Oh. God. Sorkin. Why -- why do you have to be such a ... a... a douche?

I really enjoy studio sixty. I enjoyed a lot of west wing. I loved sports night.

Why does he continually have to tarnish this?

Heh. For the record I was just starting to really like Studio 60. Also? The cats are doing great! ;)

It is always astonishing to me that someone who can write such articulate characters can be so bad at expressing himself. Because maybe I'm giving him too much benefit of the doubt, but I think there is an element of truth in some of what Mr. Sorkin is trying--badly--to say here. Perhaps it is my social-science orientation, but it drives me absolutely bonkers when an alleged journalist tries to sell something they read on the Internet as a fact. It would be one thing if they said, "Using Google, we searched for all blog entries over the past six months discussing X. We took a sample of 10% of those entries and analyzed them to try to ascertain what computer-savvy television watchers think about X." But they don't--they use the old, "some people are saying" trope that doesn't mean anything. It happened this morning on The Today Show, and I don't think it's even rare anymore. It's an icky stew mixing up opinion pieces, the replacement of criticism with reviewing/celebrity news, reporting, and all too easy access to unvetted information, and I think it's at best cheap and at worst dangerous.

On the other hand, I think Aaron Sorkin is a) too thin-skinned (ignore the stupid LA Times pieces where they interviewed one or two comedians--it's not worthy of a response), b) stubborn and not wanting to hear that there are some things about his baby that were not working well, c) not articulating whatever of the above he agrees with very well, possibly because of A and B, and d) not above thinking I'm in a muumuu eating bon bons while typing this. I *wish* I had some damn bon bons, Bucko.

Oh, I think we basically agree--he needs to step back away from the ledge. Even if he doesn't believe for a second that there is anything wrong with his show (ahem), he should save that for private conversation and smile beatifically at the LA Times. And, perhaps most important, he should lay off the laymen--if people want to talk about his show, they can talk about his show, on the Internet and anywhere else. Most of the time that talk has been positive, and he could stand to acknowledge that occasionally. Basically, if he can't learn to be more diplomatic about this stuff--even when it's hard to be diplomatic because some people will be idiots--he needs a CJ who will promise to stick his keyboard somewhere untoward for his own good, because it really is hurting only him.

That is, I think, particularly true for real reviews--nothing has ever pleased every critic, and you either have to take the useful bits of critiques and let the rest go or not look at the critiques at all. I suspect I would be pretty frustrated at stuff that masquerades as either critique or news but is really just silliness or sniping--the Times article about the comedy writers struck me as exactly that. But the thing Aaron never seems to realize, from all the way back in his Benjamin days, is that there is absolutely nothing to be gained and, potentially, a lot to be lost (like the regard of the nice people on the Internet who actually like you) by engaging those pieces. Yes, it's frustrating to let those things go by without response, but he really needs to learn to do it. That's what sniping with your friends is for--don't snipe to reporters.

He can snipe to us privately if he really needs to--I don't think we'd turn him down. ;)

I gave up on Sorkin's latest after on episode. I couldn't take how self important and smug the main characters were. When you the President of the USA'a staff, that makes sense. Not so much when you're the writers for a comedy show that isn't funny in the least.

Sorkin's been on my top five list since Josh's ridiculous spewage about fan/fetish. Blow me.

The man shouldn't be allow to take part in press junkets. He can't complete a coherent thought unless he sits down, takes some time and types it out. See any commentary on West Wing DVDs for evidence of that.

He needs Tommy Schlamme to follow him around with a muzzle.

I'm less dismayed by Aaron's foot-in-mouth comment about bloggers (which he clearly needs to continue to work through with his therapist) than his complete naivete about how hard it is to, you know, get into the WGA. Also the fact that he doesn't seem to be aware of the fact that most members of the WGA are unemployed. Just 'cause you don't have a union card doesn't make you a hack.