Last night Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom aired a controversial episode with a campus rape plot, which was heavily criticized. One of its critics included Newsroom writer, Alena Smith, who took to Twitter to explain how she was unhappy with the storyline and was promptly kicked out of the writers room when she disagreed with Sorkin. Today the director released a statement addressing the situation.
But first, more on the episode. In it news producer Don Keefer speaks to a rape survivor, as a possible story subject, who created a website where survivors could share their stories while also warning others. What viewers found problematic was Keefer siding with the men that could possibly be exposed on the website, thus having their lives ruined. (Think the Steubenville Ohio rape case where media sympathized with rapists, constantly calling them “good” students who had “bright futures ahead of them.”) As opposed to the people who were raped who would actually have their lives ruined.
In a statement to EW, Sorkin said Smith had “strong objections” to the episode, even after he made revisions, and so he “excused her from the room” because time was running out. According to Sorkin, Smith later saw the final draft, what aired last night, and she was supportive of it, which is why he was surprised by her tweets:
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Translation: Know your role and shut your mouth. And just when you thought Sorkin couldn’t burn her worse:
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You can read Smith's tweets below:
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[via EW]
