Here’s how we’re introduced to Eileen Fitzgerald, the veteran investigative journalist played by two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank in the new ABC drama “Alaska Daily.” She’s working on a big expose for a New York paper when someone lower down the food chain approaches her with concerns about her source. Eileen’s response? “I’ve been doing this since you were finger painting with baby food and now I’m 23 minutes away from publishing a story I spent five months investigating. So please take your all-hands-on-deck approach and get the hell away from my desk.”
Cut to: The story blows up in her face, along with her job.
Which is why, when an old colleague comes visiting from Alaska and offers her a spot at his modest paper — The Alaska Daily once had a staff of 100, now it’s down to 25 (oh, I know this story well) — she’s begrudgingly persuaded to start anew in Anchorage. “You might be hurt and you might be pissed off, Eileen, but you’re not done,” says her new boss, “and I think you know it.” He’s played by Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry and I, too, would follow him to the ends of Earth if he offered me a job.
