A never-written episode from the master of middle-aged male nostalgia for a mythical America

by Robert Shrimsley

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Aaron Sorkin, writer of The West Wing, A Few Good Men and The Social Network, has commanded much attention with the launch of his latest series, The Newsroom. Like so much of his work it is set in an ideal world. Where The West Wing focused on a wise, noble president whose popularity never fell when he placed his liberal ideals before expediency, this features a wise, noble anchorman placing hard truth and great journalism before a public that really wants to hear it. The main character faces a career crisis after speaking out on how America has ceased to be great.

Reviews have been mixed and criticism grew after Sorkin turned on a female interviewer, with the words “Listen here, internet girl, it wouldn’t kill you to watch a film or pick up a newspaper once in a while”. Leaving aside that the zenith of culture for Sorkin is movies and papers rather than, say, theatre and a book, it highlighted the sense that his work is middle-aged male nostalgia for a mythical America.

The FT has found a long-lost and never-written script from the series:

The scene opens with a female executive producer talking to Will, a middle-aged white news anchorman:

She: So I thought we could lead with the drone strikes on Pakistan.

He: Drone strikes, Gina?

She: It’s Lena.

He: Yeah, whatever, This used to be a great country. Take Vietnam; we flew our own missions and cleared out villages on foot. Americans were prepared to get their hands dirty then. These days we just want a clean kill; take out the bad guys and pretend no one else gets hurt. We don’t think of the collateral damage.

She: The civilian casualties.

He: Yes, them too, obviously. But I’m talking about the journalism. Where are the napalmed Vietnamese children? You can’t get that kind of art with a drone strike. Vietnam – those were great days; great journalism. Now it’s cute dolphins and Justin Bieber. Isn’t it Marina?

She: It’s Lena.

He: America wants the next Walter Cronkite, someone to tell them we can no longer win a war.

She: You could do that.

He: I don’t even know where this war is. This country used to be great. Now we don’t even know where the war we aren’t winning is taking place. This meeting is over – walk with me to my next meeting.

She: Why?

He: My repartee is better when I am walking. You look nice today. I know I shouldn’t comment on your clothes but America was a better country when men told women they looked nice. I expect you’ll get me on a cassette and upfile it to YouBox.

She: It’s YouTube, Will, and cassettes went out in the 1990s.

He: Listen, internet girl; would it kill you to listen to a Gilbert and Sullivan(19th century British screenplay writer and composer) opera some time? I miss cassettes. I miss the way the sound went fuzzy; the way you could stick your pen into the spool and wind it back into place after it snarled up. America was great when we had tapes you could rewind with a pen.

He: What we need is a difficult, downbeat story from somewhere people have never heard of.

She: Will, you know that people don’t want to watch that.

He: But what if that is what they want to watch, but we just aren’t giving it to them.

She: They don’t want it. Have you seen Gawker(an American blog, focuses on entertainment & gossips)? Americans want stories about rap stars’ sex tapes.

He: Rap stars! Ray J; Jay Z; Why don’t these people have surnames? America was a great country when we had surnames.

She: Stop harping back. Was McCarthyism great? Or segregation?

He: Yes, because we had heroic struggles of right v wrong to report. We had Kennedy; Johnson; and even when we had Republicans they were good Republicans like Eisenhower, who could have been Democrats. America was great when Republicans could have been Democrats.

She: Will, (pausing); did we have an affair once? Is that what’s behind your anger and trust issues?

He: Stop it. You are trivialising this show for the sake of ratings. We did not have an affair once. America was great when its stars didn’t have affairs.

stops suddenly

He: Do you think this dialogue should be funnier. People want to be entertained, not just lectured to.

She: What if they do want to be lectured, Will, and we just never gave them the chance?

He: Isn’t that my line?