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Essay on Rhetorical Analysis the Newsroom

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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, …show more content…

America is known for the land of opportunities but really that is based on a matter of personal experience. “America is 17th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49 in life expectancy...,”. The top three things we are really ranked for are incarceration, number of adults that believe angels are real, and defense spending. This is effective to his argument because the truth in what he is saying shocks the audience. McAvoy successfully uses these statistics to point out that there is no proven statement that America is the greatest country in the world. Another appeal he uses along with ethos, and logos is pathos when McAvoy says “it sure used to be, we stood up for what was right, we fought for moral reasons, we passed laws to struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged war on poverty not poor people, we sacrificed we cared about our neighbors…” The way McAvoy calmly says this while he lowers his voice invokes an emotional response to the audience from how he was ranting about some of the things the U.S is ranked for. McAvoy then goes on saying “So when you ask why America is the greatest country in the world, I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about”. McAvoy uses vulgar language to make a point, states his political allegiance. He emphasizes his point when he says “we sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors,

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