This is never going to end. The “media critics” are now earnestly debating whether or not Brian Williams fabricated seeing a body float during Hurricane Katrina or whether or not he got a case of the trots on assignment. I shit you not (sorry, I couldn’t resist):
NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who apologized on the air Wednesday night for lying about an experience covering the Iraq War, is now facing scrutiny over his gripping accounts of Hurricane Katrina, the disaster that burnished his nightly news bona fides almost a decade ago.
Williams’ account of seeing a body float by in the French Quarter — which remained largely dry — and even a claim of catching dysentery from drinking Katrina floodwaters have raised eyebrows among bloggers and elsewhere since he took it on the chin this week over a claim that he rode in a helicopter that was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.
Anyone who is questioning whether or not he may have seen bodies floating needs a walk down memory lane. I’m not going to link the pictures, but google is your friend. But wait, did he see them from the French Quarter? Well, yes. He probably did:
The remarks drew suspicion because during Katrina, there was relatively little flooding in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
Williams was staying at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New Orleans, according to an NBC source who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak on personnel matters.
Capt. James Scott, who was a police commander in the downtown area at the time of Katrina, said he saw a body floating along Rampart Street on the edge of the French Quarter. “It was floating with the water,” he said.
The body Scott saw was about four blocks from the Ritz-Carlton, which was surrounded by up to three feet of water, he said.
Alex Brandon, a Washington-based photographer for The Associated Press, was working in New Orleans during Katrina and said there was enough water to launch a flat-bottomed boat from in front of the Ritz. He also said he photographed a dead body floating on Canal Street a few blocks from the Ritz.
We have reached the inevitable point of absurdity in this witch hunt, as we have now spent more investigative energy looking into whether a newsreader saw a floating corpse than we did the totality of the lies of Judy Miller, the lies about Jessica Lynch, and the lies regarding Pat Tillman. All because Brian Williams was trying to do something nice for a retired Army guy by taking him to an NHL game.
That’ll teach people to be nice and to try to ingratiate themselves to the military.
Corner Stone
I’m not sure any longer. Should we give a shit about B-Will getting skewered? He’s an awful POS, in pretty much all respects. He makes more per episode than most make all year. Should we entitle him, or enable him, in other respects?
Or what is this really all about? He had faulty recall when he landed somewhere under sniper fire? I mean, I guess I could forgive that kind of mishap.
Corner Stone
Isn’t this a kind of hoisting on a petard kind of thing?
Waspuppet
Don’t forget Lara Logan, whose deliberate lies are all forgiven because she … well, I’m not sure what she did as penance actually.
Or the lies of Sharyl Atkisson, who didn’t miss a beat because she went to a place where lying is the whole point.
different-church-lady
Well, I think we now know who let the air out of the footballs…
Morzer
@different-church-lady:
Brian Williams was in the bathroom handling the Patriots’ balls?
Truly, the journalist’s task is never done.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
At least he hasn’t claimed to have dodged Chris Kyle’s sniper fire during the aftermath of Katrina.
You’re absolutely correct that the energy would be far more productively spent calling out the lies of Judith Miller et al., the lies about Jessica Lynch, and the lies regarding Pat Tillman. Unquestionably. But it ain’t gonna happen.
Yes, I’m feeling especially cheery tonight, why do you ask?
lamh36
I read on twitter I think that NBC is allegedly going to go back and fact check Williams reporting as a “precaution” I guess…
I don’t really see anyone other than the village who gives two shits about Williams, but if NBC wants to fact check, why should I care.
btw, where is the NAACP Image Awards Open Thread…racists!
/snark.
Stan of the Sawgrass
So BW’s memory and now the chopper pilot’s are fabricated/lying sax o’ shit, but all the critics and blowhards have photographic memories? Bet they all did some service in the Ala. National Guard with George W. too.
I don’t like BW that much, either, but I’ll bet we know the drill: Now that he’s grovelled, NBC will throw him under the bus (yes, it’s that damn bus again), back over him once or twice, and “move on.”
