Rebecca Halliday quotes from The Newsroom

Rebecca Halliday

Fourteen months ago you went on the air and called the Tea Party the American Taliban.

Will

I did.

Rebecca Halliday

And?

Will

The Taliban resented it.

Mac

When I was little, I asked my uncle how much a lawyer costs. He said if it's bad, 300 pounds. If it's really bad, 400 pounds. And if it's really bad and you're guilty... How much do you cost?

Rebecca Halliday

$1,500 an hour.

Maggie

I'm Dutch.

Rebecca

Well, then fuck you!

Don

This is the very last polling data taken before the polls open tomorrow.

Rebecca Halliday

Who's gonna win?

Don

The president will be reelected. But Tulsi Gabbard's gonna win in Hawaii's second. She'll be the first Samoan in Congress. And Kerry Bentivolio is gonna take the seat vacated by Thaddeus McCotter, who came out with my pick for the best resignation statement of all time. "The recent event's totalities of calumnies, indignities and deceits have weighed most heavily upon my family. Thus, acutely aware one cannot rebuild their hearth among the ruins of their US House office, for the sake of my loved ones, I must strike another match, go start anew by embracing the promotion back from public servant to sovereign citizen." Sounds like he and his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are about to take a journey by sea to ask the Duke of Verona for his most kind blessing.

Rebecca Halliday

I like you, Keefer.

Don

My trust in Maggie has nothing to do with anything but the right things.

Don

I need some kinda sign from you. I need an indication... some kind of indication that you -

Rebecca

What?

Don

You fully understand the stupidity of this?

Rebecca

I do.

Don

Doesn't feel like it.

Rebecca

How would you like me to behave?

Don

It feels to me - I have to say - it feels to me that you think this is nuanced, that you think there are layers that have to be explored.

Rebecca

Why do you say that?

Don

Well, for one thing, there's four lawyers in the room, filling out a... I don't know, I'm sure you're worth it. And you've been here five days - this is your fifth day? But that's my point. Why do we need lawyers who are worth it? Why do we need lawyers? Why do we need lawyers?

Rebecca

You're being sued.

Don

And you're saying that like it's not insane? You're saying that like it isn't... [pauses, leans forwards towards them, getting angrier with each sentence] Tell me what I'm missing. A producer comes up from D.C., he wants to make a name for himself in New York. He chases a story that's not there. And the story - it's not a kitten up a tree. Chemical weapons, serin gas, on civilians. He cooks an interview, he takes a pair of scissors to raw footage. Of a man on the street? Of a retired, three-star Marine general. We go to air, 48 hours it takes for the story to come undone, and with it Atlantis Cable News, ACN is brought to its knees! The producer's surgical strike is discovered, and that producer is fired. Does he write an open letter to the New York Times apologizing to the public, his colleagues, the three-star General and US Armed Forces? No, he sues us for wrongful termination. And I need to know - I need some kinda sign from you, Rebecca, because you're obviously - all four of you, you couldn't be stupid and afford haircuts this good - [Rebecca laughs at this comment] I need you to tell me that this is exactly as insane as it is.

Rebecca

I'm afraid I'm gonna have to infuriate you.

Don

Why?

Rebecca

Because it is nuanced.

Don

[outraged] He cooked an interview! He took pruning shears to the raw - Rebecca... If he doused the studio in kerosene and lit a Tiki torch, it wouldn't have done as much damage as Genoa, so where is the complexity? Where is the nuance?

Rebecca

His claim is he was a scapegoat.

Don

That's his claim?

Rebecca

Yeah.

Don

I understand why he would feel that way, because it was entirely his fault.

Charlie

We're gonna resign, Leona. It's what has to happen now. Elliot Hirsch, Sloan Sabbith, Terry Smith, Dayside ACN, ACN. We understand the integrity of the news is more important--

Leona Lansing

Than one individual. That is beautiful. Not as beautiful as Daniel Craig.

Charlie

Leona.

Leona Lansing

I'd have sent my plane.

