Aaron Sorkin

One of the reasons why liberals were so shocked by President Obama's disastrous performance in last Wednesday's presidential debate is that it ran completely counter to what they expected based on one of their most important fictional experiences. And that fictional experience was when "President" Jed Bartlet wiped the floor of his Republican challenger Ritchie ("richie" get it?) during a "West Wing" debate episode. You can see Bartlet destroying Ritchie as completely scripted by Aaron Sorkin in his liberal fantasy below the fold.

Since that fictitious debate has served as a liberal reference point as to how debates between a Democrat and Republican contenders for the presidency are supposed to turn out in real life, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has invoked the spirit of Jed Bartlet to advise Obama in preparation for the next debate. One can only conclude that Dowd must have accidentally ingested some magic mushrooms because her fantasy Jed Bartlet advises Obama to prepare for the next debate by resuming smoking, appear condescending, and calling Mitt Romney a liar.

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):

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:

During the June 24th premiere of Aaron Sorkin's new HBO drama, The Newsroom, viewers were introduced to Will MacAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels), a popular news anchor with scathing opinions about the United States. Episode two continued the liberal talking points, this time portraying conservative opinions on immigration as both racist and stupid.

On the July 1 HBO broadcast, MacAvoy turned to Arizona's immigration law. Somehow, instead of a qualified expert, the only people that the fictional production team are able to find to advocate for the law are a ditzy beauty queen who claims that she didn't win a pageant because she agreed with the law, an extremely racist 'author' of self-published anti-immigration literature and a member of a citizen-run border-patrolling militia.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

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)

On Thursday's NBC Rock Center, just days after calling for more liberal media bias against conservatives, left-wing screen writer Aaron Sorkin dismissed the idea that he has a reputation as an outspoken liberal: "I don't know so much about my being known for my liberal politics.... I don't have very much political sophistication at all." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

Correspondent Savannah Guthrie skeptically replied: "Really, you're not known for your liberal politics?" Sorkin argued: "I don't feel that way about myself. Maybe I am. I've met activists, I'm not one of them. You know, they'll march. They'll do things that are hard. I, I don't."

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...”

Update: Correction made below

In an interview with John Hudson of the left-wing magazine The Atlantic, screenwriter and producer Aaron Sorkin described where he gets his news and quickly launched into a tirade against conservative media figures: "Beck and Limbaugh are eye-poppingly awful. It would be easier to buy their love of America if they didn't have such hate for Americans. They're my generation's Joe McCarthy..."

Sorkin claimed Beck and Limbaugh were guilty of "tarring anyone who disagrees with them with schoolyard epithets and, of course, being 'un-American' or even on the side of America's enemies....They appeal to the worst in the worst among us..."

In an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl for CBS's Sunday Morning, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin made his latest attack against Sarah Palin, ranting: "I have a big problem with people who glamorize dumbness. And demonize education and intellect. And I'm giving a pretty good description of Sarah Palin right now." [Audio available here]

Stahl made no effort to challenge Sorkin's vicious personal attacks, simply remarking: "He seems to be having a second career these days, going after Sarah Palin. In an essay for The Huffington Post, he called her a 'witless bully.'" Given the media's concern with civility and harsh political rhetoric in the wake of the Tucson shooting, one wonders why Stahl did not condemn such language.

Video added below

 Appearing as a guest in a pre-recorded interview on Wednesday’s Parker-Spitzer on CNN to promote his film The Social Network, television and film producer Aaron Sorkin trashed Sarah Palin as an "idiot" and a "mean woman." Sorkin: "Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on, this is a remarkably, this is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."

After the former producer of the television series The West Wing complained that the religious right had attacked the show as "anti-God," he also went after the GOP as the segment neared its end. Sorkin: "But the Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution. Okay? So I'll take the Democrats."

As co-host Eliot Spitzer started the interview by asking Sorkin about his views about the Obama administration, the liberal producer seemed to admit to having gotten a "goose bump experience" from President Obama in the past as he evaluated Obama’s current performance: "I think what a lot of people feel like they're missing is the goose bump experience that he gave us during the campaign."

Aaron Sorkin (IMDb page) came aboard the Monday premiere of CNN’s Parker Spitzer to promote the new movie, The Social Network, for which he wrote the screenplay, but used more of his air time to spout his anti-conservative and anti-Republican prejudices, starting with Sarah Palin. Prompted by Kathleen Parker for his assessment of Palin, Sorkin, creator of NBC’s The West Wing television drama, insulted Palin:

Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman. (Audio: MP3 clip)

Parker jumped in: “Wow. What do you base that on, the meanness part?” Sorkin explained: “When she talks about real Americans versus not real Americans, that's a divisive thing. I'm pretty sure I fall into the category of a not real American.”

In a case of entertainment imitating entertainment, Arron Sorkin -- maker of the faux president series West Wing -- has hinted that he is soon to start development of another one of those behind-the-scenes TV shows, this one to be the goings on with a TV pundit show ala Keith Olbermann's Count Down spectacle on MSNBC. So says Entertainment Weekly this week at least.

So, what are we going to be subjected to? Another ponderous show where a lefty bleeding-heart host that is soooo "concerned" with the whole wide world? A salute to the "seriousness" of an Olbermann type? Or are we going to see the tale of a nearly insane, egomaniacal freak that terrorizes everyone with whom he works? If they are going for fantasy probably the former. Reality... who knows?

Tell me if this movie doesn't have "bomb" written all over it. First of all it is being written by Aaron Sorkin. Secondly it is being produced by George Clooney. Finally, the movie theme has BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) at its center. Is this not the perfect formula for yet another leftwing movie that is destined to die at the box office? How long before Hollywood finally figures out that such movies are always doomed to fail bigtime? 

The most recent such box office failure of a leftwing film is "Che" which so far has grossed a grand total of only a million bucks. Perhaps the producers knew in advance that this flick would be a bomb which is why it is already available on Pay-Per-View. Remember Oliver Stone's "W?" If you have forgotten it even existed, that is because it died a quick death at the box office immediately upon release last October.

Both of these movies suffered exactly the same fate as all the other leftwing movies produced in the past few years by Hollywood. "Redacted?" DEAD!  "Rendition?" DEAD! "Syriana?" DEAD! "Stop Loss?" DEAD!  And on and on and on it goes. So do you think Hollywood has finally learned its lesson? According to Variety, the answer is no: