Aaron Sorkin loathes the internet. This much is patently obvious. I mean, the overrated scribe has a pompous, painfully mediocre TV show that he seems to relish using as a vehicle to take weekly shots at the internet with. The only thing he seems to hate anywhere near the same degree are women, who he also takes weekly shots at with his pompous, painfully medicore show.
Last night the chronic dialogue recycler participated in a Q&A in D.C. and was at it again, blasting the Huffington Post as “a genuinely damaging force in our culture” for being too sensational or something. The shot revitalized a 2011 interview Sorkin did with the Atlantic Wire in which Maureen Dowd’s ex-boyfriend essentially came off as a parody of himself. Here’s the money shot…
The upside of web-based journalism is that everybody gets a chance. The downside is that everybody gets a chance. I can’t really get on board with the demonization of credentials with phrases like “the media elite” (just like doctors, airline pilots and presidents, I prefer reporters and commentators to be elite) and the glamorization of inexperience with phrases like “citizen journalist.”
When I read the Times or The Wall Street Journal, I know those reporters had to have cleared a very high bar to get the jobs they have. When I read a blog piece from “BobsThoughts.com,” Bob could be the most qualified guy in the world but I have no way of knowing that because all he had to do to get his job was set up a website–something my 10-year-old daughter has been doing for 3 years. When The Times or The Journal get it wrong they have a lot of people to answer to. When Bob gets it wrong there are no immediate consequences for Bob except his wrong information is in the water supply now so there are consequences for us.
As the saying goes, the problem with free speech is that you get what you pay for. Obviously there are great writers and thinkers publishing on the web and there have also been times when citizen journalists have made a positive contribution to the public discussion, but I think the cost/benefit is way out of whack. Like saying that graffiti is good because somewhere in there is a Banksy.
So yeah, the internet obviously boned Sorkin’s girl, and every time he talks about the internet I think of this GIF…
