home

The World Of Brian Williams

(Speaking for myself only)

I am of the opinion that Brian Williams is the most ridiculous person on television. I am also of the opinion that Howie Kurtz is the most ridiculous person writing in a major newspaper (yes, more so than MoDo.) So certainly I enjoyed Bob Somerby's skewering of both. Here is a snippet:

KURTZ (page 265): If Gibson managed to beat him, so be it. Charlie was a newsman’s newsman, Williams felt, an older version of himself. There was no shame in losing to Charlie. But he felt very differently about Katie Couric.

It wasn’t that Williams was jealous of her fame, her huge salary, of the enormous wave of publicity surrounding her ascension. But Williams and others at NBC believed that Katie was in something of a bubble, living a wealthy celebrity lifestyle that set her apart from her viewers.

What was central to Williams’ conception of himself was that he was the down-to-earth journalist, the NASCAR fan, the onetime volunteer fireman, the guy who shopped at Price Club and watched American Idol. . . . Brian Williams was convinced that, when it came to news, people would see who eats it, sleeps it, and breathes it.
And they were also going to see who knew how to pause between items! At any rate, it’s fairly clear that, at this high level, the high-strung artists of TV news can develop understandable sets of attitudes—the types of attitudes which, seen somewhere else, might be mistaken for excessive self-regard . . .

Read the whole thing. Hilarious.

< NY Times: NSA Wanted Telecoms' Help With Data-Mining in Drug Cases | Hillary and Harkin Introduce Bill to Force Disclosure of Names of Worst Nursing Homes >
  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


  • Display: Sort:
    Brian Williams (none / 0) (#1)
    by Warren Terrer on Sun Dec 16, 2007 at 01:49:18 PM EST
    is a tool.

    Can I say tool here?

    Williams vs. bloggers (none / 0) (#2)
    by Scarabus on Sun Dec 16, 2007 at 06:04:20 PM EST
    Brian Williams is on record as characterizing all bloggers as the equivalent of a guy in Queens with an ethnically-associated first name sitting at his computer in pajamas posting superficial nonsense (as opposed to his own deeply-informed insight). So you can be sure he won't give a flying fedorkah about your (justified) contempt for him. :-)

    Williams' fatuous pomposity (none / 0) (#7)
    by kovie on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 01:10:34 AM EST
    is SO over the top that I've always wondered if it wasn't just a big joke on all of us. He's like a smarter and less angry version of O'Falafel...who says things as dumb as O'Falafel. I keep expecting him to adopt a British accent like Madonna.

    Parent
    Sounds like (none / 0) (#3)
    by Repack Rider on Sun Dec 16, 2007 at 06:05:27 PM EST
    Delusions of adequacy.

    Somerby needs to get an RSS feed (none / 0) (#4)
    by andgarden on Sun Dec 16, 2007 at 07:34:14 PM EST


    i don't know, that's a (none / 0) (#5)
    by cpinva on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 12:44:58 AM EST
    tough call, there are sooooooooooooo many to choose from. chris matthews and tim russert certainly rank high on the "tool meter", as does ms. couric herself. modo is definitely shooting for "absolute dufus of the decade" award, as is ruth marcus of the wp.

    so many twits, so little time!

    More rediculous than (none / 0) (#6)
    by kovie on Mon Dec 17, 2007 at 01:07:34 AM EST
    Dobbs, O'Falafel, Hannity, King (Larry), Beck, Grace, Tweety, Carlson...

    Oh my, the list is so long, and time is so short...