CNN's Morgan Repeatedly Raises Sorkin's Anti-America Speech with Guests
Since liberal producer Aaron Sorkin's HBO series The Newsroom made waves a couple of weeks ago with its infamous speech asserting that America is "not the greatest country in the world anymore," CNN host Piers Morgan has repeatedly brought up this charge with guests on his Piers Morgan Tonight show.
Morgan, who so far has not brought up the speech with any clearly conservative guest who might disagree with the premise, first raised the issue on the Wednesday, June 20, show with guest Billy Corgan of the rock group, the Smashing Pumpkins. Morgan:
I saw the premiere of Aaron Sorkin's new drama, Newsroom, which is based around a cable news show like this, starring Jeff Daniels. I watched it last night. And at the start, Jeff Daniels's character makes this kind of polemic speech to a bunch of students. And the point he makes - he's asked about what he thinks of America. He says that it's completely wrong to say America is still the greatest country in the world. It used to be. And it can be again.
But actually statistically, if you look at all the criteria, education, science, literacy, etc., etc., America is lagging way behind now many countries. What do you think?
A couple of days later, on Friday, July 22, as Sorkin and The Newsroom's Jeff Daniels appeared together as guests, the CNN host asked Daniels about the quote he had to deliver on the show. Morgan:
It was fascinating watching the room reaction, all these hard-edged news men, a lot of them sort of nodding along with that because it was a great speech and a classic - if you don't mind me saying - Sorkinism at its very best because it really made you think because you rattled off all these statistics about where America is not number one anymore, and made the point it used to be a great country, and it could be a great country again, but right now, it's not the greatest country in the world.
Let me ask you a difficult question: When you said it, did you believe it yourself?
On Monday, July 2, during an interview with Glenn Frey of the band, the Eagles, the CNN host brought up the issue of "American excess" as the two discussed the meaning of the Eagles song, Hotel California:
I always took it to mean a kind of a monument to American excess, not necessarily in a completely negative way, but just a monument to excess. When you look at modern America, and the way America has developed since you wrote the song, what do you think of what's going on now in America? In terms of, have people taken excess too far, do you think?
Morgan then brought up the speech from Sorkin's The Newsroom as he followed up:
An interesting debate was sparked - I had Aaron Sorkin and Jeff Daniels on here and this new HBO show, Newsroom, based on a show like this - and there's a whole debate that was sparked by the big speech at the start of the first episode in which Jeff Daniels's character gets angry about America.
And the key point he was making was that too many Americans still believe that America is the greatest country on Earth when, statistically, in many, many key areas - science, education and so on - it isn't anymore. There's a lack of awareness of that. Like all things in denial, until you deal with the denial and accept reality, you can't get better again. Do you think there's merit to that?
And on Tuesday, July 3, with liberal actor Billy Baldwin as a guest, Morgan raised the issue again:
PIERS MORGAN: There's this ongoing debate now, triggered by Aaron Sorkin's show, Newsroom, about whether America has the right to call itself the greatest country in the world statistically, just based on some of the figures you just said, what do you think?
BILLY BALDWIN: I think we have to be careful because there was a time where, you know, Paris and France were at the forefront of everything culturally and politically, and then it was replaced by London and England, and that was replaced by New York and America, and we better watch out or it's gonna be Beijing and China. And we may look back 50 years from now and say, in 2012, it already was Beijing and China, we just weren't aware of it until 20 years after the fact. And by that time, it's gonna be too late, so I think when it comes to R and D, you know, and technology and education and infrastructure and reinvestment, I think we have to be very, very careful, or we're about to be replaced.
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Comments
Is this the show that doesn't
Submitted by pilgrim4jc on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 2:00am.
Is this the show that doesn't even show up in the ratings? Who cares what this idiot thinks of America!
I'm starting to think NB
Submitted by Bruzilla on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 12:33pm.
I'm starting to think NB folks are the only ones watching this guy.
Keep talking Piers...
Submitted by NascarShizzle on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 2:01am.
Every word you say are nails into closing the CNN coffin shut.
Consider the Source
Submitted by tcm14 on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 2:10am.
These libs don't care if America is #1 or not, they just want to drag everyone down until everyone is as unhappy as they are.
I'd love to be the guest who
Submitted by LinTaylor on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 2:34am.
I'd love to be the guest who told him "Sorkin is a brain-dead liberal mouthpiece, that show is a waste of cellulose, and anyone who believes that speech or any of the hollow 'thoughts' behind it should be committed."
Arrogant
Submitted by oldfart on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 6:25am.
Didn't we have a revolution to get rid of arrogant Brits? What is this one still doing here?
Mr. Morgan please go back to Britain Has Talent or back to being a pirate in the Caribbean.
I love my country
Submitted by Shreve on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 7:39am.
But, I hate to say it, we definately seem to be lagging way behind other countries in many of the good areas.
But, we also know what needs to be done to fix it.
Shreve, it's the principles
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 8:02am.
Shreve, it's the principles on which this country was founded that make it great, in spite of its flaws.
What are we lacking in Shreve?
Submitted by cocodrie on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 8:11am.
Socialism? Present O is giving us more of that.
Treason? Dingy Harry and Bella Pulosi are handling that.
Lawlessness? Eric the Red is killing our law officers.
If that's not enough for you there is a lot more in your precious Obamadontcare law.
Jesus Loves You so much He died for you
yup
Submitted by dmacleo on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 8:46am.
like many we have not overthrown the current government.
course we DO get to vote unlike those many I just mentioned....
I will admit to be worried though, very worried, not sure if we have reacted in time.
and its not just this administration, although this one accelerated a lot of stuff, its a cumulative thing with DHS/TSA/Patriot Act and stuff like that.
