Brian Williams -- enemy of the people

[lwcon]

Brian Williams turns up his nose at citizen journalists:

"You're going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe. All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I'm up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn't left the efficiency apartment in two years" — Brian Williams, anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," speaking before New York University journalism students on the challenges traditional journalism faces from online media.

If only Vinny had as nice a home as Brian does and a fancier wardrobe, he might...

• become the administration's "go-to anchor"
• feel good about the news being bought and paid for
• consider it "his duty to listen to" Rush Limbaugh, who he says has "yet to get the credit he is due."

What a loser that Vinny is....

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[Bitwit1234]

1. Brian Williams has nerve to say he or any of the newsreaders

that people the network and cable TV are journalist. I can not believe that the stuff they fluff off on TV could be called news.

Most of the MSM only reports bush and the republican talking points.

[Lefty-Taylor]

14. Hey, you think it's EASY reading White House talking points?

Come on, first you've got to schmooze with them over cocktails, then you've got to blow dry your hair and put on a fancy suit, then you've got to sit under hot lights and repeat what Karl told you to say (and we all know what havoc those hot lights can create to your hair and skin and whatnot)...

[gratuitous]

2. Well, Brian

If you hadn't been chasing the almighty dollar and compromising your career so assiduously, Vinnie in his efficiency apartment would probably still trust you. But you taught him very well that you aren't trustworthy. So he scraped together some money, bought a computer and a dial-up connection, and saw for himself the gaping holes in your coverage, and self-serving tilt of your reportage.

If Vinnie is a problem for you, Mr. Williams, I submit that you have no one but yourself to blame. And if you were truly dedicated to the ideals of journalism (okay, stop laughing, it wasn't really meant as a joke), then Vinnie wouldn't be a patch on you.

[Carolina]

7. Excellent

You should email this commentary to NBC (Nothing But Crap). Brian, Chucky, Matt, all their ilk at NBC (and its assorted iterations: CNBC, MSNBC) are nothing but corporate shills for the likes of GE ... we bring good things (wars?!) to light.

I used to yell and scream at the TV about NBC 'nightly views' segments on "The Fleecing of America" which always highlighted some government waste ... emphasis on the word GOVERNMENT, but never uttered a word about CORPORATE WELFARE, waste and the general screwing of America. Message to the unread masses who only got their 'news' and information from TV was:

business = good
government = bad

We can thank Reagan and repukes for the idealogy of demonizing the common good of government of, by and for the people (see the preamble to the Constitution). And likewise blame them for the business model of government that says sink or swim, chump. If it's good for our bottom line nothing else (truth, life, the planet) matters.

So Brian et. al. can suck up to the $$$$, call themselves journalists (what a joke) and impugn the intellectual curiosity, ingenuity and growing independence of the Vinnys of the world all they want. But TRUTH will always out. History has shown this again and again and again ...

[lwcon]

13. After the GOP told us "government is bad"

... they did a heckuva job proving it.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[NanceGreggs]

3. These people really don't GET IT, do they?

It would be a million times more convenient to just turn on the TV and get updated on the news in one place, and immediately.

The only reason we spend hours searching out the news on the internet is because it is the ONLY PLACE one can get the 'real news'.

In other words, Brian, if you actually DID YOUR JOB, no one would be reading Vinny's blog ...

[spooky3]

9. and the flip side of it is...

doesn't it strike you as rather strange, Brian, with the meager resources you say Vinny has, that he is putting out a "product" that people are choosing over yours? Either he's offering a good product or...you can finish that thought, Brian. He wouldn't be a professional threat otherwise.

Let's see now...are doctors worried that people will stop coming for their visits because they can get equal or better care from the web? Are university professors whining that they going to lose their jobs because people can get the equivalent of highly regarded degrees, by surfing? Do we hear physical trainers complaining that Vinny is stealing their clients?

Didn't think so...

[NanceGreggs]

10. GREAT point! n/t

[spooky3]

11. from you, quite a compliment! Thanks.

[lwcon]

12. Touche! n/t

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[jwirr]

4. He should take a look at KO - all it takes is to tell the truth. Not that

it would stop the internet enemies but at least he would have support.

[IChing]

5. This was rather revealing classism and important

from Brian. In a December 2004 interview with C-Span's Brian Lamb,
Williams proclaimed that he is a longtime listener of The Rush Limbaugh Show :

Williams heaped praise on the right-wing radio icon, crediting him,
among other things, with "giving birth to the Fox News Channel."
Williams also propagated the long-running conservative
claim of a liberal bias in the mainstream media:

"LAMB: I mean, how do you -- so much the conservative media
criticize anchors living in New York City and in Connecticut
for being isolated and never paying attention to their thought.
How do you --
do you ever listen to the Limbaugh show or any of that stuff?

