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Fear Salesmen
by Chris

Rated: PG   Genre: Comedy   User Review: ****
The behind the scenes workings of writers for a fictional national news network. This isn't a full screenplay, but is instead one act of a short play.


This screenplay is copyrighted to its author. All rights reserved. This screenplay may not be used or reproduced without the express written permission of the author.



FEAR SALESMEN

FADE IN:

INT. THE MEDIA CORP. NEWSCENTER - NIGHT
                                                            
There is a bright boardroom with an oak table in the middle.
Four men sit around the table, with piles of paper and
coffees in Styrofoam cups in front of them. There is a
whiteboard mounted to the wall in the background, and some
potted (but fake) plants in the corners of the room. One
man, Evan, has a laptop in addition to his papers. The logo
Media Corp. is hung above the whiteboard.
                                                            
                       JOHN
      (Nods towards Tom.)
Alright men, we need to come up
with some news stories to run next
week during the primetime lineup.
Our newcomer Tom has yet to be
involved in this process. Tom,
tonight, you get to see how NNC
runs.
                                                            
                       EVAN
      (Clearly in a
       hurry.)
Yeah, sure, but let’s make this
quick okay, it’s getting late.
                                                            
                       ALAN
      (He shuffles some
       of his papers.)
Well, I guess the first order of
business is what to run on Peck’s
show. I say we try a segment
about the economical effects
global warming could potentially
have, and you know, start a bit of
a scare about rising cooling costs
or some crap like that.
                                                            
                       JOHN
      (He is cut off by
       Tom at the end of
       his second
       sentence.)
No, that just doesn’t work for me.
Global warming is dead-
                                                            

2.

                       TOM
      (Confused.)
What? Last time I checked, it was
a problem.
                                                            
                       JOHN
Maybe, maybe not. Point isn’t
that it’s over with; it’s that it
doesn’t scare anymore. People
know what it is, it’s out there.
Hell, they even released a bad
Hollywood movie about it. And
then you got Gore’s preachy flick.
Long story short, it just doesn’t
inspire as much fear as it did.
                                                            
                       EVAN
I don’t know John, it seems really
popular to me. We could build on
the existing fear.
                                                            
                       ALAN
      (Matter-of-factly.)
Hey, why build on existing fear?
That’s where all the horrible
“slasher flick” sequels fail. Hard
to scare someone twice with the
same stuff, man.
                                                            
                       TOM
      (Still confused.)
Who cares if it doesn’t scare?
It’s still a problem!
                                                            
                       EVAN
Look kid, it’s not about the most
important story. Never has been.
We get to tell the people what the
most important story is.
                                                            
                       JOHN
      (Getting slightly
       annoyed.)
We need something about something
other than the latest “Greenpeace
crisis”, Okay? Let’s get on task
here.
                                                            
                       ALAN
How bout’ this? We run a story
about sex in advertising, we get
to run a program with plenty of
shots of short skirts and guys
            (MORE)

3.

                       ALAN (cont'd)
with their tops off, and we might
get a kid who’s never seen the
news before watching.
                                                            
                       TOM
      (Stunned.)
You want to run a story exposing
the use of sex in media, and hype
it by using "sex appeal?"
                                                            
                       JOHN
Look, sex sells. You know it.
                                                            
                       ALAN
Nah, sex is deader than dead. It
sells, but not as well. People
don’t care about it.
                                                            
                       EVAN
      (Quickly.)
Yeah, they’re desensitized to it.
                                                            
                       ALAN
Now fear, fear sells. Fear is
white hot now. It’s all about a
scandal; it’s all about creating a
ruckus, a total paranoia and
public panic. It works. If the
people think global warming will
be a problem, then by God,
tomorrow we say the world’s gonna
end.
                                                            
                       ALAN
      (After a short
       pause.)
I like my idea, though. It works
on two levels. Sex isn’t “dead”
exactly, it still works. Not as
well as it used to, but it does.
So we got that going for us. Then,
it also scares the parents of all
the kiddies who might be exposed
to the “vile” sex in the media.
It’s a win-win.
                                                            
                       JOHN
I like it, we got a story for that
idiot Peck.
                                                            
                       TOM
      (Suprised.)
Wait, you don’t even like the guy?
                                                            

4.

