Sorkin's 'Newsroom': Angry Liberals Lecturing Americans
The media have been in a frenzy lately over the Sunday premiere of Aaron Sorkin’s latest show, The Newsroom. Some critics, such as Dan Rather, praised it as a "classic" worth of Citizen Kane. However, many have downplayed the left-wing, anti-American tone of the show's pilot, which includes one liberal lecture after another.
In the opening scene, new anchor Will MacAvoy (portrayed by actor Jeff Daniels) is asked by the moderator of a forum for journalism students at Northwestern about the reason that he does not expressly reveal his political leanings. When the moderator asks him if, “you feel the integrity of your broadcast would be compromised?” MacAvoy smugly says, “that sounds like a good answer, I’ll take it.” Seconds later, his tirade against America begins. [Video coming soon. MP3 audio here.]
MacAvoy's purported sense of balance goes out the window when an audience member asks him to state, in one sentence, why America is the greatest country in the world. He launches into a tirade, calling the young woman “a sorority girl” and telling her that "just in case" she "accidentally wanders into a voting booth one day" she should know that, "there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world."
He tells him that she is, "without a doubt a member of the worst, period, generation, period, ever, period," and says "so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the f*** [expletive unbleeped in audio] you're talking about."
When the show shifts to the actual newsroom, MacAvoy chooses to cover an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and interviews a Haliburton spokesman.
Though the spokesman comes on the show just minutes after the network becomes aware of the disaster, MacAvoy asks him specific statistics about tests on a product made by the company and when the spokesman doesn't have the statistics on hand at the moment, he sarcastically asks him if they are, "buried in the middle of a wheat field."
At another point, the spokesman says that, "Haliburton's thoughts and prayers are with the missing crew and their families," MacAvoy sarcastically tells him, "of course they are, no one's thoughts and prayers are with the fire."
Instead of being reprimanded for such behavior, he is applauded by his staff, and even by the head of the news division (played by Sam Waterston) who tells him that "news anchors having an opinion is not a new phenomenon" and offers Edward R. Murrow's condemnation of Joseph McCarthy and Walter Cronkite's criticism of Vietnam as justification.
Journalists may not care about the show's liberal tilt, but it seems viewers do. The Newsroom pilot debuted to very mediocre ratings:
Compared with other HBO debuts, "The Newsroom" did OK. It fared better than the now-canceled "Luck," which netted 1.1 million total viewers when it premiered in January. But Sunday's "Newsroom" showing came in behind the April 2011 debut of "Game of Thrones" (which opened to 2.2 million and picked up more than a million additional viewers during its first repeat), and "Boardwalk Empire," which netted nearly 5 million viewers when it debuted in September 2010.
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Comments
Yet
Submitted by rockyracoon on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:31pm.
Another reason no to subscribe to this rotten network.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
The answer is subscibe but don't watch tripe like this
Submitted by powers2be on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:26pm.
There is actually good programming on HBO. They don't just give voice to the leftists, unlike NBC, CBS and ABC. would that we could only un-subscibe to these 3 marxists propaganda channels. Now that would make for a good cable company. Forget basic cable, let me pick and choose those channels I want and bugger the rest.
Agreed. Will not ever watch
Submitted by okie-pastor on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 5:59pm.
Agreed. Will not ever watch it. But by judging by what I have seen and heard i plan to share this article with others about it.
Just another clueless liberal
Submitted by John21 on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:33pm.
Just another clueless liberal propaganda show. I watched this hoping for something interesting, but all i got was a nap.
Is it possible for a program to be more boring? This had to be put together by the clueless because like the propaganda media it has nothing to do with reality.
Not very good acting or dialog either.
Liberals are the consumate
Submitted by Edhenry on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:38pm.
Liberals are the consumate opportunists, with no character. As such, if there was another country better, they would immediatley go, as they have no love for the US.
They play the anti-america tune to set up their agenda, as it is "necessary" to cure the fabricated inequalities, and invented racism with their misguided social justice agenda.
Won't watch. Don't care.
Submitted by Antisocial-ism on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:46pm.
Won't watch. Don't care.
I would like to ask all my American friends this...
Submitted by DumbCanuck on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:47pm.
