If you've Googled "The Newsroom" in the past week, you've no doubt seen that the entire Internet has risen up in unanimous hatred of the series and its views on campus rape.
And in case you've stayed away from that particular Google bomb, here's a quick recap (via Enstars). In the latest episode of "The Newsroom," one character, Don Keefer, is tasked with setting up a segment where a Princeton student and rape victim would go toe to toe on television. Don advises her against going on TV, and adds that he believes he is morally obligated to assume that her accused rapist is innocent- because he is accused of a crime, and not convicted of one.
That's it. That's what's caused an army of Internet users to lash out against the Newsroom. And though most sites published scathing critiques of the episode, at least Newsweek was there to offer a lone dissenting view.
"This year's Emmy Award winner for Best Drama Series was Breaking Bad, a series whose protagonist was far more callous to the deleterious effects of crystal meth abuse than Don Keefer was to rape last Sunday. But, perhaps because more TV critics have direct familiarity with the horrors of sexual assault than they do with the epidemic of drug abuse in a flyover state, Vince Gilligan was never excoriated for this...
And yet, if Sorkin imagines a scenario in which, as happened last Sunday, a male news producer balks at the prospect of putting a possible rape victim on camera, both Sorkin and the character are flayed far worse than anyone on Game of Thrones."
As well, Aaron Sorkin shot back against the critics in the New York Observer with the same general argument.
"I knew that one of the stories was controversial and I'm not someone who courts controversy so I was a little surprised by the vitriol and misunderstanding this morning of what was going on in that episode and terrible inferences drawn from it about me personally."
Check back soon for the latest news on "The Newsroom."
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