Director <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aaron-sorkin">Aaron Sorkin</a> said he has some ideas for a reboot of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/television">The West Wing</a>” following a visit to the White House this weekend.
The 63-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hollywood">Hollywood</a> exec also said he was open to revisiting the series again, per <a href="https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/aaron-sorkin-west-wing-reboot-white-house-visit-1236152241/">Variety</a>.  “If I had an idea, sure,” Sorkin said. “I didn’t think about it seriously, frankly, until today… We’ll see what happens when I wake up tomorrow. But, if you’re asking me now, this is how I feel.”
“I just got a couple of ideas for episodes just walking around the White House,” he added. “Like, ‘why didn’t we ever do this? Why didn’t we ever do that?’”
“The West Wing” is an American political drama that aired on NBC from 1999 until 2006. It’s widely regarded as one of the greatest television shows of all time, winning numerous accolades including two Peabody Awards, three Golden Globes, and 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series four consecutive times from 2000 to 2003.
The series creator told the outlet he had resisted a reboot in the past because he was afraid viewers wouldn’t respond well to new cast members. 
“I suspect that a new president would have a hard time living up to people’s memories of Martin [Sheen],” he said, referring to the actor who played President Jed Bartlet on the series. “But maybe enough time has gone by and it’s a whole new generation. A generation which, by the way, thanks to streaming, thinks we’re making the show today!”
Sorkin insisted that the show wouldn’t have a political agenda. “I just thought it was a great workplace against which to set,” he told Variety. “There are all kinds of stories that come over the transom that you can tell, and that aspirational, idealistic, romantic style of writing suits me.”
“We couldn’t possibly come up with stories in the room that are crazier than the actual stories that we see,” he added.
Sorkin also said it would be “very hard” to do the same kind of storytelling in today’s political climate. “Because part of it is being idealistic, it does need to feel like it’s taking place in the world that we live in for it to work,” he said.
The showrunner said Donal Trump winning in November wouldn’t affect his decision to reboot the show. “It would certainly present incentives to do it, but also headaches,” Sorkin told Variety. “The worry would be that everything we did on the show would be seen as a rebuttal to the world of Donald Trump.”

Aaron Sorkin

Aaron Sorkin Says He Has Ideas For ‘West Wing’ Reboot Following White House Visit

Aaron Sorkin Says He Has Ideas For 'West Wing' Reboot Following White House Visit

Entertainment

Hollywood

Television

White House

Hollywood veteran <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/aaron-sorkin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aaron Sorkin</a> just revealed that he had a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/stroke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stroke</a> in November, two months before “Camelot” rehearsals began.
The 61-year-old <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/entertainment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">playwright</a> and film director <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/22/theater/aaron-sorkin-camelot-broadway.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The New York Times that his blood pressure got so high that he was “supposed to be dead.” 
He was slurring words, had trouble typing, and was told not to fly, the Times noted. While the effects of the stroke have been gradually fading, he still isn’t able to taste food.
“Mostly it was a loud wake-up call,” Sorkin told the publication. “I thought I was one of those people who could eat whatever he wanted, smoke as much as he wanted, and it’s not going to affect me. Boy, was I wrong.”
The Academy Award winner said later, “There was a minute when I was concerned that I was never going to be able to write again, and I was concerned in the short-term that I wasn’t going to be able to continue writing ‘Camelot.’”
Sorkin also said he never intended to discuss what happened publicly but is now deciding to speak up in hopes of helping someone else. 
“If it’ll get one person to stop smoking, then it’ll be helpful,” the screenwriter said, mentioning how he smoked two packs of cigarettes daily for several years. 
“Let me make this very, very clear,” Sorkin insisted. “I’m fine. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I can’t work. I’m fine.”
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Sorkin’s 2018 Broadway adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird” was nominated for nine Tony Awards. His newest project, “Camelot,” is scheduled to debut on April 13.
The Hollywood creator is a liberal but spoke out against some leftist agenda items in the past, including the trend of only casting LGBT actors to play LGBT roles. “It’s heartbreaking and a little chilling to see members of the artistic community resegregating ourselves,” he said in 2021 while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/west-wing-creator-aaron-sorkin-says-woke-identity-based-casting-is-mother-of-all-empty-gestures" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discussing</a> “representation” in casting.
“You can act being attracted to someone, but can’t act gay or straight. So this notion that only gay actors should play gay characters? That only a Cuban actor should play Desi? Honestly, I think it’s the mother of all empty gestures and a bad idea,” Sorkin said at the time.

