Sorkin Sees Not Liberal Bias But ‘Bias Toward Fairness,’ His HBO Newsroom Will Chastise Tea Party
Writer/producer Aaron Sorkin, whose new drama, Newsroom, about a cable news anchor -- which debuts this Sunday night on HBO -- proved in a USA Today piece he lives in a fantasy world. First, he maintained that when watching broadcast network news “I don’t see the liberal bias — and I’m trying to — that I hear about,” insisting: “What I do see is a bias toward fairness, a bias toward neutrality...”
Second, in the imaginary world he created for HBO, he inserts liberal bias by having his lead character castigate the Tea Party from the left, which – implausibly – upsets network executives. USA Today recounted how cable news anchor “Will McAvoy,” played by Jeff Daniels, “goes after the Tea Party activists and billionaire Koch brothers who helped fund it for seizing control of the Republican Party, earning the ire of the network’s parent company, led by...”
That would be....Jane Fonda. That’s right, he wants the audience to buy Jane Fonda as some sort of Romney-backing corporate suit disturbed by liberal bias on her network.
Also from the beyond the believable file: “McAvoy is a moderate Republican, former district attorney and speechwriter for the elder President Bush.”
Quite believable: Journalistic admiration for McAvoy’s denunciation of the Tea Party: “Parallels are drawn between Will’s advocacy and Edward R. Murrow’s taking on McCarthyism in the 1950s and Walter Cronkite’s opposition to the Vietnam War.”
Earlier: “Upcoming HBO Drama: Dan Rather ‘Got It Right’ on Bush and National Guard.”
Back in October of 2010, Sorkin, who created NBC’s The West Wing, declared on CNN’s Parker Spitzer (remember that show?): “Sarah Palin’s an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman.” (NB post with video)
An excerpt from “Aaron Sorkin finds TV journalism utopia in HBO’s ‘Newsroom,’” by Gary Levin on the front of the “Life” section in Wednesday’s (June 20) USA Today:
....The big broadcast networks are flawed in a different way: “I don’t see the liberal bias — and I’m trying to — that I hear about,” he says. “What I do see is a bias toward fairness, a bias toward neutrality, a bias toward false equivalency. That if a Republican has lied, it’s important that we find a Democrat who’s lied and make them equal, whether they are or not.
“Most of us have been raised to believe that there are two sides to every story, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And that's simply not always the case. Sometimes there are five sides to a story, but sometimes there’s just one. Sometimes the truth doesn’t lie in the middle, it lies squarely on one side or the other.” But “you’ll never hear the word ‘lie’ on network news when something is plainly a lie.”...
Though McAvoy is a moderate Republican, former district attorney and speechwriter for the elder President Bush, he goes after the Tea Party activists and billionaire Koch brothers who helped fund it for seizing control of the Republican Party, earning the ire of the network's parent company, led by Jane Fonda. Parallels are drawn between Will’s advocacy and Edward R. Murrow’s taking on McCarthyism in the 1950s and Walter Cronkite’s opposition to the Vietnam War.
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Comments
Typical left winger.
Submitted by pwb on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 6:56am.
He is so bias that he doesn’t recognize his own bias and hatred nor the hatred and bias in the media, just like the fish that doesn’t know its wet.
Gee, thanks, Mr. Sorkin, for
Submitted by motherbelt on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 7:06am.
Gee, thanks, Mr. Sorkin, for setting us straight.
And your degree in journalism is from where?
Regarding his "false equivalency" he's correct, but he's pointing in the wrong direction.
"Equivalency" is most often employed by reporters attempting to soften the impact of Democrat wrongdoing....hence the "both sides do it" whenever a Democrat is caught with his hand in the till or whatever.
I guess that explains why reporters so often omit party affiliation when it's a Democrat caught in a scandal, but lead with "Republican" in the first sentence.
And anyway, isnt' this kind of like Sissy Spacek acting as an expert witness before Congress about farming because she played a farmer's wife in a movie?
Sorkin made a movie about TV journalism so he's an expert on journalism?
mother
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 9:15am.
Don't forget how they titled Congressman Gary Condit during his time in the spotlight. Instead of Gary Condit (D), CA they had Gary Condit (Rep), CA. After being called on it, the answer was, "Oh, that means he's a Representative."
For those of you who don't remember, Con. Condit may have been the only non-America hater to be relieved to see the news of the 9/11 attacks. It took him off the front page for the first time, after an entire summer of being accused of murdering Chandra Levy.
OWS- good......Tea Party- bad
Submitted by creekrat on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 7:10am.
How does anyone make sense of a world where this is even possible. Ows seems to have the full support of the media and this administration while the Tea Party is denigrated daily. What in Gods name kind of world can they possibly want!
A marxist utopia...with them
Submitted by texastommy on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 7:27am.
A marxist utopia...with them in charge, of course.
I think you answered your
Submitted by Sude23 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:15am.
I think you answered your question there, In Gods world they should want nothing. In a Godless world (where they seem to be trying to get at very aggressively) they want Everything.
How..
Submitted by Mark81150 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 7:35am.
Do we contact this liar to express our opinion about his propaganda shows shilling and covering up for the left?.. I just once,...would like to send someone like him a clear message.. I know he'd never deign to lower his liberal beak to "look" at one of the great unwashed he loves to portray as evil in his shows.. my wife, God love her still watch's "Leftwing".. er westwing and thinks it's cute even though I can't watch it without wanting to airmail everything in the room out of the damned window..
first episode of the friggin show is a diatribe against the religious right,.. as we're all stupid.. the Minster yelling at Tobe had to be "corrected" as to the correct order of the 10 Comandments.. then president perfect mind comes in to hurl his genius level encyclipedic knowedge of the Bible at them.. "correcting" minsters as to what the Bible really means which of course is liberal 101... as I told my wife, a reformed democrat.. I hate a show which has in every episode there is a republican who is stupid, extremist and crazy.. Which show,... is the greater verison of Sorkin spreading the Gospel of "I hate you" to conservatives in an even uglier way..
I really hate this guy..
every republican in his shows, is either stupid crazy or both.. oh.. and evil.. always cynically evil..
He's the worst kind of evil media manipulater preaching to his choir of ignorant and deluded liberals whining about how they could win every election... if only we conservatives would only stop... (telling the truth about them and playing back their own words)...
which is worse, the Koch's legally donating to the party that they believe in...
or the media mogul (Sorkin) trying to indoctrinate the public with his toxic propaganda?.. which always tacks hard jard left, and is as "fair" to our side as a bear is "fair" to a rabbit.
I really hate liberals in Hollywood lying to spread the Gospel of the left.. them screaming McCarthy when they get caught.
and Jeff Daniels?.... really.. one more sellout to the left.. screw him.. I'll never buy another film of his and I loved Gettysburg.. but now I can't watch it without feeling betrayed.. again.
The cluelss in Hollywood
Submitted by John21 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 7:55am.
Another liberal Obamabot providing cover and distraction doing what he can for his "Chicago Jesus".
Why are we surprised with a far left Hollywood liberal freely admits that he is a DNC stooge? Most of the brain-dead in Hollywood are deep in the liberal pocket. The DNC continuously massage the overblown egos of the mentally limited of Hollywood. They do not have to deal with the real world merely exist in their elitist communities and tell everyone else what is right.
The part that always got me is that normal reasonably intelligent Americans actually listen to the poorly (at best) educated twits like they have a clue to what they are saying. Most of them do not they do their jobs and read the lines like always, if asked questions most of the time they do not have the answers. They want to give their money away it is their right but the continuous lies and propaganda that they spew to their fans just gets disgusting.
Hey Sorkin how's that cocaine
Submitted by Mr. Mike on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:00am.
Hey Sorkin how's that cocaine arrest working out?
Evidently, the coke has destroyed your brain!
As Rick James once said "Cocaine is a Hell of a drug!"
Adam who?
