Desperate to heal family discord, an idealistic student journalist investigates the nation’s most popular cable news station and finds a disinformation scheme, but to break the story she must confront ethical boundaries of her own.

SYNOPSIS:

Snarky but deeply principled Jo Patnode works at a chicken plant and studies journalism at community college. A blue-minded girl in a red town, she suffers friction with her dad Mat about right-wing media.

Jo discovers a journalism standard that captures her attention for its outdated weakness. Childhood friend Shon invites Jo to visit NYC, sealing the deal when her cleaning crew lands a gig in the same building as Real America News (RAN) HQ. With her idealistic itch and journalistic curiosity, Jo boards a bus to New York, soon joining the cleaning team and gaining close proximity to her archenemy.

She overhears the CEO’s nephew Blake flexing about RAN’s ‘influence’ business. She takes this to the U.S. Times, her revered media leader, and is rebuffed. She snoops in the RAN offices then gets a tip that sends her to CEO Ray Murphy’s estate, standing on the beach while a new friend describes the home office space, with a mysterious locked interior door.

She becomes convinced there’s a secret inner office where the ‘influence’ business happens. Rebuffed again by the U.S. Times, she plants her hunch with various tabloids – echoing the tactics of her nemesis and justifying it with the deficient current media standard – deftly illustrating her point.

The Times finally begins an investigation with Jo assisting. Shon releases her from the cleaning crew and Jo recklessly ‘borrows’ Shon’s badge to get back into the building for research, dropping it as she is chased out by rising star anchor Parker Mitchell.

Parker & Blake form an unholy alliance against Jo, Shon angrily throws Jo out of her apartment for jeopardizing her gig. Mat tells Jo not to come home until she agrees with him. RAN launches a smear campaign against Mat, who goes into hiding from ICE agents looking to deport him back to Canada.

Jo’s new friend becomes her investigation partner; together they install a tiny camera in the wall of the locked space – revealing a secret pay-to-play operation.

Along her journey, Jo realizes that the U.S. Times cannot connect outside of their own echo chamber, and calls them out for their failures.

As Jo ponders her vanishing options, she gets an SOS from Shon, who is snagged up by Blake. Nic and Mat show up; Nic helps to ensure Shon’s safety. Shon has realized that Jo is tracking something important and assists by capturing video of Ray revealing his devious work. Jo’s other ally captures audio of Ray insulting his viewers for not understanding how easily he deceives them. Mat gets his moment to confront Parker; Jo and Mat reconcile. Final image: the inner office door stands open as Federal marshals gather evidence for financial crimes that are destined to change the broadcast licensing standards