Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom shows the life and careers of a news team working to develop the best possible show and content on television for their audience. Writing the script for each episode, Sorkin manages to create effective and memorable dialogue between his characters, even using some of his past work from other shows.
To celebrate the upcoming release of The Newsroom: The First Complete Season on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download, we take a look at some of Aaron Sorkin’s best and most memorable quotes from The Newsroom.
“America is not the greatest country in the world.”
“We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbours. We put our money where our mouths were. And we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men.”
“What does winning look like to you?”
“Reclaiming the fourth estate. Reclaiming journalism as an honourable profession. A nightly newscast that informs a debate worthy of a great nation. Civility, respect, and a return to what’s important; the death of bitchiness; the death of gossip and voyeurism; speaking truth to stupid. No demographic sweet spot; a place where we all come together.”
On the Debt Ceiling
Sloan: “To give time for the people to call their Congressman and say: ‘If you fuck with the full faith and credit of the US Treasury, you’re fired!’ To give time for the people to jam the phone lines of the District Offices, to give the people TIME to say: ‘I’m a fiscal conservative, and you’ve gotta put the pin back in the grenade right now.’ That’s why.”
Gabrielle Giffords…Dead?
Reese: “Every second you’re not current a thousand people are changing the channel to the guy who is. That’s the business you’re in. MSNBC, FOX and CNN all say she’s dead. Don, tell him. Don!”
Don: “It’s a person. A doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.”
LOL means Lots of Love
“They’re Journalists”
Will: I’ve got a guy on my staff who got hit in the head with a glass door Thursday. His forehead wouldn’t stop bleeding, but he wouldn’t go to a doctor ’cause I got another guy who got beat up covering Cairo. And the first guy wouldn’t see a doctor until the second guy saw a doctor. I’ve got a producer who ran into a locked door ’cause he felt responsible for the second guy. I’ve got an 18-year-old kid risking his life halfway around the world and the AP who sent him there hasn’t slept in three days. I’ve got 20-somethings who care about teachers in Wisconsin. I’ve got a grown woman who has to subtract with her fingers staying up all night trying to learn economics from a PhD who could be making 20 times the money three miles downtown. They’re journalists.
“You never asked me out”
Sloan: I don’t know who told you you’re a bad guy, but somebody did, somebody along the way. Somebody or something convinced you of it because you think you’re a bad guy, and you’re just not. I’m socially inept, but even I know that. So because you’re a bad guy you try to do things you think a good guy would do, like committing to someone you like but maybe don’t love. A sweet, smart, wholesome Midwestern girl. I could be wrong. I almost always am.
Don: Why are you single?
Sloan: A lot of men are intimidated by my intelligence.
Don: No, seriously.
Sloan: Because you never asked me out. Caught you off-guard, didn’t I?
Don: Yeah, you really did.
While many of these quotes are significant and original to The Newsroom, many of Sorkin’s one liners appear all throughout the first season from multiple characters. Many Sorkinisms used in The Newsroom and their counterparts from other shows can be found in a complete video.
The Newsroom: The Complete First Season is released on Blu-ray and DVD on 22nd July, and available now to own on Digital Download.
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