Showtime’s FYC Event And Premiere For “The First Lady” – Arrivals

Writer, Director Aaron Sorkin Reveals He Had A Stroke Last Fall: ‘It Was A Loud Wake-Up Call’

Writer, Director Aaron Sorkin Reveals He Had A Stroke Last Fall

Celebrities

Stroke

U.S.

Hollywood’s love affair with free speech ended some time after Donald Trump took the oath of office.
Slowly but surely the industry pulled back on the issue it once clung to like a statue on Oscar night. Industry players pled allegiance to the woke state, canceled problematic art (and each other), and demanded that a sitting president get bounced from social media.
Late night comics even chuckled as <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/dr-seuss-stephen-colbert-late-show-racist-b1811462.html">beloved authors like Dr. Seuss</a> got the cultural boot.
It wasn’t always this way.
Hollywood once championed free speech on a variety of platforms. The industry understood the vital role speech plays in both the country at large and for their craft. Let’s look back at five times Hollywood embraced free speech and hope Tinsel Town comes to its senses and renews its love affair with free expression.
<h4>“The American President”</h4>
The 1995 rom com imagined a single U.S. leader falling in love with a lobbyist (Annette Bening). That novel twist combined with the impressive pairing of director Rob Reiner (“This Is Spinal Tap”) and writer Aaron Sorkin (“A Few Good Men”) earned raves from critics.
The film’s emotional finale used free speech as <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechtheamericanpresident.html">a cudgel against the protagonist’s political opponent.</a>
<blockquote>&#8220;For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is &#8220;Why aren&#8217;t you, Bob?&#8221;
…America isn&#8217;t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You&#8217;ve gotta want it bad, &#8217;cause it&#8217;s gonna put up a fight. It&#8217;s gonna say, You want free speech? Let&#8217;s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who&#8217;s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.&#8221; </blockquote>
Reiner and Sorkin were, and remain, two of Hollywood’s most outspoken liberals. Would they pool their talents for a message like that today? That’s rhetorical, since Reiner was one of many <a href="https://twitter.com/robreiner/status/1400875366047043585?lang=bg">cheering President Donald Trump’s social media banishment.</a>
Guess we won’t be seeing &#8220;The American President 2” anytime soon.
<h4>Neil Young&#8217;s 2006 “Freedom of Speech” Tour</h4>
It’s an understatement to say that veteran rocker Neil Young was <a href="https://genius.com/3351240">no fan</a> of President George W. Bush during the Iraq War days And he had plenty of A-list company. Young similarly rebelled against efforts to silence the president’s critics during a time of war.
Toward that end, <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2022/02/02/crosby-stills-nash-young-csny-spotify-boycott-joe-rogan">Young rejoined</a> David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash to promote free speech and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/flashback-neil-young-participated-freedom-of-speech-tour-censorship-joe-rogan">reaffirm his right to protest as he saw fit</a>.
<blockquote>&#8220;Those who feel the way we do had some hope and those who don’t feel the way we do were angry that the change happened. And those people have got a voice, and they have a reason for feeling the way they do. They strongly believe in the convictions. They believe in the military … they believe that we’re doing the right thing for the world, and they have every reason to be respected for their beliefs.”</blockquote>
Flash forward to 2022 and Young is leading an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/just-in-spotify-to-pull-neil-young-music-after-ultimatum-letter-demanding-rogan-be-removed">unsuccessful charge to silence</a> Spotify superstar Joe Rogan for sharing pandemic information that didn’t mirror government-approved narratives.
<h4>Tim Robbins versus Dubya</h4>
Young wasn’t the only liberal rallying for free speech during that era. Actor Tim Robbins similarly <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Tim-Robbins-pours-his-anger-into-an-anti-war-play-2510013.php">protested</a> Bush’s war efforts, a move that <a href="http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/2003/0409/1536711.html">cost</a> him an appearance at a “Bull Durham” reunion.
The 1988 baseball romance cast Robbins as “Nuke” LaLoosh, a flame-throwing pitcher struggling to get his mental approach in line with his talents. His anti-war comments, along with those of his co-star Susan Sarandon (Robbins’ partner at the time), convinced the Baseball Hall of Fame to <a href="https://ew.com/article/2003/04/10/cooperstown-disinvites-antiwar-sarandon-robbins/">disinvite the duo from its 15th anniversary celebration</a> for the film.
Robbins teamed up with the ACLU, an organization which once stood proudly on behalf of free speech rights, to <a href="https://www.nyclu.org/en/letter-baseball-hall-fame-over-cancellation-bull-durham-movie-anniversary-celebration">blast the decision</a>. The move “reflects a disregard for the value of dissent in a free society. Indeed, you offer a vision of free speech that is deeply incompatible with the concept of ‘uninhibited, robust and wide open’ debate – a concept that is basic to our democracy.”
<h4>Comedy Post 9/11</h4>
Comedians played an important role in the days and weeks after the September 11 attacks. “Saturday Night Live” and “The Late Show with David Letterman” gently <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/how-late-night-tv-reacted-9-11-impact-it-has-t229754">brought humor back </a>into our lives after the shocking terrorist attacks. They made it acceptable to laugh again after so much heartache and pain.
Other comics didn’t tread so carefully. They pushed comedy conventions much harder, understanding that free speech doesn’t evaporate in times of extreme duress. Hollywood even made a documentary on the subject – “Too Soon: Comedy After 9/11.” Comedians from that era shared how they processed their grief and rage, and why they didn’t pull punches when it came to material intersecting with the tragedy.
They were right.
The extreme irony? Some of the comedians featured in the documentary are now part of the current cancel culture brigade <a href="https://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-1278-canceled-comedy-w-kliph-nesteroff-and-david-bianculli">(Marc Maron</a>) or pretend cancel culture  doesn’t exist (<a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/jon-stewart-cancel-culture-myth/">Jon Stewart</a>).
<h4>“The People vs. Larry Flynt”</h4>
The 1996 drama from legendary director Milos Forman celebrated the rise, fall, and legal victory of Hustler pornographer Larry Flynt.
The New York Times called it Forman’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/22/movies/a-free-speech-hero-it-s-not-that-simple.html">raucous hymn to the First Amendment</a>.”
<blockquote>The movie, shown to acclaim at the New York Film Festival this fall and opening in theaters on Friday, has been critically embraced not only as an artistic tour de force but as a kind of democratic morality play.</blockquote>
Flynt was the perfect symbol for free speech. He was rude, crude and outrageous, and few would embrace his lifestyle choices. Yet defending speech one agrees with is always easy. Rushing to Flynt’s side, given his vulgar behavior, is another matter.
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News&#8217; Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en">@HollywoodInToto</a>. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Toto – Five Times Hollywood Cheered Free Speech

