Brian Williams

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The unctuous Brian Williams tells Jon Stewart how much he looked up to Walter Cronkite - "He was a man I wanted to be" - and Stewart responds: "How does it feel, to fall so short?"

Smackdown!

Stewart then asks, "Do you think Walter Cronkite would be happy with what he sees in the news now?" Williams says yes, except for ... well, a lot of stuff that Cronkite didn't like about today's news biz.

And really, that's what it's all about, isn't it? All these media types and politicians paying tribute to a man who would absolutely horrify them if he were still alive - and still practicing journalism.

Instead, we have journalism by sound bite, by press release, by chummy relationships and the search for access.

Yes, heroes are much better when they're dead and gone, and not annoying career talking heads who aspire to gravitas without earning it.



Open Thread

I'm not a fan of Brian Williams, but this is pretty funny.

Open thread below...


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Remember Liz Trotta on FOX last year when she joked that we should kill Osama Bin Laden and Barack Obama?

Trotta: ...and now we have what some are reading---as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, umm, ah... Obama, well both, if we could...haha...

She was forced to apologize on the air by the liberal blogosphere shortly after. In March, she maintained another lie:

Fox analysts: Obama is manipulating the librul press in a 'historic' way?

Greg Mitchell tweeted this and we grabbed it.

Liz Trotta on Fox just now bashing NBC coverage of Obama -- one year after she seemingly endorsed killing him "if we could."

I guess working for the Washington Times as she did in the past sure does seem to cause a severe "pundit insanity" syndrome. In this segment, she is furious with the media's coverage of President Obama's Middle East trip.

Trotta: It's the Obama glut and if you add that, another couple of hours of Brian Williams on NBC doing inside the Obama White House. I mean he's now up for the prize for Pet poodle in the Obama media kennel. Just unbelievable sycophancy.

Who, Brian Williams?

Oh, my goodness. The softball questions and the running up and down the hallways. Somebody compared the scenes of running up and down the hallways it to a scene from Goodfellows where one of the gangsters takes his girlfriend back through the kitchen in order to get to the secret night club.

Brian Williams, I've known him for 15 years. He's a decent, I think objective professional.

You're wrong, you're wrong. This is a network that has totally cast it's lot with the Obama White House.

We've heard that.

Trotta: They're of course the ugly rumors and reports about how Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and CEO of G.E., the parent company, has sent the word down that we're going to be nice to Obama, because we want some of the government contracts.

Eric: do you really believe that? do you really believe that?

Trotta: I believe it's perfectly possible. I'm not saying it's so, but this is widely reported on the Internet. And then we have the stockholders meetings in which, where the questions were -- where people tried to ask can these questions and, of course, everybody's mic was cut. That aside, no, there wasn't even coverage of Obama. Again, he commanded the airwaves all week. And again, the press, which is his personal, you know, fan book, just play ball.

I always find it silly when FOX News people complain about other networks being propagandists when that's been their entire role for the GOP since its inception. I assume they know the FOX audience will bite, but it's still strange to see FOX complain about another network about this subject matter. And then they wrapped up the segment by attacking Williams because he gave a little bow to the president as he left him.

There it is. I mean it's just a little head nod.

Grovel, grovel, grovel.

No, it's a little thank you. It's a sign of respect. Thank you, Mr. President.

Did you see the entire thing? It was a grovel.

Listen, I'm no fan of Williams overall, but this is just creepy coverage of NBC and Obama by Trotta. I'm sure she's trying to get booked on Bill O'Reilly's show this week with this performance.


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President Obama Has A Stern Warning For Conan O'Brien

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June 02, 2009 Conan O'Brien


BriTunes?

Do you find yourself staring at the new release in the iTunes store, wondering "I wonder what new music Brian Williams is listening to?" If so there are some questions you might want to answer.

Anyway, BriTunes is the new web-only music show where BriWi shows off his favorite up-and-coming acts. While his taste is about 3% edgier than you might expect (he likes Camera Obscura?!), watching him talk about Questlove's drumming is kind of like watching your Dad talk about Gossip Girl and how much he relates to it.

Here's BriWi on his new project:

Okay, so I didn't name this thing, but I did come up with the idea. I have always loved identifying good music and good groups -- discovering them early (bar bands are best) and following them through their journey. While we'll interview some established musicians, mostly I'd like this to be a place where people can sample some of the great music being created every day, by talented musicians who wouldn't dream of doing anything else.

I thought it might be nice for MSNBC to have an online show where they let one of the Jonas Brothers talk about foreign affairs to counterbalance this. What do you think?


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I meant to get to this earlier in the week. It's so illustrative of the problems with our corporate media that the guy who wins a Pulitzer prize for investigative reporting is ignored - because he was investigating the corporate media for stacking the deck with paid sources to support the Iraq war:

On the April 20 edition of NBC's Nightly News, reporting on the awarding of the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes earlier that day, anchor Brian Williams stated that "The New York Times led the way with five, including awards for breaking news and international reporting." But Williams did not note that the Times' David Barstow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting that day "for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended." Media Matters for America has repeatedly documented the unwillingness of the major broadcast networks, including NBC, to report on Barstow's April 20, 2008, Times article. Moreover, NBC joined ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC in reportedly declining to participate in a segment based on Barstow's article that aired on the April 24, 2008, edition of PBS' NewsHour.

In an April 29 post on his MSNBC.com blog, Williams responded to Barstow's April 20 article, describing NBC News analyst military analyst Barry R. McCaffrey and Wayne Downing, who died in July 2007, as "honest brokers" and writing that McCaffrey and Downing were "warriors-turned-analysts, not lobbyists or politicians":

All I can say is this: these two guys never gave what I considered to be the party line. They were tough, honest critics of the U.S. military effort in Iraq. If you've had any exposure to retired officers of that rank (and we've not had any five-star Generals in the modern era) then you know: these men are passionate patriots. In my dealings with them, they were also honest brokers. I knew full well whenever either man went on a fact-finding mission or went for high-level briefings. They never came back spun, and never attempted a conversion. They are warriors-turned-analysts, not lobbyists or politicians.

Glenn Greenwald has more:

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On the same day he trashed The New York Times on his blog for covering petty and completely meaningless tabloid stories (and nominated Peggy Noonan for a Pulitzer Prize), NBC's Brian Williams runs a 2+ minute "report" on the latest "controversy" surrounding teen superstar Miley Cyrus and the pictures Annie Leibovitz took of her for Vanity Fair magazine.

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MediaBloodhound notes that Williams spent almost twice as much time on this nonsense than he did on the landmark Supreme Court voting rights case decided yesterday.

What's more, Williams and NBC poorly handled those eighty whole seconds they allocated to the Supreme Court ruling on voter IDs. They not only failed to present one dissenting viewpoint - whether from a Supreme Court Justice, legal scholar, civil rights lawyer or voters in Indiana - but also to point out how this ruling will impact the upcoming primary in Indiana, where, as the Associated Press reported yesterday, "more than 20 percent of black voters do not have access to a valid photo ID."

Glenn wants to know, What Liberal Media?

C&L's Jamie Holly weighs in:

I think the ones who look at that picture as sexual are the ones we should be concerned about. Of course Drudge had this headline Sunday night:

UPDATE: Glenn has a "response" from Brian Williams to the Pentagon propaganda story, something Williams and the entire elite media has refused to cover.

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