You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that...

Arthur Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel. Howard Beale: Why me? Arthur Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. Howard Beale: I have seen the face of God. Arthur Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

I want ideas from you people. That 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? I'll be out on the coast in, uh, four weeks. Will you set up a meeting with Laureen Hobbs? Sure. But the business of management is management. And at the time CCA took control of the UBS TV Network... ...it was foundering with less than 7 percent of national television revenues... ...most network programs being sold at station rates. I am pleased to announce I am submitting to the board of directors... ...a plan for the coordination of the main profit centers. And with the specific intention... ...of making each division more responsive to management. Point one. The division producing the lowest rate of return has been the news division... ...with its $98 million budget and its average annual deficit of 32 million. I know that, historically, news divisions are expected to lose money. But to our minds, this philosophy is a wanton fiscal affront... ...to be resolutely resisted. The new plan calls for local news to be transferred to owned stations' divisions. News radio would be transferred to the UBS Radio Division and in effect... ...the news division would be reduced from an independent division... ...to a department accountable to network. - What was that all about, Ed? - This is not the time, Max. Why wasn't I told about this? Why was I led up onto that podium and publicly humiliated... ...in front of the stockholders? Goddamn it, I spoke to John Wheeler this morning... ...and he assured me the news division was safe. That's one hell of a way to get me to resign. We'll talk about this tomorrow at our regular morning meeting. Eleven, 10... Roll VTA. ...nine, eight, seven, six. In five, four, three, two... One. One, cue VTA. Cue announcer. The UBS evening news with Howard Beale. Ready, two? Two, cue Howard. Good evening. Today is Wednesday, September the 24th... ...and this is my last broadcast. Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide. Admittedly an act of madness. Well, I'll tell you what happened. I just ran out of bullshit. - All right, cut him off. - Leave him on. Am I still on the air? If this is how he wants to go out, this is how he goes out. - except I just ran out of bullshit. Mr. Schumacher's right here. Wanna talk to him? Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living. If we can't think up any reasons of our own, we have the God bullshit. Holy Mary, Mother of Christ. - Tom, what is it? - through all this pointless pain, humiliation and decay... ...so there better be someone who does know. That's the God bullshit. He's saying that life is bullshit and it is. What are you screaming about? Man is a noble creature that can order his own world. Who needs God? If there's anybody out there... ...that can look around this slaughterhouse of a world we live in... ...and tell me that man is a noble creature... ...believe me, that man is full of bullshit. - What's so goddamn funny? - I can't help it, Harry. It's funny. Max, this is going out live to 67 affiliates. Leave him on. And I was married for 33 years of shrill, shrieking fraud. - Mr. Hackett's trying to get through to you. - Tell Mr. Hackett to go fuck himself. So I don't have any bullshit left. I just ran out of it, you see. Mr. Ruddy, could we have just one statement from you? Sorry, I don't have all the information yet. One question. Could we-? If we could just have one statement about Mr. Beale. Max. I'll want to see Mr. Beale after this. The way I hear it, Max, you were primarily responsible... ...for this colossally stupid prank. - Is that the fact, Max? - That's the fact. It was unconscionable. There doesn't seem to be anything more to say. I have something to say, Ed. I want to know why that whole debasement of the news division... ...announced at the stockholders' meeting this afternoon was kept secret from me. You and I go back 20 years, Ed. I took this job with your personal assurance... ...that you'd back my autonomy against any encroachment. But ever since CCA acquired control of UBS Systems 10 months ago... ...Hackett's been taking over everything. Now who the hell is running this network? You or some conglomerate called CCA? I mean you're president of the Systems Group... ...and Hackett's nothing but a hatchet man for CCA. Nelson here, president of a network... ...and he hasn't a thing to say about anything anymore. I told you at the stockholders' meeting, Max... ...that we would discuss all that at our regular meeting tomorrow morning. If you had been patient... ...I would've explained that I thought Frank Hackett precipitate... ...and that the reorganization of the division... ...would not be executed until everyone, specifically you, Max... ...had been consulted and satisfied. Instead, you sulked off like a child and engaged this network... ...in a shocking and disgraceful episode. Your position is no longer tenable... ...regardless of how management is restructured. I will expect your resignation at 10:00 tomorrow morning... ...and we will coordinate our statements to the least detriment of everyone. Bob McDonough will take over the news division... ...until we can sort all this out. I'd like to see Mr. Beale now. They're looking for him, Ed. They don't know where he is. Every day, five days a week for 15 years, I've been sitting behind that desk. The dispassionate pundit... ...reporting with seemly detachment the daily parade... ...of lunacies that constitute the news. And just once I wanted to say what I really felt. Knock it off, Arthur. It was, after all, my last... - Did the overnight ratings come in yet? - They're on your desk. Have you still got yesterday's overnights? Shall I bring them in? Yeah. These are those four outlines submitted by Universal for an hour series.