Five Times Hollywood Defended Free Speech

ACLU

Jon Stewart

Neil Young

Readers Pass

Rob Reiner

Susan Sarandon

Though writer/director Aaron Sorkin is known for being a liberal, he isn’t on board with left-wing demands to only cast LGBT actors to play LGBT characters and he disagrees with the idea that performers of a specific ethnicity must play corresponding ethnic roles. In a recent interview with <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nicole-kidman-im-wilful-dont-put-me-in-a-box-9f3clp6kx">The Sunday Times</a>, he said, “It’s heartbreaking and a little chilling to see members of the artistic community resegregating ourselves” when addressing prioritizing “representation” in casting.
The 60-year-old filmmaker’s comments came in response to criticism over his casting of actor Javier Bardem, who is Spanish, to play Cuban Desi Arnez in the new film, “Being the Ricardos.”
Sorkin, best known for TV shows like &#8220;The West Wing&#8221; and films like &#8220;The Social Network,&#8221; went on to add, “You can act being attracted to someone, but can’t act gay or straight. So this notion that only gay actors should play gay characters? That only a Cuban actor should play Desi? Honestly, I think it’s the mother of all empty gestures and a bad idea.”
Many in the entertainment media aren’t taking kindly to Sorkin’s classic liberal values.
MTV movie critic Hanna Ines Flint <a href="https://twitter.com/HannaFlint/status/1472541515901808640?s=20">condemned</a> his comments as insensitive, saying, “Aaron Sorkin doubling down by calling the need for representation &#8216;resegregation’ now. It&#8217;s heartbreaking to see a screenwriter I was a fan of be deliberately obtuse towards people&#8217;s valid criticisms.”
Lyra Hale, managing editor of Fangirlish, <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAltSource/status/1472702042179346434?s=20">said</a>, “Aaron Sorkin doesn&#8217;t understand that it&#8217;s not about only gay actors playing gay characters or only Cubans playing Desi. It&#8217;s about underrepresented communities having an opportunity to take a part in the stories being told with an authenticity others don&#8217;t understand. Simple.”
Bardem joined his director in defending his casting, saying there’s no reason he shouldn’t be allowed to play one-half of the iconic “I Love Lucy” couple.
“I’m an actor, and that’s what I do for a living: try to be people that I’m not,” he told <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/nicole-kidman-javier-bardem-interview-being-the-ricardos-pressures-1235062363/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>. 
He went on:
<blockquote>“What do we do with Marlon Brando playing Vito Corleone? What do we do with Margaret Thatcher played by Meryl Streep? Daniel Day-Lewis playing Lincoln? Why does this conversation happen with people with accents?
You have your accent. That’s where you belong. That’s tricky. Where is that conversation with English-speaking people doing things like The Last Duel, where they were supposed to be French people in the Middle Ages? That’s fine. But me, with my Spanish accent, being Cuban?&#8217;
What I mean is, if we want to open the can of worms, let’s open it for everyone. The role came to me, and one thing that I know for sure is that I’m going to give everything that I have.”</blockquote>
The Oscar winner, who has played everything from a sociopathic killer to a gay poet, finished with a joke, “&#8217;We should all start not allowing anybody to play Hamlet unless they were born in Denmark.”