This drivel
Submitted by bobsmom on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 9:10am.
coming from the mouth of an idiot, who's run from his own country, which has been overrun by muslims because they're too "polite" to stop them...........keep preaching to us Piers. You and Bashir, and Tina Brown, and Katty Kay, and Russell Brand..........the joke's on you.
Morgan is emblematic of the
Submitted by celator on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 9:22am.
Morgan is emblematic of the MSM presenters we often see today: he lives at the intersection of world class ignorance and high tower arrogance.
So please enlighten us, Mr. Morgan:
Submitted by HockeyKid on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 9:36am.
To which other country are the most people on the face of the earth now clamoring to emigrate?
Moreover, why did you come here? We who believe America to be the greatest country would certainly appreciate it if your ilk would move to whichever country you believe holds that distinction.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Whats wrong with Americans
Submitted by Sude23 on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 10:40am.
Whats wrong with Americans loving their country? After all France still seems to think it's still the greatest country in the world, and they also built the Arch of Triumph for themselfs when every they have a victory (News flash it's only been used twice and not by the French) and thats not considered arrogant? So we lag behind in some education fields here's the thing as Americans and effective humans we do need to everyone to be the best in every field, you just need to be the best in what you love to do, whether it be math, science, or literature. This is the expanding our Freedoms to be able to do and become what we want. Sorry we can not be like Japan and keep our children locked up in there rooms and study every single subject for days on end. Don't get me wrong, education is important and being well rounded is fine but focus on what you want to do not what a ranking system wants you to do.
I guess Piers wold have asked that question after the....
Submitted by Redrowan2000 on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 10:42am.
1929 stock collapse and on December 8 1941. Because we are continually Pearl Harbored by our Political news media hacks like this scum who continually sneers at this countries current and past accomplishments. You Americans are not the greatest country in the word any more and we smarmy anti American Marxists like my pal Bashir etc., will keep telling you this everyday. Why doesn't Piersy boy bring up some other facts that since he has been with CNN they have hit rockbottom in viewers.
"Don't let the bastards grind you down."
The tipping point
Submitted by Kuso Jiji on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 11:25am.
i often wonder when this creeping socialism will manifest itself to the point we are no longer exceptional. how much longer can we claim greatness when all three branches of government are paying lip service to the Constitution.
What Constitution?
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 11:56am.
respect for the Constitution prevents me from saying what I believe CJ Roberts did to what little remained of that great document. This precedent basically removes the SCOTUS from the rule of law and places them at the head of a committee to decide social issues and not law. Law will be furnished by the DOJ, HHS and various others members of the Federal Alphabet Soup.
For those who think I am too pessimistic - I hope you are right. However the idea of a CJ passing on his duty to the law in favor of a 'popular vote' is the type of thing that the entire system of law was created to prevent.
Sorkin equivocates
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 12:31pm.
That's a fallacy. I thought Dems were supposed to be intellectual! (actually I never supposed that). What was the argument of people saying America was the greatest country? Was it that our children were ranked first in academics? Was it that we had a low incidence of poverty? And I can't remember all the statistical liberal bugaboos that Daniel's character listed off.
So, if that's your margin for greatness, then you're just another liberal who thinks that America has never been the greatest country. Our greatness doesn't exist. Our exceptionalism, as the President put it, is no more than Greeks believing in Greek exceptionalism, and no more than patriotism--which the libs are kind of exempting themselves from in its common variety.
Now, America has been touted for its mobility , but you can't have mobility if there is only one standard of wealth--an average of everybody's income. But it's clear that the person who seizes his or her fortune and experiences that mobility is not going to make that big a dent in the aggregate statistic.
Hence Sorkin's citing of aggregate statistics to "refute" a matter of opportunity, it flawed beyond belief. But it indicates what I see in liberals, the common idea that they have refuted you if they believe something else.
So....
Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 12:29pm.
Is Sorkin getting a writing credit on Piers' show?
Billy who?
What makes America great?
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 12:49pm.
The end of two world wars? Where the statistic on the ending of world wars? Our Constitution, where's the statistic on where our Constitution ranks? The amount of people in other countries in threatening political speech say "You must be mistaken, the guarantee of freedom of speech is an American idea!" What's the statistic of people who think that it's only a curious notion of Americans?
And what hurts our statistics? Freedom. We give people the freedom to drop out of school and play rock guitar--or even video games if that is their lifestyle choice. And the libs exacerbate every single brain-dead reason for not measuring up to a communal standard of education. The left stands for no fixed standards--so what are they measuring ? Just somebody's standard of "greatness" (invites the classic liberal "who gets to say what is greatness?!?!?")
It is more like a liberal who would think that black and Hispanic kids telling each other than educational achievement can't happen unless their school gets the same funding as rich suburban schools that they can't be expected to learn, and thus educational achievement is "acting white" as a a legitimate cultural difference. Just as in Colorado, in 2008, it was the Dems who wanted to get out the highschool dropout vote.
peirs morgan
Submitted by theyjustcantstop on Thu, 07/05/2012 - 6:21pm.
yes we lag behind some countries in one specific category or another,and that can be traced back to government.
there's a huge difference in the way this question is asked,is america the best country in the world,is america the best country in the world to live,yes,and yes.
we are'nt always going to be the best at everything,but why push americans not to be the best in the world,this globalism,(socialism), this effort by the left in this country is to nutralize america with all other countries ends america,50% of the other countries are elated for this to happen,50% of the other countries have the fear of god of this happening.
some countries see in their own countries,up-risings,and social un-rest,and see what happening,in the middle-east, and africa, and wonder,is there a country that would be willing ,and able to help them,in a worst case senario,i say in a few years no.
these globalist,one world order,and their ilk will make 90% of the world sitting ducks,your children,and grand-children,the ones they care so much about,(at election time), will not stand a chance.