Tea Party Fave Calls Out HBO's 'Newsroom'

Sen. Mike Lee understands HBO’s “The Newsroom” blends fiction and reality. But the Tea Party favorite isn’t happy with the ratio of truth to creative license in this past Sunday’s episode.

[Lee] complained to HBO recently after the lead character in its new series “The Newsroom” claimed Lee campaigned on a platform to repeal constitutional guarantees of citizenship, due process and equal protection to anyone born or naturalized in the United States.

“For starters,” Will McAvoy, the anchor of the program’s nightly cable-news program, reportedly said in Sunday’s episode, “the centerpiece of Mike Lee’s stump speech is repealing the 14th Amendment. It’s an applause line, and he’s going to win his primary by double digits.”

… Lee’s office says McAvoy’s dialogue mischaracterized the legislator’s position.

“Senator Lee has never supported repealing the 14th Amendment,” spokesman Brian Phillips told the Daily News. “What he has supported is legislation that would clarify one of the provisions of the 14th Amendment, such that children born in the U.S. to parents who are illegal aliens are not given automatic birthright citizenship….”

[Lee spokesman Brian] Phillips said HBO assured the senator the show has fact checkers who would review the line. An HBO spokesman acknowledged the conversation with the senator’s office but had no further comment.

Fact checkers? HBO? The same network which broadcast “Recount” and “Game Change?” HBO is known for comedies like “Sex and the City” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” but that statement alone is a howler of the first order.