2018 Writers Guild Awards L.A. Ceremony – Arrivals

West Wing Creator Aaron Sorkin Says Woke, Identity-Based Casting Is ‘Mother Of All Empty Gestures’

Javier Bardem

As irony would have it, Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aaron-sorkin-tolerating-trump-supporters-like-tolerating-racists">referred to millions</a> of Trump supporters as racists, unworthy of tolerance, grace, or understanding in the same week that The Hollywood Reporter (THR) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/famed-producer-scott-rudin-accused-of-bullying-abuse-every-day-was-exhausting-and-horrific">dropped a bombshell report</a> alleging that big-time producer Scott Rudin, a frequent collaborator of Sorkin&#8217;s, regularly and repeatedly abused people under his employment.
According to the report, Scott Rudin&#8217;s alleged behavior has been an open secret in Hollywood for several decades rivaling that of convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.
&#8220;For some four decades, Rudin’s abusive behavior has been chronicled — even celebrated — by the press,&#8221; reported THR. &#8220;In a 2010 profile, this publication dubbed him &#8216;The Most Feared Man in Town&#8217; and called him &#8216;dazzlingly charming&#8217; one paragraph after describing acts of cruelty and intimidation. In a 2005 Wall Street Journal profile with the headline &#8216;Boss-zilla!,&#8217; Rudin himself pegged the number of assistants he burned through in the previous five years at 119.&#8221;
Of the litany of charges brought against Rudin, the most chilling one involved him reportedly smashing an Apple computer over an assistant&#8217;s hand, sending them to the emergency room one Halloween afternoon.
“At about 4:15 p.m. — more than 10 hours into a typical Rudin day that began at 6 and never wrapped before 8 — the Oscar-winning producer was enraged that one of his assistants failed to get him a seat on a sold-out flight,” reported THR. “In a fit of fury, he allegedly smashed an Apple computer monitor on the assistant’s hand. The screen shattered, leaving the young man bleeding and in need of immediate medical attention. One person in the office at the time described the incident as sounding like a car crash: a cacophonous collision of metal, glass and limb. The wounded assistant headed to the emergency room, and Rudin called his lawyer, according to another staffer there that Halloween afternoon. Everyone else huddled in the conference room, shaken. No one stayed until 8 p.m., with most of the staff heading over to a Times Square bar for a therapeutic drink.”
The alleged victim declined to comment on the story, but several former staffers claimed to have witnessed the horrific event.
Rudin worked with some of the best talents in the business, including Wes Anderson, the Coen Brothers, and, finally, Aaron Sorkin. Since 2010&#8217;s &#8220;The Social Network,&#8221; Rudin has been a producer on several of Sorkin&#8217;s projects, including &#8220;The Newsroom,&#8221; &#8220;Steve Jobs,&#8221; and the 2018 stage play adaptation of  &#8220;To Kill A Mockingbird.&#8221; In fact, it was during the adaption Harper Lee&#8217;s classic novel Aaron Sorkin came to a realization about Trump&#8217;s millions of supporters: they were all racists, deserving of no tolerance or understanding.
“Upon reading the novel again, it struck that throughout the novel, Atticus is an apologist for racists. Throughout,” he said. “His whole thing about you have to walk a mile in someone’s else’s shoes. You really have to get inside someone’s skin and crawl around before you can really understand them. That was a way of excusing Bob Ewell. ‘Well, you got to understand, he lost his WPA job, and that really brings a man down.’ He excuses his neighbor, Mrs. Henry Dubose. A terrible racist. ‘Well you got to understand, she stopped taking her pain medication, her morphine, that makes people a little crazy.’ He excuses the whole South.”
Sorkin said that this reflection helped him to realize that liberals were being apologists about the tens of millions of people supporting Donald Trump.
“All you had to do, Mike, was look around. We were all saying the same thing about the tens of millions of people supporting Donald Trump,” he said. “I don’t get it. Yeah, we’ve always disagreed, all of us here in America. But we all have eyes and ears, right? We’re looking at the same person. What are you talking about?”
As of this writing, Sorkin has not yet commented on Scott Rudin&#8217;s alleged horrific (<a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2021/04/megan-ellison-scott-rudin-abusive-racist-sexist-1234628763/">sometimes racist</a>) treatment of his employees.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aaron-sorkin-tolerating-trump-supporters-like-tolerating-racists">Aaron Sorkin: Tolerating Trump Supporters Like Tolerating Racists</a>

