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| “ | Well, in a nutshell, it said: "The American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, the depression; they've turned off, shot up, and they've fucked themselves limp, and nothing helps." So, this concept analysis report concludes, "The American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them." I've been telling you people since I took this job six months ago that I want angry shows. I don't want conventional programming on this network. I want counterculture, I want anti-establishment. I don't want to play butch boss with you people, but when I took over this department, it had the worst programming record in television history. This network hasn't one show in the top twenty. This network is an industry joke, and we'd better start putting together one winner for next September. I want a show developed based on the activities of a terrorist group, "Joseph Stalin and His Merry Band of Bolsheviks," I want ideas from you people. This is what you're paid for. And by the way, the next time I send an audience research report around, you'd all better read it, or I'll sack the fucking lot of you. Is that clear? | „ |
| ~ Diana Christensen to her colleagues about the state of the television network. |
Diana Christensen is the main antagonist in the 1976 satire film Network. She was portrayed by Faye Dunaway. She also played Bonnie Parker in Bonnie & Clyde, Joan Crawford (Mommie Dearest) in Mommie Dearest, Serena Waterford in The Handmaid's Tale, Jane Wilkinson in Thirteen at Dinner, Selena (Supergirl Film) in Supergirl, Elena Dubrow in Dunston Checks In and Rachel Argyle in Ordeal by Innocence.
Diana works at a struggling television network called UBS Evening News. Upon hearing that a colleague's suicide outburst has caused a spike in tv ratings, Diana, who heads the network's programming department, approaches Schumacher and offers to help him "develop" the news show. He says no to the professional offer, but she also makes a personal offer and the two begin an affair.
Christensen, seeking just one hit show, cuts a deal with a band of terrorists called the Ecumenical Liberation Army for a new docudrama series called The Mao Tse- Tung Hour for the upcoming fall season. When Schumacher decides to end Beale's "angry man" format, Christensen convinces her boss, Frank Hackett, to slot the evening news show under the entertainment programming division so she can develop it. Hackett agrees, bullying the UBS executives to consent and fire Schumacher. In one impassioned diatribe, Beale galvanizes the nation, persuading his viewers to shout out of their windows "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Soon afterward, Beale is hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, top-billed as "the mad prophet of the airwaves". Ultimately, the show becomes the most highly rated program on television, and Beale finds new celebrity preaching his angry message in front of a live studio audience that, on cue, chants Beale's signature catchphrase en masse' "We're as mad as hell, and we're not going to take this anymore.". At first, Max and Diana's romance withers as the show flourishes, but in the flush of high ratings, the two ultimately find their way back together, and Schumacher leaves his wife of over twenty-five years for Christensen.
Diana Christensen is a fictional example of a success-hungry media mogul who would do anything, no matter how unscrupulous, to get success for her network, mainly by sensationalizing news stories about terrorism