Super bonus points and a free game for BW if he claims he’s a victim of the “liberal media.”
Morzer
@efgoldman:
No more than usual.
Peale
I didn’t realize that this was more than a one liner on a late night show. I guess I’ll follow it in the instabook next weekend after I catch up on Bruce Jenner.
Culture of Truth
It may be getting absurd, but don’t kid yourself for a minute that types like Brian Williams or Tom Brokaw or Jake Tapper or all the others are just trying to do s”omething nice” for the military. They know very very well what a huge career boost it is to write homages to the Greatest Generation or The Outpost or paens to the troops in general. They’ll take any chance they can get, or make it up if necessary, to make themselves heroes by writing about how heroic the troops are. One too many bullshit stories, especially from someone as unctuous as Williams, and people may start to notice.
And no, two wrongs don’t make a right. But if Williams wants to make amends for the Iraq war, no one is stopping him.
trollhattan
@Stan of the Sawgrass:
We all remember the Swiftboat Veterans for Truff. I guess these humps can attend their reunions from here, onward.
There isn’t a teapot so small it cannot contain this tempest.
rikyrah
I don’t care. He was never my cup of tea.
David Koch
What is hilarious is Williams spent years sucking up to the wingnutz and now they’re after him for the superficial reason that he works for NBC (which they’ve been trained to think is bad).
I don’t want to go all Bob Somerby on you, but Williams was specifically brought in by Jack Welch because the old decrepit fart wanted someone to attack Clenis.
If anyone else had did this, Williams would be the first one calling for his or her hide.
Mandalay
@John Cole:
Get a grip. It’s NBC who are investigating Williams, and quite rightly so. Not because he’s a liar, but because if they back him they don’t want any more misremembered (aka “false”) reporting from his past being unearthed in the future. If there’s any more shit to be found they want to be the ones finding it, and they really want to find it ASAP.
It’s right there in the headline of your second link:
Pogonip
Pogonip’s crystal ball predicts that Brian Williams will soon develop a strong, nay, irresistible urge to spend more time with his family, and that within a week no one else remember any of it.
John, how about some more cute pics of your furry “family”?
SiubhanDuinne
@Culture of Truth:
“Unctuous” is the perfect word for Brian Williams. Thank you.
jl
@lamh36:
” fact check Williams reporting ”
How are they going to fact check whether he saw a body floating by from his hotel window during Katrina? Like that was an extremely unlikely thing? Well, OK, let them go ahead, will be good to remind people of the horror of Katrina and perhaps allow folks an opportunity to reflect on the bighshots who facilitated it.
And, hey Cole, I read in TPM blog that the only troop who backed up Williams has recanted. But that is just an FYI, since I decided I do not care that much, and if the pilot’s memory is foggy, then I guess anything can happen. Williams may honestly be confused about his memory, so OK he may not be a liar, but he is a bad reporter. Williams was getting paid to figure out what happened and report it all out accurately. That was his only point for being there, That is not the case for the pilot.
Anyway, if I were a corporate media media critic, I would analyze how Williams is no good because he is a smug corporate hack who does poor quality reporting and spouts tied conventional wisdom, and exercises poor editorial judgment as an anchor, so, too damn much like the others. And he effing bragged he listened to Rush Limbaugh in order to keep his finger on the pulse of what real America was thinking. So, ignoramus, or all purpose bigot, and BS artist saying BS to boost his popularity when clueless bigshots thought Rush was popular, take your pick Wonder how long I would last as a respected media critic if I said those things?
SiubhanDuinne
@Pogonip:
Agree on both points!
jl
@Pogonip:
‘ John, how about some more cute pics of your furry “family”? ‘
Cole is having problems focusing on his mission, prime directive, and indefinitely continuing general orders of BJ life!
Corner Stone
@jl:
Yeah, I guess I am somewhere along this spectrum, in some regard.
I just don’t give a shit about this “scandal”. I don’t care what B-Will has to say about this. He isn’t self-aggrandizing in any clear way with his false recall. Fine.
