We’ve been watching The Newsroom, a typically cheesy-intellectual Aaron Sorkin drama from 2012–2014 that glorified journalism. At times the concerns raised seem quaint when viewed from the Trump era. Mostly, though, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the wistful nostalgia for a time when the news was taken seriously as a public good.

It seems timely, then, that we viewed a few episodes while the streets outside were shut down for a memorial to Peter R de Vries, an investigative reporter recently assassinated. Thousands of people queued in half-kilometer line to simply pay respects to a beloved journalist, in a society that still values the Fourth Estate.