Charlie

We're not fucking around.

Leona Lansing

You will resign when I fire you out of petty malice and not before.

Charlie

Our trust numbers are--

Leona Lansing

Yeah, they're bad.

Charlie

They're fatal.

Will

Firing Jerry was obviously the right thing to do, but it wasn't enough and we've known that for two months. Charlie and I have to go.

Leona Lansing

And Twiggy over here?

Mac

It was my fault.

Leona Lansing

McMac. Can I call you McMac? Doesn't matter, I'm gonna anyway, McMac. Your head's up your ass.

Mac

Mrs. Lansing.

Leona Lansing

Guy comes in here into my hizzy-- guy comes in here, cooks an interview, no remorse. It goes on air. You, I don't know what you'd do to Sherlock Holmes this thing. I wouldn't be able to figure it out and I'm the smartest person in the room.

Will

Well, I wouldn't go that--

Leona Lansing

Oh, shut the fuck up, you Daniel Craig wannabe.

Will

I don't want to be Daniel Craig.

Leona Lansing

Well, you should want to be Daniel Craig. Everybody should.

Will

Leona, are you stoned?

Leona Lansing

[catching sight of her own reflection in a window] You know, my makeup lasts a long time.

Will

Oh, jeez.

Mac

Mrs. Lansing.

Leona Lansing

No, no, please, call me-- Continue to call me Mrs. Lansing.

Will

Leona--

Leona Lansing

Guy comes into my house which I love. Which I bet you guys didn't know. But I love it. I love ACN. You don't make me a nickel and you cause headaches for the divisions that do, but you make me-- You make me so proud. God, guy comes in here, cooks an interview, and this ends up with-- 'Cause he's unemployable he gets a $5 million settlement and the three of you leave? Oh, I don't think so. And McMac. That's a name that's really starting to grow on me. She doesn't have to go. Nobody's ever heard of her. But she's going to do the honorable thing. And what's expected of me, huh? Not to do the honorable thing? What's expected of me? [shouting] No, I do not accept your resignations! And Jerry Dantana's not gonna get one FUCKING dollar! [in a normal tone] I got some kick-ass courtroom outfits.

Will

You have to accept our resignations and you have to settle. He'll take it to trial and win. There was an institutional failure and he was the only one fired.

Rebecca Halliday

Then you'll need a good lawyer. Lee, don't accept their resignations.

Leona Lansing

I already wasn't accepting their resignations, Becca. Don't horn in on my honorable thing. God, I mean, can't a lady have--

Charlie

[in desperation] Leona, we don't have the trust of the public anymore!

Leona Lansing

Get it back!

Charlie

If a news outlet doesn't have credibility, it doesn't matter what else it has. That's a fact. There are people here from Jane Barrow, Terry Smith, everyone at the DC bureau to Sloan Sabbith, Elliot Hirsch, everyone on Dayside, these people don't deserve to have a piano strapped to their back. Their credibility shouldn't-- (to Rebecca) When did you arrive here?

Rebecca

I'm stealthy.

Charlie

I think it's commendable and pretty shocking that you want to do something just because it's the right thing to do, but it's not the right thing to do.

Reese

I know.

Charlie

What do you mean?

Reese

I think you were responsible for a massive fuck up. I think Will was the face of a massive fuck up. I think firing a mid-level producer appears to be an abdication of responsibility. Now we're gonna have to read about Jim and Maggie and Don and Jim and Maggie and Don and Maggie and Mac and Will and did Sloan punch a guy in the face?

Charlie

Yeah.

Rebecca

The train, she is wrecked.

Charlie

Why are you gleeful?

Rebecca

I'm on the right team for once and I get really paid.

Charlie

Are you saying you agree?

Reese

I think your resignation should be accepted immediately and we should write Dantana a check and get to the business of rebooting this once respected brand.

Charlie

Then why don't you?

Reese

[sheepishly] My mom says I can't.

Charlie

[incredulous] Reese!