NEW YORK (AP) -- Kids hear it from their elders all the time: "Use your words." In the case of Aaron Sorkin, that childhood lesson clearly stuck.

As the awards-laden writer of TV's "The West Wing" and such films as "The Social Network" and "Moneyball," Sorkin uses well-chosen words by the carload to propel his story-telling with insight and wit.

You don't look to Sorkin for car chases, pyrotechnics or other spectacle. It's his words - playful, brainy, heartfelt and often fired out in hot-potato exchanges - that do the heavy lifting. Yet make it look easy.

Now, having worked his verbal magic on the nation's capital (in "The West Wing"), sports talk ("Sports Night") and the backstage world of TV comedy ("Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"), Sorkin has turned his attention to television news.

"I consider it a valentine," he says. It's also an entertaining exercise in tough love.

"The Newsroom," which premieres on HBO Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT, centers on Will McAvoy (played by Jeff Daniels), a cable-news star who, in middle age, is coasting with his so-so nightly newscast, happy to avoid making waves with hard-hitting stories or controversial reports. Why not? He gets good ratings. He's "the Jay Leno of news anchors," one critic sniffs - popular because he doesn't bother anyone.

That's about to change. Much to Will's surprise, the newly hired executive producer for his broadcast, "News Night," turns out to be MacKenzie McHale. She's a hotshot TV journalist with whom Will was romantically involved before a painful breakup years ago that still has him brooding - and dead-set against working with her again.

Played by Emily Mortimer ("Hugo," "Shutter Island"), MacKenzie has been brought in to light a fire under Will.

"We're going to do a GOOD news show," she tells him, "AND make it popular at the same time."

"That is impossible!" Will growls.

Is it? Time will tell during the upcoming season's 10 episodes.