But fuck him. He’s an asshole. Burn, bitch. That tiger you tried to ride for so long has now decided you can’t actually let go and survive.
Peale
@David Koch: we have really sucked for a long time.
I wonder if I started following the news of some other country if I’d have to spend so much time cringing at these clowns.
Mike in NC
Cue world’s smallest violin for overpaid Village airhead Brian Williams.
Culture of Truth
“Be Nice and To Try to Ingratiate Themselves To The Military.”
Put THAT over the entrance to Columbia Journalism School.
different-church-lady
Meanwhile over a Daily Kos they seem to be having some kind of fight about whether ISIS burning people alive is worse than blacks being lynched.
kindness
I don’t know, I kinda like Brian Williams. I never watch his news program so I can’t speak of that. He’s funny on The Daily Show. He doesn’t seem to be a big right wing dick like Chuckie Todd and the rest. They need their pound of flesh it seems. Williams is their new toy. After him it’ll be someone else. On and on.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: their graves being the most likely locale.
Mike in NC
@jl: Also, too, George Stephanopolous is known for keeping his nose in the close proximity of Sean Hannity’s butthole.
Pogonip
@different-church-lady: Who let the balls out?
Schlemazel
The local Rush wannabe (Tom Barnard) was going after Williams this morning over some story he tells about being a firefighter. I only had it on in passing (its MPR pledge week AGAIN) so I didn’t catch the whole thing. There was a conflict with his timeline for being a firefighter and shifting stories about what he did along with a story about rescuing a puppy from a fire that seems a bit too convenient. I moved on so I didn’t hear the end but it seems he has lost the Limbaugh crowd.
Since this joke has gotten legs it occurs to me that ol B-dub must have pissed off a lot of people or there would have been someone other than Cole jumping to his defense. Are all the top news readers asshole or objects of such great envy that all their fellows want to bring them down or is B-dub special?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
It’s been a while, but my recollection is that Logan too-willingly bought in to a story someone fed her and didn’t fact check it. Journalistically incompetent, but not deliberate lies. I think Logan saw too much combat, death and destruction and became too emotionally invested in her beat. It happened to a few correspondents in the Bush wars (Michael Ware, I wanna say? Big Aussie guy with a nose that looks like Broderick Crawford’s?), and it seems to be happening to Richard Engel in Syria. My recollection is Logan was suspended and fairly well exposed. Jonathan Karl engaged in far worse behavior wrt Benghazi(!) than Logan or smug Russert acolyte Brian Williams in this case, and barely got a mention from “media critics”, much less his bosses at ABC, who not long after IIRC hired Bill Kristol as a policy expert.
and again, Williams is at best a cookie-cutter CW spewer with a certain (and overrated) talent for cameos on comedy programs, and that’s as nice as I can be about him.
Schlemazel
@kindness:
Bill O’Lie-ly seemed like a nice guy on the daily show, that is not a good yardstick. Stewart does not do confrontation well.
Mandalay
@jl:
Bingo!
The reality is that in Iraq Williams was an incompetent hack, and he blew it. It’s not about lying. It’s about having someone whose word is not dependable being the nation’s #1 news anchor. Some folks here obviously don’t give a flying fuck about that situation, but NBC does.
Villago Delenda Est
@kindness: Because he’s not a big right wing dick like Chuckles the Toddler is precisely why the wingtards are going after him hammer and tongs.
As far as they’re concerned, only Faux Noise is reporting “truf”. The rest are all liebrals, mainly because they’re not foaming about gay marriage, abortion, or calling the blah guy in the White House “boy” all the time.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I honestly am having trouble reconciling Engel. He seemed to be pretty straight for almost all the time I was aware of his reporting.
But he has recently gone way off the fucking rails. Like someone has his niece as a hostage and he wants every motherfucking body to pay for it.
Pogonip
@Mike in NC: Best place for it.
Corner Stone
@Schlemazel:
It’s weird. JS can absolutely stick the dagger in when he wants to. Not really confrontation as such, but JS can really cut to the bone when he feels like it.
