"The debate about news versus entertainment has been going on for years," neophyte producer Becky (Rachel McAdams) snaps at 40-year-veteran news anchor Mike Cameron (Harrison Ford). "And your side lost." Mike would have started out around the time Network came out, and the difference between this film and that classic satire is that now the vulgarians are the good guys and the diehard idealists are snobby cranks. McAdams outdoes Mary Tyler Moore in her maladroit perkiness as Becky takes over Daybreak, the fourth-rated network morning show. She hires Mike to anchor alongside the blowsy veteran Colleen (Diane Keaton), but Mike, played by Ford with sly timing, refuses to go along with Becky's demeaning measures to save the show. Some of this is funny in a sub–Broadcast News kind of way, but director Roger Michell takes a hint from Becky, disdains his audience, and panders to the lowest common denominator.