“The Social Network” Blu-ray And DVD Release Event

Trump-Hater Aaron Sorkin Silent On Frequent Collaborator Scott Rudin’s Abuse Allegations

According to Hollywood screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, whose recent iteration of &#8220;To Kill A Mockingbird&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/destroying-icon-hollywood-puts-leftist-spin-kill-hank-berrien">completely alters the character</a> Atticus Finch to fit a modern progressive narrative, Trump supporters are unworthy of tolerance in the same way that southern racists were unworthy of tolerance.
Appearing on left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore&#8217;s podcast, the Oscar-winning writer of &#8220;The Social Network&#8221; said that when adapting Harper Lee&#8217;s classic novel to the stage, he realized that the character Atticus Finch was an apologist for racists, likening it to modern liberals that are apologists for Trump supporters.
&#8220;Upon reading the novel again, it struck that throughout the novel, Atticus is an apologist for racists. Throughout,” he said. “His whole thing about you have to walk a mile in someone’s else’s shoes. You really have to get inside someone’s skin and crawl around before you can really understand them. That was a way of excusing Bob Ewell. &#8216;Well, you got to understand, he lost his WPA job, and that really brings a man down.&#8217; He excuses his neighbor, Mrs. Henry Dubose. A terrible racist. &#8216;Well you got to understand, she stopped taking her pain medication, her morphine, that makes people a little crazy.&#8217; He excuses the whole South.”
Sorkin said that this reflection helped him to realize that liberals were being apologists about the tens of millions of people supporting Donald Trump.
&#8220;All you had to do, Mike, was look around. We were all saying the same thing about the tens of millions of people supporting Donald Trump,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don’t get it. Yeah, we’ve always disagreed, all of us here in America. But we all have eyes and ears, right? We’re looking at the same person. What are you talking about?”
Michael Moore agreed that Trump supporters were all-around bad people and that reaching across the aisle was a fool&#8217;s errand.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Ep. 179: Aaron Sorkin In Conversation with Michael Moore | Rumble with Michael Moore podcast" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZT5h2ubzZzU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Since the election of President Trump, Aaron Sorkin has not once responded charitably to the people who supported President Trump. In 2016, shortly after Trump&#8217;s upset against Hillary Clinton, he described it as a win for the Ku Klux Klan.
“Well, the world changed last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from,” he wrote in an open letter to his daughter and wife. “I won’t sugarcoat it – this is truly horrible.”
“It’s hardly the first time my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has,” Sorkin wrote.
“The [Ku Klux] Klan won last night,” he continued. “White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate.”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/destroying-icon-hollywood-puts-leftist-spin-kill-hank-berrien">DESTROYING AN ICON: Hollywood Puts Leftist Spin On ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ For Broadway</a>