So I guess that means…
Schlemazel
@Morzer:
not sure about the Pat’s but mo def Jack Welsh’s
Rock
This is the kind of story that is perfect for our media because the stakes are so small (it’s just one guy’s career). Investigating Miller’s fabrications leads to the looking into if the US was mislead into war and if there were no WMDs was it for nothing? That’s way too serious. This is more pure entertainment…
Schlemazel
@Corner Stone:
We have seen JS rip BO’ apart with both scalpel and meat ax but never when the assclown is in the room with him. He as taken Grandpa Walnuts to the woodshed for his stupidity many times really well but never when he was on the show. There are plenty of other examples. Its tough to shred someone face-to-face or when you have met them & they seem like decent guys in person.
GregB
I really feel for Williams, he has never recovered from what he saw at the Battle of the Bulge.
Tommy
I give people wide birth when they are in a war zone. Honestly I think we can all agree this is not the best thing that happened to the man. But again wide birth. I was not there.
NotMax
To paraphrase the punchline from another joke –
What you mean “we,” kemobloggy?
Peale
@different-church-lady: well, there can only be winners in a debate like that because we’ll all be better informed.
Mandalay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It would be an understatement to say that Michael Ware was “emotionally invested” in the Iraq war. If you read his bio it’s a miracle that he didn’t get killed twenty times over. He is the best war reporter I have ever seen – nobody else comes close. And of course he got the best stories because at times he seemed indifferent to danger, and was facing enemy fire while the big names wore safari suits and used US bases as the backdrop for their “reporting”.
He’s back in Oz, and seems to be doing OK now. Here’s a recent video of him discussing ISIS.
SWMBO
I’m wondering if Brian Williams is getting the Dan Rather treatment. He called too much attention to Shrub’s and Darth’s Great Annihilation of the Evil Brown Terrorists (TM) and the less than perfect ending. Even if he misremembered, it still didn’t paint the Powers That Be as all knowing, all wonderful all the time. Dan Rather got hit for telling the truth about someone’s military service. Brian Williams is taking fire for not telling the truthy version that someone wanted to hear. They will get rid of him and hire (?) Chuckles Luke Russert David Gregory or some equal hack to fluff and soothe the Villagers tender feelings.
satby
@Schlemazel: I’ve read that Stewart has a hard time switching out of “a guest in my house” mode when people are on his show. I think he’s a genuinely nice person who has a desire to find common ground with other people, even though he realizes that some of his audience wants a cage match. He’s not really that guy.
Schlemazel
@satby:
That’s sort of what I pointed out. It takes a different kind of person to be that confrontational, I could do it but I’m not a lovable, funny, guy like JS so I guess they may be mutually exclusive traits.
Omnes Omnibus
Forget all that and listen to this. And the world will be a better place.
Violet
@SWMBO: They could get rid of him but he’s still got the highest rated nightly news program so NBC would kind of be shooting itself in the foot. Maybe if his ratings fall after this they mgiht rethink it. Right now I would bet they hope it blows over. Probably hoping for a missing blonde girl or some other distraction.
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: Wow you just threw out the Meters. One of the top five bands I’ve seen play live. I don’t know what else to say other than the mother fucking Meters. Oh uptown rulers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: Yes, it did. And didn’t it make the world a better place?
PsiFighter37
I’m glad to see that the top political stories of recent times are whether Brian Williams mixed up whether he got shot at in Iraq, whether Obama has solidified his Muslim anti-Christ credentials by pointing out the Crusades were pretty fucking shitty, and whether or not parents should be given choice about giving their vaccines – by all means, force people to have kids, but if they do, let them run wild and get infected with diseases from generations past.
I’m so glad that political commentary has become even more insightful than usual to the American human condition now that the GOP took over the Senate.
Good God.
PF37 +1, drinking in his hotel room alone after chowing down some Del Taco (their chicken soft tacos are divine)
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tommy: Berth is what you give someone when you walk far around them ; birth is delivery of offspring, so it’s unlikely you’ll be giving it. Perhaps you give those in war zones some leeway with their recollections.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Fuck you. You did make things better with that.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): This does as well. In a different way.
BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37: Hope you’re enjoying our fine weather here.
ETA: Though there is a rumor that we may get some much needed rain tomorrow.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: You filling in for Little Boots tonight?
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have better taste.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: If you say so.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: I have never posted a song by Lobo. QED.
PsiFighter37
@BillinGlendaleCA: To be honest, it was a bit strange – usually it’s inland LA that gets the smog / haze in my experience, but it was much hazier around Santa Monica and clearer inland. That said, it beats the daylights out of the shitty weather back in NYC, so I won’t nitpick over it. Low/mid-60s was perfect weather to go out and get a 9-mile run in along the beach.
At least it wasn’t near 80, which was the original forecast and just made me shake my head at what climate change has done to the California environment (not that a lower temperature is really any better, just more appropriate for the season).
BillinGlendaleCA
Completely OT: They have an exhibit of Lego buildings(the Capitol, the Statue of Liberty…) at the local mall. If only my dad had bought me a few more boxes of Legos…
BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37: We have a rare(at least now) inversion layer the past few days. It’s been illegal to burn wood or candles in your fireplace the past few days. I remember the days when you couldn’t see the ground from the 46th floor of the building I was working in due to the smog(late 80’s).
opiejeanne
@Tommy: I think you mean “berth”.
Tommy
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I got no issue with folks taking issue with my use of the English language. I know it is lacking. I hope the point I tried to make still stands.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: I had Lincoln Logs and an Erector Set. Legos were the new thing when I was about 7 or 8, my dad bought me 2(count em 2) big boxes. My mother was not at all pleased with my dad’s generosity.
PsiFighter37
@BillinGlendaleCA: Love Legos – played with them all the time as a kid. There’s a store a block away from where I live at the Flatiron Building that has some really cool giant displays. I want to go in, but slightly embarrassed because I’m not the target age demographic anymore. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who feel the same way…
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tommy: It’s still clear. I felt the need to be a grammar officer; somebody has to be.
opiejeanne
@efgoldman: I had a knock-off of Tinkertoys, plastic rods and round wooden hubs. . My parents thought the real ones were too expensive.
Omnes Omnibus
@opiejeanne: Come on, let’s not go overboard about spelling.
@Tommy: Still, if you have a Master’s in Communications or Journalism or whatever, people might expect a certain command of the language. I just mention the idea. I am all about the music this evening.
opiejeanne
@BillinGlendaleCA: The Sunday School nursery had a set of Legos in the early 60s, when I was about 11 or 12, and if we got stuck in that room because of a board meeting or something, the kids my age would all want to play with it. The set made a little white house with a red roof. They were not a common item and I think they probably cost quite a lot.
Omnes Omnibus
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Bootsy?
opiejeanne
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): You beat me to it.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I was trying to be helpful, not intending to sound mean.
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: I got more house than I need. I have a room in my house that folks call the Lego room. Just a room where I put together Legos. I often think there might be a time, and I am single never married (go figure), a women will come to my house for dinner. I will show her this room. She will sit down and start to put together Legos. It is at this time I drop to my knees and ask her to marry me. It is a room I don’t show most people. Worried they will think I am strange I play with a kids toy. But Legos rock!
Tommy
@Omnes Omnibus: I was always taught I’d have an editor. Also, maybe my lack of language skills is why I didn’t follow that profession. But honestly what do you know.
BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37: Being that’s it’s not in a particular store, just out in the mall, I had no problem stopping and taking a pic. I’ll pull a pic off my camera after I finish dinner.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Omnes Omnibus: Bootsy always makes things better.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Do what I do, just called it “creative spelling”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy: I can’t even……
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Don’t he?
