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#586 - A Newsroom with a View (Patreon)

Published:
2025-01-04 21:01:51
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Hot on the heels of our magisterial Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip project, we return to the Aaron Sorkin mines with the Sorkiest Sorkin show that ever Sorked. We begin our deep dive into THE NEWSROOM with the pilot episode, "We Just Decided To."

"How to get under Aaron Sorkin’s skin (and also, how to high-five properly)" by Sarah Nicole Prickett - https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/how-to-get-under-aaron-sorkins-skin-and-also-how-to-high-five-properly/article4363455/

Files

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Comments

Tyler Sutherland

Hell ya brother, Aaron Sorkin's Wild Ride never ends!

Jeremy Hawkins

The time has come! In the same way that it made sense to do a podcast about Michael Moore during the era of rising consciousness of the Bernie/Corbyn/Trudeau😏, and you ran out of Moore movies and were in a period of discovery and experimentation during the "uncertain" times of Trump 1, The Newsroom is perfect for a moment where we're more than likely going to see a lot of extremely smug, conservative media figures that claim to be progressive. Let's go!!!

Dan Port

Thank you for your service.

Arid

Oh my god, the Sorkin dialog bit was wild. Yall are unhinged

Brian

Until I heard it spoken here, I actually thought the main character’s name was Jeff Newsroom.

borninxixax

Michael and Us empire on the rise... big things coming

jennifer corozza
>>160309819

OMG, that Chapo Trap House Podcast is simply one of the best. I listened to the triple crown of their Sorkin study, and it felt like they saw me.

Alex

Doing a little fist pump when I got the patreon notification

Tyler Sutherland

Lmao i only realized that you guys were doing Sorkin dialogue halfway through the bit. I honestly thought "Damn, Luke is being AGGRESSIVE today"

emalco

When you revealed that Sorkin *again* fictionally enlists the name of a real woman as the paramour of his protagonist (and typical self-insert), my jaw dropped when I heard he selected Erin Andrews. Younger listeners may not remember, but in 2008, Erin Andrews was famously the victim of an appalling act of stalking and sexual violation related to her fame as a sportscaster. A man named Michael Barrett found out when she would be staying at a Nashville Marriott hotel from its own employees, got those same employees to assign him to the room next to hers, and then filmed her while she was nude through peepholes made between the rooms. Then he distributed those nude videos on the internet, which went viral. Sorkin’s referential use of Andrews in the 2012 Newsroom is basically also perverted: selecting an unconsenting and unaware woman into a sexual scenario and then possessing her through the act of circulating this fantasy to other men. Barrett’s actions aimed to transform Andrews out of her own chosen sportscaster media role (a traditionally male role in the newsroom) into the pornographic public sexual property of men (circulated through these viral internet videos). I would speculate that this sexual disciplining via the media is what led her name to be “chosen” by Sorkin in the first place, whether consciously or not. It’s also a way of putting the woman back in her place— as the great newsman Will McAvoy’s arm candy. As you mentioned in the episode, it really isn’t possible to review Sorkin without dealing with his misogyny; it’s a key part of who he is as a TV auteur. Apparently he never watched Anchorman, which actually had something to say about misogyny in broadcast tv news.

sinesynced

I was not ready for the psychic damage inflicted on me by Luke using reddit comebacks on Will

Eric

2035, Sorkin’s swan song: Bill Maher is a middling, cancer-stricken elder statesman. Determined to do one good deed to secure his legacy (but he has to repeal the Jones Act to do it).

Matthew Duhamel

I would rather watch The Newsroom while strapped to Matt Yglesias' chest in a baby bjorn than hear an Aaron Sorkin fanfic bit by you two ever again. I'm calling the UN to get you sanctioned for war crimes.

Max

No idea what Will and Luke have against Matt Christman's singing voice.

Johnny 5

It was honestly perfect that Luke called it Studio 60 at the end.

Gabe

We're doing the goddamn news

Zac A-C

The thing that always stuck with me from the Chapo episode on the show was the observation of how its structure fundamentally contradicts its thesis. Sorkin really wants to impress on us that Good Newsmen change the world for the better but the Monday morning quarterback format of The Newsroom means that the characters are stuck in our past where they don't exist. So all ever we see is an impossibly good newsroom that not only does not, but cannot effect any meaningful change in their world.

Troy Thomas

The opening exchange between you two is absolutely phenomenal. You two are very fine actors!!

