A student journalist whose father stormed the Capitol blames a powerful cable news franchise for radicalizing him. But when she gets a surprising opportunity to investigate, the station puts her dad in its crosshairs and she must decide whether to break the story, or try to heal her family.

SYNOPSIS:

JOSIE PATNODE (JO) – 19, world-weary daughter of rural poverty, nails darts at a photo of Ray Murphy, CEO of Looks News – the media powerhouse she blames for her dad’s participation in the January 6th storming of the Capitol. When a string of unmarked vehicles speeds toward their house, she quickly bolts the front door and shoves chairs up against the kitchen door. But the FBI agents easily overcome her efforts, storm in, and haul her dad away.

With her dad in custody, Jo struggles to keep up with school and work. To the chagrin of her partner Nic, their old friend (and Jo’s former romantic interest) Shon invites Jo to visit NYC to clear her mind.

On arrival, Jo finds that Shon’s indie cleaning crew has a gig in the same building as Looks News HQ. An ill team member creates a need that Jo fills, and suddenly she’s just a few floors away from her bete noir. With horrified curiosity, she finds her way into Looks’ space.

Jo overhears Ray’s nephew Blake bragging about how his uncle runs the country, playing his audience for fools as he colludes with politicians and corporations to skew the news to reflect ‘pay to play’ points of view. Blake includes mention of the January sixth events.

Jo brings this ‘tip’ to the City Times and is mostly rebuffed. She begins snooping around the Looks offices. On a tip from new acquaintance, Jo travels to Ray’s Southampton estate aka ‘the REAL HQ’. There, she discovers and breaks into a locked space that reveals a room devoted to funding and planning Looks’ manipulation of the news, including the Jan 6th events.

Murphy vows to conceal the break-in. The Times now begins an investigation, with Jo assisting. Suspicious of Jo’s activities, Shon cuts her from the crew. Jo ‘borrows’ Shon’s badge to get back into the building for research, and drops it as she is chased out by Blake, who identifies and threatens Shon. Jo rescues Shon with her darts but Shon furiously throws Jo out on the street.

As part of a release deal, Jo’s dad consents to a monitor on his phone. Looks connects Jo to the east end break in and as punishment -- starts a smear campaign on her dad, labelling him a government collaborator who informed on his fellow rioters. Jo’s parents are threatened and flee to an old family cabin.

On her journey, Jo has begun to realize that the media she had long sided with is not without blame for the situation, having alienated her people by dismissing them dumb, which contributed to their embrace of Looks. Jo decides to walk away from the investigation, changing her response to the situation (per Shon’s teachings) and hoping that Looks will stop harassing her dad. She begs the Times to pull the plug, but they are hot on the story and suggest that Jo may be arrested for the break-in, without benefit of their legal team.

On her way out of town, fate has other plans. Blake drags Shon into his uncle’s office as a prize. Jo and Nic (newly arrived) rush to help Shon, as screens throughout the Looks building feature the hot mic audio of Ray’s self-incriminating rant – spoken to his nephew but broadcast live to the world, thanks to the flip of a control board switch by a new friend whose perspective on his employer has been changed by Jo and her quest for truth.