Full Disclosure (The West Wing)
Encyclopedia
"Full Disclosure" is the fifteenth episode of The West Wing
' s fifth season, and episode 103 from the start. It originally aired on NBC
February 25, 2004. Events circle around a potentially inciting magazine interview with former Vice President John Hoynes. Written by Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, the episode contains a guest appearance by James Pickens Jr. "Full Disclosure" is notable for prompting a real-life letter from Senator Hillary Clinton.
John Hoynes. A New York Times interview leaked on the internet has him claiming the President and Leo asked him to stay once the sex scandal broke (which, as seen on Life on Mars
, is true). C.J. manages to get a copy of the interview, and it becomes clear that he is trying to portray his former boss and the Chief of Staff
in a bad light. When it also emerges that he is writing a book (titled "Full Disclosure"), the White House
staff suspect he is planning a presidential run, and that his tactics will involve a smear campaign against the current administration, to distance himself and thereby appear in a better light. As a pre-emptive response, they draw up a long and detailed list of Hoynes' worst policy blunders from his time in office, to use if he should decide to campaign at their expense.
C.J., however, seems more than reasonably distressed by the whole incident. She pays Hoynes a visit to give him a warning, and it becomes clear that she was one of the women with whom the Vice President had an affair. She makes it clear to him that, should he attempt smear tactics against any of these women, she will fight him on it, and he says he had no plans to include information about her in his book. C.J. later sadly relates to Toby how deeply she regretted sleeping with Hoynes. Distressed and in need of comfort, she decides to finally call her college boyfriend Ben, who has been trying to get in touch with her (and been ignored or shunted aside) for quite a while.
In parallel storylines, Toby has a meeting with union leaders concerned about cheap imports from China – in particular bras
. Imposing trade restrictions, however, could be damaging to the US auto industry. Josh has a meeting with the Base Closing Commission
. Deciding which military bases to keep and which to shut down is not only politically hazardous, but a job he finds extremely boring. Leaving the room, he comes back to find his intern
Ryan in the act of pulling a confidence trick
to get a power Congressman's favor regarding a base in his district, without his approval. He tells Ryan to clean out his desk but the intern seems to think Josh is kidding in order to throw the Congressman off the track of their "secret plan". When the black, democratic Mayor of D.C. (Pickens) comes out in favour of a pilot school vouchers programme, everybody is surprised, but after taking advice from Charlie about his assistant's own public school experiences in the city, the president agrees to support the plan.
insider, and the episode carries many references to contemporary political themes. The web site in question, bringing the leak about Hoynes, is the real-life Drudge Report
, a political site that made its fame during the Lewinsky
scandal
. "The West Wing" had on several occasions been in contact with Matt Drudge
, the operator of the site, for permission to use its logo on the series, but been turned down. When the site was used without Drudge's permission, he reportedly reacted with anger. The timing of the episode, however, was fortuitous, in that it coincided with the much-publicised Drudge story about presidential candidate John Kerry
's alleged affair with a journalist.
The Democratic
Washington mayor coming out in favor for a pilot program of school vouchers, could be based on Mayor Anthony A. Williams
, who broke ranks with his party to support a similar scheme by congressional Republicans
.
Perhaps the most peculiar fact associated with the episode was a letter by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
and Representative John M. McHugh
addressed to show character Josh Lyman
, concerning the closing of an upstate New York army base. Josh points out that the deep-snow training base of Fort Drum
is relatively useless in a time when most wars take place in desert terrain. Clinton and McHugh wrote a tongue-in-cheek response pointing out flaws in Lyman’s reasoning.
gives it a rating of 7.9; only five of the twenty-two episodes from that season received a poorer rating. On Television Without Pity it has been given a user grade of "B-". Yet the episode did rank number one in its timeslot when originally aired, ahead of ABC
's The Bachelorette
and CBS
's The King of Queens
and Everybody Loves Raymond
.
The West Wing (TV series)
The West Wing is an American television serial drama created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999 to May 14, 2006...
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
February 25, 2004. Events circle around a potentially inciting magazine interview with former Vice President John Hoynes. Written by Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. and directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, the episode contains a guest appearance by James Pickens Jr. "Full Disclosure" is notable for prompting a real-life letter from Senator Hillary Clinton.
Plot
Doing another appearance on Taylor Reid's news show, C.J. gets blind-sided with news about resigned Vice PresidentVice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
John Hoynes. A New York Times interview leaked on the internet has him claiming the President and Leo asked him to stay once the sex scandal broke (which, as seen on Life on Mars
Life on Mars (The West Wing)
-Plot:The episode begins and ends with the resignation of John Hoynes. A grim-faced president receives the news in the opening scene: the rest of the episode relates how this happened.C.J...
, is true). C.J. manages to get a copy of the interview, and it becomes clear that he is trying to portray his former boss and the Chief of Staff
White House Chief of Staff
The White House Chief of Staff is the highest ranking member of the Executive Office of the President of the United States and a senior aide to the President.The current White House Chief of Staff is Bill Daley.-History:...
in a bad light. When it also emerges that he is writing a book (titled "Full Disclosure"), the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
staff suspect he is planning a presidential run, and that his tactics will involve a smear campaign against the current administration, to distance himself and thereby appear in a better light. As a pre-emptive response, they draw up a long and detailed list of Hoynes' worst policy blunders from his time in office, to use if he should decide to campaign at their expense.