Aaron Sorkin attends the PaleyFest New York Opening Night

Aaron Sorkin: Tolerating Trump Supporters Like Tolerating Racists

Donald Trump

Michael Moore

On Thursday, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, a devout liberal who wrote the script for the film “The Social Network,” which portrayed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a hard-hearted villain only interested in himself, attacked Zuckerberg in an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/aaron-sorkin-mark-zuckerberg-facebook.html?smtyp=cur&amp;smid=tw-nytopinion">op-ed for The New York Times</a>, titled: “Aaron Sorkin: An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook isn’t defending free speech, it’s assaulting truth.”
Sorkin wrote, “It was hard not to feel the irony while I was reading excerpts from your recent speech at Georgetown University, in which you defended — on free speech grounds — Facebook’s practice of posting demonstrably false ads from political candidates.”
Sorkin huffed, “I admire your deep belief in free speech. I get a lot of use out of the First Amendment. Most important, it’s a bedrock of our democracy and it needs to be kept strong … Last year, over 40 percent of Americans said they got news from Facebook. Of course the problem could be solved by those people going to a different news source, or you could decide to make Facebook a reliable source of public information.”
Zuckerberg responded to Sorkin by using Sorkin’s own words from the screenplay for “The American President”:
<blockquote>America isn&#8217;t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, &#8217;cause it&#8217;s gonna put up a fight. It&#8217;s gonna say: You want free speech? Let&#8217;s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who&#8217;s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can&#8217;t just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.</blockquote>
In 2014, <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/the-social-network/241132/mark-zuckerberg-the-social-network-was-kind-of-hurtful">speaking at a Q&amp;A</a> at Facebook&#8217;s headquarters, Zuckerberg said of &#8220;The Social Network,&#8221; for which Sorkin won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, &#8220;I haven&#8217;t spent a lot of time thinking about that movie in a while. I kind of blocked that one out &#8230; I think the reality is that writing code and then building a product and building a company is not a glamorous enough thing to make a movie about, so you can imagine that a lot of this stuff they had to embellish or make up. They went out of their way in the movie to try to get some interesting details correct like the design of the office, but on the overarching plot &#8211; they just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found kind of hurtful &#8230; there were pretty glaring things that were just made up about the movie that made it pretty hard to take seriously.&#8221;
When he won the Oscar for &#8220;The Social Network,&#8221; Sorkin <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VP5mFHl_lY">stated</a>, &#8220;This movie is going to be a source of pride for me every day for the rest of my life.&#8217;
Social media noted Zuckerberg’s takedown of Sorkin:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Oh dear. Flattened. <a href="https://t.co/0EXr1b1C78">https://t.co/0EXr1b1C78</a>
&mdash; Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) <a href="https://twitter.com/HolmesJosh/status/1189985929987014657?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Never mess with a human algorithm.
Zuckerberg just slaughtered him in broad daylight. <a href="https://t.co/khQ9tpTMWs">https://t.co/khQ9tpTMWs</a>
&mdash; The Darkest Timeline Numbersmuncher (@NumbersMuncher) <a href="https://twitter.com/NumbersMuncher/status/1189978113746321408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
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There was more:
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Icing on the cake is 3 pieces of misinformation in Sorkin&#39;s piece in the New York Times they had to issue corrections for <a href="https://t.co/Sipk9WB5Ec">pic.twitter.com/Sipk9WB5Ec</a>
&mdash; Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) <a href="https://twitter.com/ComfortablySmug/status/1189979403192811521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The big First Amendment case involving Larry Flynt, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, was about political satire, not pornography. <a href="https://t.co/6x8QvawYPa">https://t.co/6x8QvawYPa</a> <a href="https://t.co/JbCSxNZLAt">pic.twitter.com/JbCSxNZLAt</a>
&mdash; Bill Hammond (@NYHammond) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYHammond/status/1189981368295579649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
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H/T <a href="https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2019/10/31/9-1-1-id-like-to-report-a-murder-mark-zuckerberg-absolutely-shreds-aaron-sorkin-for-claiming-hes-assaulting-truth-by-defending-free-speech/">Twitchy</a>

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg And News Corp CEO Robert Thomson Debut Facebook News

Aaron Sorkin, Who Ripped Mark Zuckerberg In ‘The Social Network,’ Tries Again. Zuckerberg Uses Sorkin’s Own Words Against Him.

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