...one simple question:
If you do not believe that your country is the greatest, then may I ask you which country you believe is the greatest?
And if you can answer that, maybe you can migrate to that country. I'll be happy to take your place!
"There... Are... Four... Lights!"
Don't ask all your American
Submitted by Kubrickfilmfan73 on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:00pm.
Don't ask all your American friends. Ask Aaron Sorkin. He's the one who created "The Newsroom."
So the first moment of the
Submitted by Kubrickfilmfan73 on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:53pm.
So the first moment of the first episode is a journalist asked to express a thought in one sentence, and he can't do it. Sounds to me like Will MacAvoy is based on Chris Matthews.
I know it's a show but when
Submitted by Sude23 on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 12:59pm.
I know it's a show but when he went into his tirade, I think he actually gave one very good reason why we are considered a great country. Being able to openly share an opinion (good or bad, in his case terriable) with out being locked up and never seen again. We don't punish people for having an opinion and sharing it with others, thats why it is protected in our Bill of Rights which if I am not mistaken and correct me if I am wrong but we are the only country in the world that guarantees and is protected for the people.
In his tirade, Jeff Daniel's character got it wrong...
Submitted by WhoIsJohnGalt on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:27pm.
The stat on infant mortality that he quotes is actually read as worst on the list is #1, so the fact that the United States is 178th on the list is a good thing. #1 is Afghanistan with 121 deaths per 1,000 live births, and the United States has 5.98 deaths per 1,000 live births. And considering who else is on the list ahead of us (less deaths), we're damn near the top. Check this link for a reality check:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/20...
The link appears to be down at the moment, but Google it, you'll see.
But I wouldn't expect anyone involved with that show to question any statistic that looks like America sucks; they just take it at face value. I wish someone would call him on it.
I think some are missing the point...
Submitted by Piablo on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:33pm.
Aaron Sorkin is an interesting fellow. When I first heard of him I was immediately turned off, assumed he was another typical lib. Over the years, I have seen his work, listened to him speak a bit, and learned a bit more about him. Unlike most in his industry, I think Sorkin has a decent amount of intellectual honesty and is not so quick to spite his own intellect for the sake of liberal ideology.
Sorkin actually despises the current state of journalism as much as you and I do. In fact, he even acknowledges that the major networks are chock full of libs vomiting their ideology all over the airwaves. The evidence of course is this show, Newsroom. It's an honest take on today's CNN, MSNBC, FOX news stations. The show itself is an editorial on the motivations and intents of these stations.
So I understand not wanting to watch art sarcastically mock life, but don't confuse this show as more liberal screed. Perhaps some of the politically ambivelent that tune in to watch this show begin to connect the dots and see through the BS.
Are you kidding?
Submitted by gopcongress on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:51pm.
This show not only is more liberal screed, it is the epitome of liberal screed! And I don't see how you can tie in Fox with MSNBC in this regard. If Sorkin truly despised the current state of journalism, he would not have created a show that was a carbon copy of the average non-Fox news station.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
The show is not journalism...
Submitted by Piablo on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 2:34pm.
The show is entertainment about the current state of journalism. To be upset about the speech given by Jeff Daniel's character is like calling Keefer Sutherland a racist for playing one in a movie. The Newsroom presents the mainstream media in all of its liberal glory. In other words, it's being honest!! The villain of the show is the main character, the news media! Typical liberal screed would have been a speech from Jeff Daniel's character chock full of guilt trips from socialist-greenie-anti-capitalist propaganda masquerading as a common concerned citizen.
I tie Fox in with the rest of them because they have the same format. Instead of choosing to be full libtard, they chose to be less libtard. They are not conservative. That is a fact. They are simply less left leaning in their depictions of news than the rest of the crowd. Fox happens to be the only big news network that I can stomach to watch, but even then there is only so much I can take of sociopaths trying to shout each other down and then on queue at the end of the segment smile from ear to ear like grinning fools. They present the news in a way to get people riled up, to create controversy and therefore generate ratings.
"The Newsroom" presents the media as it is and let's the audience decide whether its right or wrong.
So, Piablo, "The Newsroom" looks like a ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 3:39pm.
liberal skunk, and smells like a liberal skunk - but isn't a real skunk because your olfactory organ isn't picking up an odor?
