Jeff Daniels

Remember the hand-wringing from the Left about how the Citizens United Supreme Court decision was supposed to turn America into a corporate dystopia.  The media obligingly amplified those complaints. Well, the December 12 USA Today published an analysis showing minimal corporate participation in this year’s election cycle.  In fact, their contributions amounted to roughly 10% of the mega donations doled out in 2012. 

Granted, there was a lot of money spent on this cycle.  $518 million dollars came from just 150 people, businesses, organizations, or unions, however:

Despite mediocre ratings and a multitude of unenthusiastic reviews, HBO renewed The Newsroom for a second season after its first two episodes. The commercial-free premium cable network with a penchant for some of the most unabashed forms of liberalism must've really liked Newsroom’s topical, politically-slanted subject material, and anti-American sentiment.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

The season finale featured another intense op-ed assault against the Tea Party. In what was supposed to be a news report, lead anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) summed up his own objections to the movement. The self-proclaimed moderate Republican suggested Tea Party members should be called “The American Taliban” instead, slamming the movement’s: 

Last night's episode of Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom was hilariously titled, "Bullies." Unfortunately for HBO, the humor was due to the program's seemingly endless hypocrisy and not because there was anything remotely funny in the dialogue of the episode itself.

Lauded as a ground-breaking show by much of the liberal media, The Newsroom really jumped the shark this week by trying to paint Republicans as bullies all while portraying liberal character Will MacAvoy (Jeff Daniels) and his network's executives belittled women and demonized African-Americans who dared to support conservative candidates rather than back liberal Democrats as the Left expects them to. [video embedded below]

As NewsBusters previously reported, HBO's The Newsroom has used information for its scripts from material provided to it by the far-left, George Soros-funded propaganda outlet Think Progress.

On Sunday, the show cherry-picked six seconds - yes, I said six seconds! - from a highly-edited TP video to smear conservative businessmen Charles and David Koch (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Over the previous four episodes, Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom has become the liberal media's Sunday night darling. So, after the July 15th offering, which featured fictional news anchor Will MacAvoy comparing Tea Party members to sex offenders, a little conservative-bashing was expected. The July 22 episode did not disappoint, with the team at "Atlantic Cable News" delving into the Citizen's United Supreme Court case and effectively accusing Clarence Thomas of bribery. 

In the first few minutes of the episode, the news team becomes aware of the overthrow of Mubarak's government in Egypt. Despite the fact that one of the most volatile countries in the world has ousted its dictator, they decided to lead with a report that Republican governor Scott Walker is "trapped in a newspaper office with 75 teachers outside." They then analyze a tape of a reporter asking the Koch brothers if the Citizen's United decision increased their influence. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

As NewsBusters previously reported, CNN's Howard Kurtz was respectfully mentioned in last week's Tea Party-bashing episode of HBO's The Newsroom.

On Sunday's Reliable Sources, despite having called Aaron Sorkin's new series a "crackup" and a "snooze," the host was quite pleased with having his reputation used to validate a program he had previously panned (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported earlier, Sunday's episode of HBO's The Newsroom was an absolute disgrace that included numerous attacks on elected members of the Tea Party including a disparaging comparison of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to the late Joe McCarthy.

Much to my astonishment, former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather actually loved the show writing at Gawker, "This whole episode is something I wish every American could see and ponder" (photo courtesy Gawker):

People turning on HBO Sunday evening must have thought they'd accidentally switched channels to MSNBC.

In the third episode of Aaron Sorkin's new drama The Newsroom, those involved in the fictitious cable news network ACN all basically became MSNBC employees mercilessly attacking the Tea Party whilst comparing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to the late Joe McCarthy (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

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:

Appearing as a guest on Friday's Piers Morgan Tonight on CNN, actor Jeff Daniels - who stars as Will McAvoy in HBO's The Newsroom - admitted that he agrees with a now infamous speech delivered by his character - and written by liberal producer Aaron Sorkin - in which McAvoy rants that "America is not the greatest country in the world anymore."

After running a partial clip of the speech, host Piers Morgan praised the writing as a "great speech," and posed the question: "When you said it, did you believe it yourself?"

Sitting alongside Sorkin who was also a guest, Daniels recalled the first time he saw the line after the liberal producer wrote it:

In Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO drama The Newsroom, the lead character Will McAvoy, played by actor Jeff Daniels, rattles off America’s failings and blasts that “It’s not the greatest country in the world.” It’s an opinion of America that CBS This Morning co-anchor Charlie Rose admitted, on his Thursday night PBS show, he shares. Rose invited on Sorkin, Daniels and actress Emily Mortimer to promote the show about a disgruntled cable news anchor and told Sorkin he agreed with McAvoy’s and presumably Sorkin’s dim view of America: “I mean this is your definition of the world right there. And by the way, mine too. I mean you know what’s happened to the country.”

In the scene, McAvoy rants: “There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories. Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real and defense spending where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined 25 of whom are allies.” (video after the jump)