John W

Watching The Newsroom back in 2012 I couldn't help but be reminded of that similar late 80s vehicle, Broadcast News. It's all there, except that the blank slate pretty boy and exceedingly average newsreader (William Hurt) beats out the smart, grizzled investigative veteran newsman (Albert Brooks) for the anchor job. The dialogue and story (and misogyny) are uncannily like Sorkin, but they're by James Brooks, perhaps the precursor for Sorkin, maybe the teacher.

Daniel

simply counting down the days until the bin laden/pilot ep

Joe Schmoe

Correction: Erin Andrews is a long time on-the-field interviewer in American football, known for her good looks (and she does a good job) - i.e., she’s a household name in the football watching USA households

Myles Bartoli
>>160305843

Aw, 2017 Michael and Us, so wide eyed, so innocent. And wow, brief name checking of Corbyn pre-2017 result. What a blast from the past.

Devon Hansen

I re-subscribed for this episode and I was not disappointed

Gabe

From what I recall, Deepwater Horizon coverage really did run from top to bottom of the hour, every hour. Then, when petroleum started landing on the beach at Pensacola...that's when we really freaked out.

Evan
>>160314450

Seriously thank you for filling in these details -- I was hoping against hope that the leaked video came AFTER the Newsroom reference, but alas

Puet

YES!!!

Daniel Leary

Interesting that “Americans believe in angels” thing came up in Newsrooms and Studio 60.

Liam Fuller

Man, when Will started protesting I was like, "oh, surely they're doing a skit here." But as the emotion ramped up and I realized I was witnessing art, I gasped and said, "oh my God, it's actually a sketch!"

Ciaran Colley
>>160374332

Incredible that she and the other real-life women named in Studio 60 didn't sue for defamation

Sean McGrier

I love Luke calling it “Studio 60” at the very end of the episode.

John Balch

The tv filming style that it most reminds me of that was very "in" in 2012 would be the show Homeland, which I feel almost certain Aaron Sorkin would've watched (it also looks a little bit like 24). My guess would be he told the cinematographer "what if we made the news as exciting as Homeland?"

Kramer O'Neill

How do two Canadians talk about The Newsroom without mentioning the vastly-superior (if I remember correctly – but do I?) Ken Finkleman predecessor/namesake?

C
>>160374332

She interviews football players on NFL broadcasts now, but her original claim to fame is actually as an anchor for ESPN’s SportsCenter in the aughts, which was a much bigger deal back then than it is today. She was probably as close to a household name (in the US) as any female sports broadcaster ever got. Although please see emalco’s comment below about the highly publicized story from several years before the “Newsroom” pilot, of the stalker who secretly filmed a naked Andrews in a hotel room and then leaked the video onto the Internet, an incident which ESPN forced Andrews, against her will, to address on television, in order to return to broadcasting. Makes Sorkin writing her in as our lead’s date considerably more gross.

thickmoranis

Sam Waterson’s character seems like he’s at least partially inspired by Bertram Cooper from Mad Men

Michael and Us
>>160497688

haha I do know of it but I've actually never seen it! Really hard to find the episodes these days. - Luke

Kramer O'Neill
>>160497688

Oh man the first couple seasons are great. Treats mainstream media with the exact right amount of respect (zero). I only heard about it because an editor I assisted back in the Dark Ages of the Steenbeck when PBS was rerunning it loved/insisted I watch the quasi-sequel series "More Tears" – kind of "City of Women" to Newsroom's "8 1/2" if you will.

Nick Playfair

I know there's a lot more to complain about with this fucking show, but the idea that the great America of old "didn't beat [its] chest" is so funny

Brad MacDonald

You guys got me. Now a paying subscriber. I can’t believe I’m going to endure this series again.

Son of El Topo

The Chapo series on this show is a classic but I am excited for the Michael and Us take.

Goji

My parents watched this show like 4 times through.

Andrew Struthers
>>160497688

It's on the CBC Gem app. I watch it regularly - Ken Finkleman hitting on Linda McQuaig is fucking priceless.

Kramer O'Neill
>>160497688

I'm sure I didn't properly appreciate 90% of the culturally-specific references like that. David Cronenberg's [impressively-self-satirical] cameo, on the other hand: got it!

Kieran Duffy

I think Sorkin is giving the game away by referencing "Man of La Mancha". He almost hasn't read the classic book, but has definitely watched the musical, as that's the form of art a certain type of US liberal is most familiar with. His previous reference to Gilbert and Sullivan only strengthens my hypothesis.