"WILLIAMS: Oh, often, often, and I'm one of the few
in a very select group that Rush has allowed on
when I've called in from the car.
I do listen to Rush. I listen to it from a radio
in my office or depending on my day, if I'm in the car,
I will listen to Rush and he will tell you I've been listening for years.
I think it's my duty to listen to Rush.
I think Rush has actually yet to get the credit he is due
because his audience for so many years felt they were in the wilderness
of this country. No one was talking to them.
They would look at mainstream media and they'd hear sentences like the following:
Conservative firebrand Newt Gingrich today accused Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy

"Well, what's wrong with that sentence? My friend Brit Hume --
we covered the White House together, always would call reporters on this
. Where's the appellation for Ted Kennedy in that sentence,
you members of the perhaps unintentionally liberal media?
Why aren't you calling Kennedy something
if you're going to label Newt Gingrich a conservative firebrand?
That's what Rush did. Rush said to millions of Americans, you have a home.
Come with me.

For three hours a day you can listen and hear the likeminded
calling in from across the country and I'll read to you things perhaps
you didn't see that are out there. I think Rush gave birth to the Fox news channel.
I think Rush helped to give birth to a movement.
I think he played his part in the contract with America.
So I hope he gets his due as a broadcaster."

[IChing]

6. dupe n/t

[acmavm]

8. Such sour grapes coming from a man who's working in a field

where the average 'American' journalist has no honesty or integrity. It's their own fault. Why blame Vinny?

[GeorgeGist]

15. I note from his MSNBC, NBC bio...

that Brian doesn't claim to have a degree in Journalism.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080472/

[fooj]

16. If Brian DID HIS JOB

maybe he wouldn't feel SO THREATENED by people who are more than willing to do it for him. Asshole.

[Supersedeas]

20. seriously, who is trying to convince about his credentials...himself??

[Usrename]

17. He really does not understand what journalism is.

He boasts that he is unbiased because his hate-mail is 50-50 liberal to conservative.

So I guess that means that if you have to repeat lies in order to get the liberal people just as pissed off at you as the conservatives get when you tell the truth, then that just helps to make you more "Fair and Balanced."

I think he's just another half-wit that can make intelligent-looking faces.

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. That loser Vinny has nothing going for him but the truth. Brian, if you did your job...

nobody would pay any attention to Vinny.

[depakid]

19. Williams is no journalist

He's just a servant who's well paid to don a coif and conceal, deceive and propagandize. History well look back with shame upon his kind.

[monmouth]

21. Williams is a news reader...n/t

[zulchzulu]

22. Brian Williams vs. Vinny....um...there's a choice? Fuhgitaboutit...Vinny, baby!

Williams may think he's the next "Cronkite"...ferchrissakes, Edward R. Murrow would have punched his lights out years ago...

[FarLeftRage]

23. He is also a WAR CRIMINAL

his hands are BLOOD RED from the victims of bush's pre-emptive war on Iraq.

[Cha]

24. brian williams-dinosaur

Vinnie-The Meteorite~

[unkachuck]

25. Cryin' Brian....

....you're no more a 'journalist' than I am....you're just an over-paid, tele-prompter-reading, corporate-ass-sucking celebrity....

....I'd believe Vinny any day over you....at least Vinny will speak the truth as he sees it, instead of your usual corporate propaganda that we all can recite by heart....

[DemoTex]

26. Nature abhors a vacuum, and Brian Williams' MSM sucks.

Ergo, bloggers moved in to fill the void. It is almost like a chapter in Physics 101.

[gizmo1979]

27. I like Brian Williams.

Sometimes we get mad at the news people because they give us the news,without the political slant we may like.That's what news is suppose to be,reporting facts and let the people decide where their opinions may lie.I thinks Williams does a better job than most,of course that's an opinion,not news.

[NormanYorkstein]

29. he's a great actor, with a nice voice

plus he can enunciate very well.

[Uncle Joe]

28. Somebody get Brian a bathrobe, and how does he know

Vinny hasn't left the apartment in two years? Is he getting his info from Bush's illegal wiretapping of the American People? Is this the reason, with all his resources, he did such a piss poor job of reporting on it?

[TwilightGardener]

30. What's the matter, Brian? Are you bothered by the fact that the

internet community refuses to wait until you process, slant, and then regurgitate select news stories for public consumption? No longer being the first to grab raw facts and twist them into a pre-determined context really takes away your power to sway public opinion, doesn't it? Bwahaha!

[Contrary1]

31. "You're going to be up against people who have an opinion..."

That's what's really bothering him. The Stepford viewers are diminishing in vast numbers.
Intelligent people have learned how to research their own news, and form their own opinion.

[TwilightGardener]

32. 'Zactly!