Apparently, even a drama about newspaper reporting is afforded creative license. NBC's Deadline, starring Oliver Platt as columnist Wallace ''Never take a note'' Benton, has as many inaccuracies about the ink-stained-wretch profession as the Weekly World News has Elvis sightings.
-- Josh Wolk
ON DEADLINE Cops allow Platt to grill murder suspect alone in the interrogation room.
IN REALITY Cops allow 43 journalists to simultaneously shout questions at murder suspect with jacket pulled over his head during 10.3-second perp walk.
[ON DEADLINE]Gossip columnist Lili Taylor refuses to print that a movie actress has bulimia.
[IN REALILTY]Gossip columnist steals movie actress' lunch napkin to scour for vomit traces.
[ON DEADLINE]Platt deputizes his journalism students to do legwork for his investigative articles.
[IN REALILTY]Writer deputizes his journalism students to do legwork for his articles -- then passive-aggressively gives them Cs so they'll never get his job.
[ON DEADLINE]Computer-illiterate Platt is stymied by the mouse and can barely send e-mail.
Computer-literate journalist can simultaneously surf six windows of Web porn for the smut expose he's ''researching'' on his downtime.
[ON DEADLINE]Platt makes $300,000 a year, lives in a cavernous duplex, and dresses in tailored pinstripe suits.
[IN REALILTY]This underpaid journalist bitterly scoffs that Platt's TV salary is exaggerated; returns to lunching on reheated mac-'n'-cheese.
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