Aaron Sorkin
America can take a break from humoring Aaron Sorkin for a while now
It's as though Sorkin worried we'd grow bored hating the show week in and week out unless he doubled down. More
(3)Aaron Sorkin's misplaced media malaise
Sorkin has said his show is not reality, but a fantasy in which one show handled the news, in this case the G.O.P. primary, differently, and made a difference in the outcome. But that's also the problem. Better or different television debate questions would have changed nothing. In fact, we did that primary better than Sorkin's "Newsroom" is doing it, not worse. More
(2)If Maddow and Beck could ignore Casey Anthony, why can't Sorkin's 'Newsroom'?
Maddow did not mention Casey Anthony once during May or June, and only covered Weiner in passing. The idea that the cablers, political junkies all, would have to run to Anthony for ratings seems off; Anthony was morning-show fare for the middle of the country. More
(4)At last, a good episode of 'The Newsroom'
This episode was so strong—in the best Sorkin way possible—it could have been a one-off special for HBO about the killing of bin Laden seen through the eyes of a cable news staff. If "The Newsroom" slinks back to its old ways, I'll wish that was all it had been. More
(4)Aaron Sorkin, internet troll
The fact that Aaron Sorkin recycles his own dialogue is not news. But that he should recycle a whole chunk of one main character from an earlier one is something else again. The two episodes end with the exact same line for goodness' sake ("Our time is up.") The first time, it seemed like an important message. Now, as with the "News Night" web commenters Will is so frustrated with, it just feels like a harangue. More
(3)The show Aaron Sorkin should have made (it's not 'The Newsroom'); plus, more girl trouble
In the real world, Feb. 11 is not a random date in the timeline of the media in Egypt. It is the date on which CBS journalist Lara Logan was brutally attacked in Tahrir Square, suffering "sustained sexual assault and beating." This gets no mirror image on "The Newsroom," however, despite the fact that Logan's experience was by far the worst trauma suffered by an American journalist in Egypt at the time (though by no means worse than what was suffered by many Egyptian journalists on the ground there). More
(6)The television of cruelty: Aaron Sorkin thinks we're stupid, and he's punishing us for it
What's wrong with "The Newsroom" is not actually its faulty news sense; it's that Aaron Sorkin has developed a great, inexplicable contempt for his audience. He believes us dumber than we were when he wrote "The West Wing," when in fact we're smarter. More
(4)In 'The Newsroom,' something to be sorry for
Apologies have become a minor art form in cable news these last few years; in lieu of an unscripted explosion they are the surest way to the online water cooler in the form of the viral video. Just this week Fox's Bill O'Reilly apologized for "being an idiot" (he predicted the Supreme Court health-care reform decision wrongly). More
(4)'Newsroom' 2.0 falters with Miss U.S.A. misstep
Sorkin is happy to stick to historical accuracy only when it allows him to point out how the story was covered wrong. More
(1)The unreal dystopia of Aaron Sorkin
It's what Sorkin says is wrong with the world, not what's right in 'The Newsroom,' that makes the show so implausible. More
(3)'Moneyball,' Brad Pitt, and the romantic side of baseball nerddom
It's hard not to be romantic about baseball. —Billy Beane, general manager, Oakland A's
Billy Beane is speaking about himself in Moneyball when he says that, but he could also be talking about the fans. Baseball isn't just baseball, we've been told a million times. It's a connection to childhood memories, it's the pure joy of a night at the ballpark, it's the best of America (as James Earl Jones reminds us in his baseball monologue in Field of Dreams), and on and on and on. More
