NewsBusters has chronicled for years the perilously liberal views of television producer Aaron Sorkin.
That's why it was rather surprising to read in Mother Jones that he told a gathering hosted by HBO and The New Republic Wednesday that the Huffington Post helps power "a genuinely damaging force in our culture":
"I don't think we're very nice to each other anymore…There's just too much money to be made and too much fun to be had laughing at somebody else fail. And that's become okay. It used to be the kind of thing that you didn't do in public…And now it's what covers…the homepage of the Huffington Post. '13 Epic #Fails.' There's the need to put an exclamation point after everything, and there's the need to…create fantastic stories instead of just reporting on things that we need. So the adjectives and adverbs that you'll see in headlines are always about how somebody issued a blistering this against [someone or something]—just anything to get a clip."
That might explain some shots taken at the Post in a recent episode of Sorkin's The Newsroom on HBO.
Maggie Jordan played by Alison Pill totally excoriated the website for its sexist portrayal of women.
Who would have thought a liberal such as Sorkin would abhor one of the nation's largest liberal websites?
On the other hand, could it be because the Post panned The Newsroom when it debuted in June 2012?
The biggest problem with "The Newsroom" -- and it's one of many, many problems -- is that its goals and its narrative strategies are in direct conflict with each other. The result is a dramatically inert, infuriating mess, one that wastes a fine cast to no demonstrable purpose, unless you consider giving Sorkin yet another platform in which to Set the People Straight is a worthwhile purpose. [...]
Ultimately, the show is the worst possible vehicle for promulgating the values and beliefs that the core characters profess. With shrill, self-righteous friends like these, journalism doesn't need enemies. [...]
All I can do is what any other educated citizen of this great nation would do: Change the channel.
You think Sorkin might be getting back at the Post for this scathing review?
Hmmm.