Your 'balanced' dissection of FOX isn't all that, either.
FOX may not be all that conservative; but then, anyone throwing out an opinion and saying "That is a fact" is relying more on their opinion than on actual facts.
MD
A great bottle of Cabernet
Submitted by Piablo on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 5:25pm.
A great bottle of Cabernet may smell like it has ripe blackberries, but there isn't a single berry in there.
Let's use your simple face value reasoning here for a second and look at a show called "All In The Family" starring Carol O'Conner as Archie Bunker. Archie is racist, sexist, you name it. So does that mean the show's writers were racist and promoted racist and sexist themes? No. Thank you. They actually meant the opposite. GASP!
Now my comment "That is a fact" with regards to which side Fox News tips to is supported by multiple university and media research organizations compiling data utilizing the LexisNexis database. And perhaps if you wanted to really test me on this, you could do a little search right on here, Newsbusters.com for an article or two citing exactly what I said. But that would be a lot of trouble just to refute 4 little words.
You are spinning, Piablo, to promote your ---
Submitted by matthewdean on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 6:16pm.
opinion as fact.
Period.
Obama was put in office by a "multiplicity" of voters; does that somehow prove he deserves any of the encomiums he has received?
How is saying FOX News tips right supposed to mean they are not at all conservative, yet are simultaneously being less 'libtard'?
Any opinion "--supported by multiple university and media research organizations--" is questionable; see NewsBusters mission statement.
MD
It's been quite awhile
Submitted by Unsane on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 8:16pm.
Welcome back, my little hate-filled Socialist.
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Piablo, 2 1/2 years as a NB
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 06/27/2012 - 9:18am.
Piablo,
2 1/2 years as a NB member and this is the first story you find interesting enough to comment on? Give your controller his money back and be gone libtard trollboy.
Waterston is the reason I don't use TD Ameritrade
Submitted by gopcongress on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:35pm.
I cannot, or the life of me, understand why TD Ameritrade employs Sam Waterston as their spokesman. He stands for things that would readily wish to see TD Ameritrade out of business in the first place.
"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
The same thing goes for
Submitted by Antisocial-ism on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 6:32pm.
The same thing goes for Capital One and Alec Baldwin.
Fantasy Newsroom
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:40pm.
When plain old every day propaganda just won't do.
Impeach the Imperial President at the polls in November 2012.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
How about "Good Times"
Submitted by James Youngblood on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:53pm.
Dan Rather also thinks "Good Times" was a classic worthy of Alex Haley's "Roots"
J. Youngblood
Hmm, how can we spout
Submitted by tcm14 on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 1:57pm.
Hmm, how can we spout left-wing propaganda on a show without any dissenting conservative voices? Why we'll say that the person spouting the propaganda IS a conservative. Genius!!
Lecturing?
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 3:14pm.
If a lecture is given on HBO and no one watches, does it make a noise?
Two items of interest
Submitted by CO2Maker on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 3:34pm.
1. The West Wing was a well-crafted, well-written, well-acted show (as was SportsNight). But both of them were soaked through with pro-liberal, anti-Republican-conservative throw-away lines, props, and narratives. And to top it off, Larry Oddonnell was writer or co-writer on quite a few episodes!
2. Sorkin practices recycling! This is great fun and very damning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78RzZr3IwI&feature=player_embedded
BTW, this is the YouTube video, but it's linked on Breitbart.
I saw this tirade months ago
Submitted by Quasi-socialist on Tue, 06/26/2012 - 8:32pm.
and I scanned the web for some acknowledgement or discussion of this sham. The surprise is that Daniels plays a character that is "conservative" and to show his maverick identity, goes on a lib-sounding tirade.
Why is this a lib way of thinking? Because averages have little reflection on opportunity . Our education stinks because we grant children a sort of self-determination that makes their lack of interest in education a legitimate lifestyle choice, or even a cultural distinction.
Averages and the ranking of averages is how bureaucrats measure their job success.
Even the statistic of small businesses that succeed, does not hint at how much opportunity an individual small business had for success. And aggregate statistics do not tell you how far somebody took themselves based on an idea and hard work.