Manny Gutierrez
Rhetorical Analysis Paper
ENG 105
Ms. Sagdic
News Anchor on Fire Americas greatness is a controversial topic on the worlds standards of living. In the opening scene of the television show “The Newsroom”, Will McAvoy the news anchor, is in an auditorium participating in a panel of politically knowledgeable people. McAvoy who is the protagonist of the show, he avoids answering one of the questions asked by a student “Why is America the greatest country in the world?”. He finally does answer “it is not the greatest country in the world.” By analyzing the video “The Newsroom Opening Scene” the viewer sees how McAvoy appeals to ethos, logos and pathos to express his answer. McAvoy appeals to ethos just by being on the stage, the audience’s attention is focused on him as also the other two panelists, Sharon and Lewis, because of their knowledge in politics. The juxtaposition of how they are sat gives the audience an idea of who is the conservative, republican, and the mutual being McAvoy. The fact he has been invited to the college. This demonstrates that the college sees McAvoy as a trustworthy speaker. Generally, colleges are viewed as a place where people go to expand their knowledge on a specific major therefore this invitation gives him credibility. In addition, he is the news anchor of the show. McAvoy is the mutually trustworthy one of the panel. Ideally he is sat in the middle of the conservator & the liberal to further his ethos. People view newscasters as people who deliver information that is factual and is pertinent to the audience. For all of these reasons McAvoy appeals to ethos successfully in his speech. Along with ethos McAvoy uses logos when he makes his point about why “America is not the greatest country in the world.” Following this McAvoy tells the audience a series of facts. He says “Canada has freedom, Japan has freedom,