MUST SEE: Aaron Sorkin (inset), creator of “The Newsroom,” is the subject of “Sorkinisms: A Supercut.” (
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Aaron Sorkin has befriended the producer of a new viral video that essentially shows the Oscar winner plagiarizing his own work.
“I have a very limited imagination,” he admits.
“Sorkinisms: A Supercut” is a mash-up of clips in which characters from “The West Wing,” “Social Network” and other Sorkin projects recite almost identical lines of script. It has racked up more than 600,000 views since June.
“I really like it,” Sorkin told The Post on Wednesday. “What I even like more is that I got a wonderful letter from the young man, his name is Kevin [Porter], who put it together. And he was mortified!
“He told me in this letter that he meant it as a tribute and just because of the timing with ‘The Newsroom,’ it had been used a different way. He and I have been e-mailing back and forth.”
Sorkin has been also working overtime to mend fences with TV critics who trashed his polarizing new HBO drama, “The Newsroom.”
The network, he says, tried to cancel an appearance before a gathering of reviewers in Los Angeles this week. But he insisted on attending.
“I don’t want to have an adversarial relationship with the press,” he says. “I get that there are people who do not like the show . . . but I think that anytime people are talking this much about a television show, it’s good for television.”
“The Newsroom” — which stars Jeff Daniels as cable news anchor Will McAvoy — has been blasted for its preachy tone and less than authentic depiction of both women and the cable-news business.
“Most of the time, I write about things I don’t know very much about,” Sorkin admits.
“I get pumped full of information so that I can find a point of friction and write an episode.”
For Season 2, which will begin production later this summer, Sorkin has engaged a team of “consultants” to balance his often-preachy, liberal dialogue.
“Political opinions I have are at the level of sophistication of someone who has a BFA in musical theater.
“I have exactly the same ability to comment on how the news should be covered as I have in how to create Facebook or how to run the Oakland A’s or how to get the communists out of Afghanistan after they invaded in 1979, which is to say none.”