Submitted by almostacowboy on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:09am.
What channel is HBO on? Now, Jane Fonda? Her I know. Hey, Jane! Remember me? I'm the Vietnam veteran who spit in your face for consorting with the enemy! :-/
Read "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt
Submitted by zenman1661 on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:14am.
It explains exactly why Liberals have a distorted obsession almost to the point of ignoring everything else with care/do no harm which they perceive the Tea Party is the antithesis of . Conservatives have a balanced approach to morals.
They are afraid of the Tea
Submitted by wendybar on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:46am.
They are afraid of the Tea Party, because the Tea Party stands for fiscal responsibility, and being responsible for yourself. They try to throw in all kinds of things, that the Tea Party doesn't stand for, because they can't explain, or understand that.
Keep it up, because we can see November from our houses. And better yet, the real schellacking is coming. It's time to rid our government of all the Corrupt, divisive, moral lacking politicians that have lied and cheated the US people for long enough.
We've been TAXED ENOUGH ALREADY.
I Thought the Tea Party was irrelevant ?
Submitted by Free Stinker on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:39am.
They sure spend a lot of time attacking irrelevant people.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
"Bias towards fairness"? I have treated cognitively impaired
Submitted by drsamherman on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 12:33pm.
patients for decades, and that phrasing sounds quite close to what a delusional patient might say. Non-sequitur at minimum.
As Aaron Sorkin has owed up to long-term cocaine dependence (that's a step beyond simple abuse), let's talk a little about the long-term effects of cocaine dependence. For one, there is evidence that even short term cocaine abuse carries longer term consequences, primarily in impaired inhibitory function in certain brain pathways that govern a wide variety of responses to various stimuli. Cocaine dependence ups the ante of chronic neuronal pathway damage considerably. Manifestations such as worsening of mood disorders, development of mixed mood-dissociative disorders and exacerbation of underlying personality disorders have been recorded in clinical literature about cocaine dependent patients. If Aaron had any of these, which is likely considering substance addicts tend to have a much higher risk of having multiple psychiatric co-morbidities, he would likely experience worsening of any underlying diagnoses even if sobriety is maintained.
Having treated substance, behavior and other forms of addiction all of my professional career, I have to see a significant number of them redirect their lives to the point where they don't fall off the wagon at one point or another. That's par for the course in treated psychiatric co-morbidities of addicts. The leopards might try to bleach the spots out, but they are still there.
Sore Kind
Submitted by gymlock on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:25pm.
This guy actually thinks he matters, much like most of Hollywood who literally abuse the airwaves WE own to promote their agenda and the agenda of the left. I was once friends with a very recognizable actor who suggested I listen to NPR to get an unbiased view. He ended our friendship when, after listening to his slant for years, I expressed mine. The Intolerance of the Tolerant.... it's ok to have free thinking and ideas as long as you agree with them. And as I will boldly predict in this bullsh*t tv show, there will be issues mentioned and the defense will be: 1) denigration or attack on the person delivering or involved in the issue followed by, 2) obfuscation.
Sore Kind
Submitted by gymlock on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 8:25pm.
This guy actually thinks he matters, much like most of Hollywood who literally abuse the airwaves WE own to promote their agenda and the agenda of the left. I was once friends with a very recognizable actor who suggested I listen to NPR to get an unbiased view. He ended our friendship when, after listening to his slant for years, I expressed mine. The Intolerance of the Tolerant.... it's ok to have free thinking and ideas as long as you agree with them. And as I will boldly predict in this bullsh*t tv show, there will be issues mentioned and the defense will be: 1) denigration or attack on the person delivering or involved in the issue followed by, 2) obfuscation.
It's a shame really.
Submitted by thestalkinghorse on Thu, 06/21/2012 - 10:42pm.
I enjoyed the book Moneyball, and had hoped to see the movie, but considering that the screenplay was by Sorkin (strike one!) and it stars Brad Pitt (steerike two!), I figured why bother. If I want to be insulted, I don't even have to leave my house.