Jake Tapper Skewers Sorkin's 'The Newsroom'

NewsBusters ^ | June 22, 2012 | P.J. Gladnick

[PJ-Comix]

The most entertaining thing about Aaron Sorkin's upcoming HBO series, "The Newsroom," could well be the scathing review of the show by ABC News senior White House correspondent, Jake Tapper, which appeared in The New Republic. As a bonus, Tapper also provides an hilarious takedown of the increasingly annoying SorkinSpeak, the bizzare shorthand manner in which his characters communicate with each other. So take it away, Jake:

“The Newsroom,” which debuts June 24 on HBO, is sadly disappointing. There’s much to criticize in the media—and TV news in particular. But though “The Newsroom” intends to lecture its viewers on the higher virtues of capital-J journalism, Professor Sorkin soon reveals he isn’t much of an expert on the subject.

[PJ-Comix]

ANYBODYelseBOREDbyannoyingSORKINSPEAK?

[Billthedrill]

THAT is gonna leave a mark. BTT.

[radioone]

LOL....like I’m going to spend 1 penny for HBO.

[Fantasywriter]

All of Woody Allen's characters have sounded identical to ea other—and to Woody Allen himself—for decades. [Fingers on a blackboard do not begin to capture the torture of listening to WoodyAllenSpeak; I'd take a week of the fingernails before I could ten more minutes of Allen.] Sorkin figured if it worked for Allen, why shouldn't it work for him?

[bjc]

I saw Sorkin on Charlie Rose last night. It was sad and pretty pitiful: A mind destroyed by illegal substances yet still sufficiently connected to launch this piece of drivel. They included a piece that was meant to reflect the deep oil well blowout. Stupid does not begin to cover it. These guys live in a dystopian fantasy world that they think is utopian. I was disappointed to see Jeff Daniels sign up for this piece of lazy left-wing propaganda.

[Dr. Sivana]

I tuned into the NPR interview of Sorkin midway through during my drive to work this morning. When I tuned in, I was listening to an audio clip from the program. Given that it was NPR, the sophomoric scripting and the wooden acting, I thought it was an off-boradway show or maybe an art house flick. My jaw dropped (hitting the steering wheel bottom) when I heard it was a show by Sorkin on premium channel HBO.

[McGruff]

“Me thinks he doth protest too much.”

[eak3]

I just watched the pilot and thought it was damn entertaining. The main premise is that most people are ignorant and uninformed, which is true, liberals are losers and conservatives are idiots. There were shots taken at everyone, poor James O’Keefe isn’t even safe. The main character Jeff Daniels, is republican and the show seems to want to get people to pay attention to what is going on in the world. I would advise people here to give it a watch before lambasting it. I didn’t detect any left-wing propaganda, as of yet. The pilot is available online for free.

[discostu]

I’m addicted to the Sorkin patter, I don’t care what his characters are saying, I like the feel. So I’ll Netflix this when it hits, float it to the top, and there’s like a 90% chance I’ll run out immediately after watching the first episode and buy it.

[Wilum]

His rant was interesting especially the second part and what he thought of the present generation. Just sayin’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI7Oq8y-jXA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Wilum]

His rant was interesting especially the second part and what he thought of the present generation. Just sayin’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI7Oq8y-jXA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Lizavetta]

I saw it this last Sunday.

I too disliked the rapid fire dialog but what's worse was the preachy soapboxy nature of the dialog. It was so obviously slanted you felt beaten over the head by Sorkin's politics.