Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin once wrote the definitive movie scene defending the First Amendment.
Rob Reiner's "The American President" (1995) featured a slugfest between President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) and his opponent, Senator Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss).
The dynamic finale, scripted by Sorkin (an avowed progressive), featured this key speech from the film's hero:
America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
The crowd cheers, as well they should.
That was then. In the mid-90s, the American Left still supported free speech. Sorkin, as liberal then as he is now, reflected that line of thinking. But that decade saw the rise of political correctness, a toxic mindset that eventually gave way to something worse.
Woke.
Woke censors speech. It tells us what opinions we can and cannot have. The philosophy brims with false conclusions and inconsistencies.
We've learned this all too well. And the Left has been the driving force behind all things woke. Would he write that same First Amendment defense today?
We'd have to ask him directly. What we do know is that he's penned a similar scene for his latest project. Sorkin wrote and directed "The Social Reckoning." It's a sequel to "The Social Network," the Oscar-winning drama that detailed the dawn of Facebook and rise of its creator, Mark Zuckerberg.
And that film got plenty of facts wrong. But we digress.
The new film, out Oct. 9 nationwide, questions the social impact Zuckerberg's creation has on the nation. And, many suspect, that includes the Jan. 6 riots.
An early report said Sorkin's team re-created them for the film.
Sorkin has gone on record saying he blames Facebook for Jan. 6.
When asked why he blames a social media company for a pro-Donald Trump mob storming the U.S. Capitol, Sorkin replied, “You’re going to need to buy a movie ticket.”
He said that in 2024. Now, "The Social Reckoning" appears to make good on that promise. The studio behind the film just released a new clip from the film. Zuckerberg, now played by Jeremy Strong, is being interrogated by Charlie Garrigan (Bill Burr), a former colleague turned Zuckerberg critic.
First clip for Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg in ‘THE SOCIAL RECKONING’.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 23, 2026
In theaters on October 9. pic.twitter.com/la0PbLUlJm
"You're not fact-checking political ads?" Garrigan asks, incredulous. Zuckerberg, on the witness stand, defends his approach.
"It's a democracy. I believe in free speech." Zuckerberg says.
"Yeah, everybody does. This can't be your answer," Garrigan says.
"I'm not standing in between someone seeking office and the voters," Zuckerberg responds.
"You are standing in between them. You're like a crossing guard standing in front of a school, but you're not doing anything with your arms, so the cars are just plowing down the children because it's a democracy," Garrigan says.
It's worth noting that liberals praised social media fact-checkers, a process that routinely punished right-leaning views and let liberal lies flourish. Many of those same liberals applauded when major platforms like Facebook bounced a sitting president from their outlets.
"The voters aren't children. They don't need to be told to eat their vegetables," Zuckerberg says.
"How about telling us which ones are vegetables and which ones are clumps of dirt in the shape of a carrot," Garrigan says.
"People can decide on their own without any help from me if a politician or advocacy group is telling the truth ... I respect our users."
"By lying to them," Garrigan says.
"I'm not the one who's lying, and I'm not stopping them from seeing someone who is," Zuckerberg says.
End of clip.
Need more context?
Aaron Sorkin in 2019, in case you’re wondering whose side he’s on in this scene: pic.twitter.com/CVPuKo8tVX
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) September 24, 2026
In Sorkin's defense, he's allowing Zuckerberg to state his case in a clear manner. The Hollywood method too often finds screenwriters unwilling to give their "villains" the sense to intelligently state their case.
Not here. Still, given the context, both the screenwriter's past statements and the Left's new aversion to speech, it's clear who the villain is in this piece.
Now, social media deserves plenty of scrutiny in the modern age. There's so much Fake News floating about online, and it's challenging to produce ways to filter it while allowing for free speech to thrive.
That's a healthy discussion to be having, and a real world problem we currently face.
What we've seen too often, alas, is people on the Left wanting less voices, not more. The urge is to censor first and ask questions later.
Remember COVID-19? How many conservative speakers have been shouted down on campuses nationwide?
If only Sorkin could have seen how the free speech debate would turn in 30-odd years.
