Aaron Sorkin, Chick-Fil-A and Shopping

About the only show* I've been consistently watching this summer is The Newsroom. Though I swear I'm going to catch up on Louie and Bunheads after the Olympics are over. In its own way, I really feel like it's just as much of a fantasy as my beloved Game of Thrones. I mean, the distinguished and filthy rich news anchor starts using his powers for good, with the full support of his boss and entire staff. They just share the facts, they don't sensationalize, they ignore the crazies, they call the liars out. . .

As if that would ever happen in a newsroom today. Plus, the vast majority of the people who work at the fictional network are good. And when the intern screws up, they forgive and promote her. Like that would ever happen at CNN.

So, in my view, it's a fantasy. One that I really, really, enjoy. Many critics hated it, finding it sanctimonious and sexist. I don't feel that way when I watch, caught up in the wordiness and liberal beliefs as I am each week. Plus I think all of the characters are pretty much idiots in their personal lives, not just the women. But I became uncomfortable when I found out that Sorkin himself is sanctimonious and sexist.

I don't understand how anyone who wrote The West Wing (also a fantasy, IMHO) can possibly think that the last time our nation was great was in the forties, as he says in The Globe and Mail interview. In the forties we still had institutionalized sexism and racism and we locked up people with Down Syndrome. There were things about our nation that were great then, sure, probably more than there are today. But to write off the tremendous social progress of the 60's and 70's as not great shows a kind of white male establishment preference I thought was only true of Tea Party people.

I almost stopped watching the show.

And then I realized that for all I know, everyone who writes every other show I love is some kind of asshole as well. If I refuse to engage with any art created by assholes, I'm going to have remove some art posters from my house as well. And never reread The Old Man and The Sea.

So I'm still watching The Newsroom.

Unfortunately, not on this television. 

I find this fundamentally different than the whole Chick-Fil-A debacle. The world is filled with assholes who have views I find abhorrent. So the fact that the president of the company is homophobic? Not my concern. Especially since I never eat there.

But. When a company starts giving money to causes I find reprehensible, that's different. Sure, Aaron Sorkin may be a sexist, but is he giving money to the Taliban? The Westboro Baptist Church? The Quiverfull movement? The Republicans? Nope. And am I giving him money directly when I watch his show? Nope.

But when you buy a product, you are giving a company money directly. And while I do believe the company and/or its big salaried executives have the right to donate their money to whatever causes they choose, I don't have to help them make that contribution. I won't be eating at Chick-Fil-A and I won't be using products from the Koch Brothers**, because I disagree with them. I think we should all be doing more voting with our wallets, though I don't think we have to make a big production about it every time. It's like those people who talk about how they go to church all the time are never the people who also actually follow the Ten Commandments.

Anyway, if you are interested in voting with your wallet, Open Secrets is a good place to get started.



*The Real Housewives and Dance Moms are not shows. They are train wrecks, so they don't count.

**If you don't want to give money to the people that fund The Tea Party and lobby for billionaires, you can avoid buying these products. Please.