C.J., however, seems more than reasonably distressed by the whole incident. She pays Hoynes a visit to give him a warning, and it becomes clear that she was one of the women with whom the Vice President had an affair. She makes it clear to him that, should he attempt smear tactics against any of these women, she will fight him on it, and he says he had no plans to include information about her in his book. C.J. later sadly relates to Toby how deeply she regretted sleeping with Hoynes. Distressed and in need of comfort, she decides to finally call her college boyfriend Ben, who has been trying to get in touch with her (and been ignored or shunted aside) for quite a while.
In parallel storylines, Toby has a meeting with union leaders concerned about cheap imports from China – in particular bras
Brassiere
A brassiere is an undergarment that covers, supports, and elevates the breasts. Since the late 19th century, it has replaced the corset as the most widely accepted method for supporting breasts....
. Imposing trade restrictions, however, could be damaging to the US auto industry. Josh has a meeting with the Base Closing Commission
Base Realignment and Closure
Base Realignment and Closure is a process of the United States federal government directed at the administration and operation of the Armed Forces, used by the United States Department of Defense and Congress to close excess military installations and realign the total asset inventory to reduce...
. Deciding which military bases to keep and which to shut down is not only politically hazardous, but a job he finds extremely boring. Leaving the room, he comes back to find his intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
Ryan in the act of pulling a confidence trick
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
to get a power Congressman's favor regarding a base in his district, without his approval. He tells Ryan to clean out his desk but the intern seems to think Josh is kidding in order to throw the Congressman off the track of their "secret plan". When the black, democratic Mayor of D.C. (Pickens) comes out in favour of a pilot school vouchers programme, everybody is surprised, but after taking advice from Charlie about his assistant's own public school experiences in the city, the president agrees to support the plan.
Social and cultural references
Writer Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. is a former WashingtonWashington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
insider, and the episode carries many references to contemporary political themes. The web site in question, bringing the leak about Hoynes, is the real-life Drudge Report
Drudge Report
The Drudge Report is a news aggregation website. Run by Matt Drudge with the help of Joseph Curl and Charles Hurt, the site consists mainly of links to stories from the United States and international mainstream media about politics, entertainment, and current events as well as links to many...
, a political site that made its fame during the Lewinsky
Monica Lewinsky
Monica Samille Lewinsky is an American woman with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an "improper relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996...
scandal
Lewinsky scandal
The Lewinsky scandal was a political sex scandal emerging in 1998 from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 25-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of...
. "The West Wing" had on several occasions been in contact with Matt Drudge
Matt Drudge
Matthew Nathan Drudge is the American creator and editor of the Drudge Report, a news aggregation website. Drudge is self-described as being conservative and populist. Drudge has also authored a book and hosted a radio show and a television show.-Early years:Matthew Drudge was raised in Takoma...
, the operator of the site, for permission to use its logo on the series, but been turned down. When the site was used without Drudge's permission, he reportedly reacted with anger. The timing of the episode, however, was fortuitous, in that it coincided with the much-publicised Drudge story about presidential candidate John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...
's alleged affair with a journalist.
The Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Washington mayor coming out in favor for a pilot program of school vouchers, could be based on Mayor Anthony A. Williams
Anthony A. Williams
Anthony Allen "Tony" Williams is an American politician who served as the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. He had previously served as chief financial officer for the District, managing to balance the budget and achieve a surplus within two years of...
, who broke ranks with his party to support a similar scheme by congressional Republicans
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
.
Perhaps the most peculiar fact associated with the episode was a letter by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
and Representative John M. McHugh
John M. McHugh
John Michael McHugh is the 21st United States Secretary of the Army and a former Republican politician from the state of New York, formerly representing the state's 23rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives.On June 2, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated him to...
addressed to show character Josh Lyman
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
, concerning the closing of an upstate New York army base. Josh points out that the deep-snow training base of Fort Drum
Fort Drum
Fort Drum is a United States Army base in New York near the Canadian border.Fort Drum may also refer to:*Fort Drum, Florida, a nearly-uninhabited town in the United States*Fort Drum , Philippines...
is relatively useless in a time when most wars take place in desert terrain. Clinton and McHugh wrote a tongue-in-cheek response pointing out flaws in Lyman’s reasoning.
Reception
The episode is not considered among the best in the series. TV.comTV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
gives it a rating of 7.9; only five of the twenty-two episodes from that season received a poorer rating. On Television Without Pity it has been given a user grade of "B-". Yet the episode did rank number one in its timeslot when originally aired, ahead of ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's The Bachelorette
The Bachelorette
The Bachelorette is a spin-off of the American competitive reality dating game show The Bachelor. In its January 2003 debut on ABC, the first season featured Trista Rehn, the runner-up date from the first season of The Bachelor, offering the opportunity for Rehn to choose a husband among 25 bachelors...
and CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's The King of Queens
The King of Queens
The King of Queens is an American sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 21, 1998, to May 14, 2007.This show was produced by Hanley Productions and CBS Productions , CBS Paramount Television ,and CBS Television Studios in association with Columbia TriStar Television , and Sony Pictures...
and Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is an American television sitcom that originally ran on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005. Many of the situations from the show are based on the real-life experiences of lead actor Ray Romano, creator/producer Phil Rosenthal and the show's writing staff...
.
External links
- Full Disclosure at NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
.com - Full Disclosure at The West Wing Episode Guide
- Full Disclosure at The West Wing Continuity Guide
- Full Disclosure recap at Television Without Pity
- Full Disclosure at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- Full Disclosure at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...