Director of ‘The Wire’ Simon discusses career

Most widely known for his role as writer and producer of HBO’s critically-acclaimed drama “The Wire,” Simon worked as a journalist for the Baltimore Sun for 12 years before moving to television when NBC turned his book “Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets” into the TV show “Homicide: Life on the Street.”

Simon spoke about his transition from journalism to television before moving on to “The Wire,” which he described as a critique of the sociopolitical problems entrenched in America.

“For the first five years I was in television, I continued to describe myself as a journalist,” he said at the start of his speech, explaining that he had problems with the highly commercialized nature of television. “The programming was what they wrapped around the ads to keep you watching the ads,” he said.

With the relaxed economic and commercial restrictions that accompanied the advent of cable, though, Simon said, writers began to enjoy greater artistic freedom.

“How is somebody going to critique where we’re going as a republic or as a culture and in the next minute ... have to reassure you that you’re going to be all right so we can sell you stuff?” he asked. “Nobody was saying you couldn’t tell a story like that on HBO.”

Simon said he also enjoyed the artistic freedom television gave him over journalism, noting the increasingly conservative style and tone of modern newspapers.

“In some ways, a lot of the aggressive journalism that used to call something by its real name has been bleached out by the standards of professionalism so as not to offend anyone,” he said. “When I went to television, you could basically say what you wanted, and say it about the events of the day and about the issues of the day, and nobody at HBO really cared.”

“I probably have gotten more truth across in a fictional drama about Baltimore than I did in 12 years of reporting,” he said.

In the second half of his speech, Simon turned to a discussion of the present state of American society and culture, expounding upon many of the same themes and ideas contained in “The Wire.”

“ ‘The Wire’ is about the end of the American century,” he said. “It’s a very dry, yet angry, missive about how power and money have raveled themselves and what’s left of our republic.”

“I would like it if 10, 15 years from now ‘The Wire’ is hyperbolic,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s the case.”

The root cause, Simon said, of many of the country’s biggest social problems is its attitude toward capitalism. “We have given ourselves over entirely to the notion that unemcumbered capitalism and profit are the defining metrics of our society,” he explained. “If you suggest that anything other than unencumbered capitalism needs to hold sway in this country, you are instantly marginalized.”

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At the conclusion of his speech, Simon split the country into two halves — “the other America” and “functional America.” Included in “the other America” are those living in poverty, people who have been “divorced from our economic model for generations.”

“If you’re in the other America ... you might want to throw a brick,” he said, noting that some of the country’s biggest transformations — Simon cited the 1968 race riots — have come from expressions of outrage and frustration. “Throwing a brick might actually do something.”

For the wealthier, more privileged members of “functional America,” though, Simon said the future looks much different, as they have the option of ignoring the plight of those around them. “The question for everybody here, in this America, is at what point do you stand up and assert that you’re part of a collective?” he asked. “You have to decide which side you’re on.”

Simon also coauthored the book “The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood” with Ed Burns, and is cocreator of the currently running show “Treme” on HBO. He was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow.

Igor Rubinov GS said he enjoyed the lecture. “He’s managed to make it really convincing because he has this view from below ... He has a great perspective, and he tells it well.”