                       EVAN
It’s not in the rules that we have
to like the guy. Man’s a total
moron. In fact, I’d say most of
his viewers hate him. That’s why
they watch. They love to
criticize his half-baked extremist
views. You know, tying this back
to the earlier dilemma, it makes
sense to run a “sexy” story on his
show. People don’t take him
seriously, so he can’t scare as
well. We got a plan here,
gentlemen. But what for the eight
o’ clock set?
                                                            
                       JOHN
How about some UFO thing? You
know, a story about Government
cover-ups, or some home video
shots of UFO’s. We get some
crackpots to talk about little
green men, and we scare the people
about the UFO’s possible
intentions. Or hey, how about
anything supernatural? It seems a
little corny I guess, but it does
scare.
                                                            
                       EVAN
Yeah, it’ll draw in both the
delusional and skeptical types,
too.
                                                            
                       ALAN
How bout’ that 2012 thing instead?
You know, the world ending in
December of that year? That’s a
good scare.
                                                            
                       TOM
      (Suprised.)
You believe that crap?
                                                            
                       ALAN
      (Matter-of-factly.)
Hell no! Don’t believe in damned
UFO’s either, but they sell.
                                                            
                       JOHN
World does end in 2012, NNC will
be the first to cover it.
                                                            

5.

                       EVAN
I like the 2012 idea. It scares
better than UFO’s that don’t mean
a thing to anyone except a few
hick nutcases. The 2012 idea
still seems ridiculous but at
least it has a greater capacity
for breeding fear.
                                                            
                       JOHN
Alright, we’ll roll with that.
We’ll throw that on O’ Brien’s
show. It’s not his usual thing,
but people hate him bout’ as much
as Peck, so they’ll watch it so
they can laugh at him.
                                                            
                       ALAN
Okay, what for Bahn’s show?
                                                            
                       TOM
Hmm. What about that Sergeant
Allen in Iraq getting his men out
of that jam? It was in a couple
places, but no one’s really
covered it. Man’s a hero.
                                                            
                       EVAN
      (Quickly.)
Damn straight.
                                                            
                       JOHN
      (Quickly.)
Deserves about a hundred medals
for that.
                                                            
                       ALAN
      (Quickly.)
Crazy SOB oughta get the Medal of
Honor.
                                                            
                       EVAN
      (After taking a
       long sip of his
       coffee.)
Okay, but have you guys looked at
the public support for the War?
Let’s run the story about the
rogue unit that may or may not
have killed and raped the un-armed
villagers. That’ll do about three
times better.
                                                            

6.

                       JOHN
I like the way you think. Great
point.
                                                            
                       TOM
      (Suprised,
       bordering on all
       out anger.)
You can't do that! Isn't one of
our goals to present a balance
between the views on issues? It
doesn't matter what the pundits
say, the subject matter will still
influence viwers.
                                                            
                       ALAN
      (Coolly)
It isn't really about showing both
sides of the issue, Tom. We only
give the viewers what they want.
They don't like the War, so we
give em' what they want to hear.
                                                            
                       TOM
Sometimes the truth hurts.
                                                            
                       EVAN
The truth doesn't sell. Who wants
news when everything's fine. No
one wants to hear stories of
heroism, or selflessness. Maybe
for a filler segment. But what
they want to hear, is that the sky
is falling, and we oblige them.
                                                            
                       JOHN
See, Tom? We aren't influencing
them, we're only indulging them.
                                                            
                       TOM
News isn't about giving the people
what they want. It's about
reporting on world events.
                                                            
                       JOHN
Tom, the news hasn't been done
that way in a long time. Maybe it
never was.
                                                            
                       EVAN
The people want blood. We give it
to them.
                                                            

7.

                       TOM
      (Furious.)
What the Hell is wrong with you
people?
                                                            
                       JOHN
      (Calmly.)
If you don't like the way things
are run around here, you can
leave.
                                                            
                       TOM
Count on it.
                                                            
Tom leaves the room, slamming the door on his way out.
                                                            
                       JOHN
Something of an idealist, huh?
                                                            
                       EVAN
Yeah. But he isn't that hard to
understand. I get where he's
coming from, but you know, he just
doesn't get "us". We're more of
the "realist" type.
                                                            
                       ALAN
Not that hard for us to be
realists when we get to say what's
real!
                                                            
The men all laugh at Alan's comment. Papers are shuffled,
and Evan closes his laptop.
                                                            
                       JOHN
Well, that was a fine night's work
boys. See you all tomorrow. Maybe
then, we can discuss the food
contamination special Alan thought
up last week.
                                                            
The men nod in agreement, and leave the room.
                                                            


FADE OUT.


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From Angel Date 10/25/2008 ****
Nice! If you continued this into a full-blown feature-length script, it could be a very good script of one man(or maybe more than one)'s fight against bias and lying in the news industry.

From Roman Date 5/7/2007 ****
I changed my mind it turns out it is acually quite good


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