser to Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign who worked with online media for the communications department, answered some questions from Breitbart News about the show via email.

Big Hollywood: What was your reaction to The Newsroom scene description about reporters getting booted off the Romney campaign?

Patrick Hynes: My initial reaction was that once again the Hollywood left is out to depict Republicans as unreasonable, authoritarian, stupid, hostile and mean spirited because in the absence of such a stereotype, Republicans might actually win some elections, and well, we can’t have that, can we? 

BH: To your knowledge, did any such event ever take place during the campaign?

PH: No, nothing like that ever took place, as far as I know. Don’t get me wrong, relations between the campaign and the press were not good and there were frequent moments of hostility every day. But I don’t recall ever hearing of reporters getting thrown off the bus.

BH: If such an event occurred, would you have heard about it? Would Gov. Romney have heard about it?

PH: I would have heard about it. We would almost certainly have been in rapid response mode if something like this had happened.  In fact, it would have been impossible for anyone not to hear about it, as anything like this fictional account would have consumed a day’s worth of campaign coverage. There is nothing the press likes to cover more than itself.

BH: Why do you think a show would manufacture such an event?

PH: To make a boring and insufferable program slightly more interesting and to make Republicans look stupid.