Tommy
@BillinGlendaleCA: You can go a lot of places with me and I won’t be offended. My use of language not one of them. As I said I took another career because I felt my use of grammar and punctuation was lacking. I know this. I don’t need some yahoo on a board to tell me.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Tommy: Ah, I was kinda saying I have the same problem. I had to take a course called “Subject A” my first quarter of college. It was remedial English, I had weekly spelling tests; which my roommate gave me endless grief about.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tommy:
Quite a bit, actually. Thank you for asking.
Mike J
@Tommy: I was taught that every piece of copy that ever got handed to me was going to suck, and I was always supposed to be 60 seconds away from going on the air, so I had better be able to rewrite it right now because there was no excuse for reading bad copy.
BillinGlendaleCA
Lego US Capitol
Peale
@BillinGlendaleCA: it’s never too late.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I was taught to try to write well. I fuck it it up often, but I do try.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
It’s one of these kind of evenings here. My apologies for tablet posting fail.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Law school usually ruins good writers.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BillinGlendaleCA: I beg your pardon.
BillinGlendaleCA
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): It’s something you can overcome.
Omnes Omnibus
@BillinGlendaleCA: Not always true. It can make one distill things down to fundamentals. For good or bad…..
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Liberty spelling.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: Freedom Spelling.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Fight the orthographic power, bro!
The Ancient Randonneur
Nice to see were still your favorite turds, Cole.
srv
I think this is the cold, undead hand of Barbara Walters ripping the gangrened flesh off of all that is NBC.
How is she still alive? She was an ancient ogre when I could still do handstands.
Violet
@Morzer: Liberty letters.
Steve from Antioch
I think its about something other than Williams trying to do something nice.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
I heard “Should I stay or should I go” on a piped-in “workout mix” at the gym this afternoon, and it prompted a certain Proustian madeleine type recollection, whereby it became clear to me how a perfectly honest, sincerely music loving, music appreciating, dare I even say, tasteful person of a certain age demographic, might, in a fleeting senior moment, exacerbated by the haze of years and still further by chemical fog at the time in question, experience a quite forgivable confusion due to the inclusion of “Tainted Love” on a similar “dance mix” 30+ years ago.
Jussayinzall.
BillinGlendaleCA
@srv: What about Ms. Greenspan, to say nothing about her crypt keeper.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Then there’s the shambling, necrotic form of the Aztec cardiologist Dick Cheney….
eemom
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Spoken by one with 0 knowledge of either.
BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom: Gawd you’re old. I should note that I’m older than you, but damn.
BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom: That insight was relayed to me by someone with knowledge of both.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
She is indeed the Gagool of Balloon-Juice.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
is the link to the kind of night here, Omnes. Tablet post fail with link.
eemom
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Thus, if someone with knowledge of jumping off a bridge told you to —
Nah, never mind. Over your head.
BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom: Guess so, probably a bit too much of the “chemical fog” in your case.
tsquared2001
@eemom: Mine is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KL9mRus19o
Made a mixtape where I, using my dual tape deck, tried to turn that song into a 10 minute club mix.
Peale
Bah. When I was a kid, I collected matchbox chariots. My mom thought the horseless carriages were a fad.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Peale:
Give it time, she may yet be proven correct.
ETA: Like the guy in the cab at the end of Airplane(Howard Jarvis), “I’ll give him a few more minutes”.
Morzer
@Peale:
Did you ever get the Ramesses the Great baseball card? I never managed to find that one. I was stuck with loads of Hittites that no-one wanted to trade for.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I have the Nebuchadnezzar II baseball card.
yodecat
Oh! Tell me true. Who gives a shit about Brian Williams and his faulty recollections?
You guessed right. I don’t, and I’ll bet you don’t either. If anyone is half honest with herself you’ve got plenty of ’em as well as do I.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Good old N-rod! I never believed those rumors about him pomegranate juicing.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I’ve had that stuff, back in the day, yummy.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I remember when you could get it from this adorable little Elamite shop on the corner of Nergal and Sargon. Happy days indeed!
BillinGlendaleCA
There is this pomegranate liquor that I’ve seen in the Korean market around these parts.
Peale
@Morzer: bah. I guess you weren’t around when Ramses as God on Earth banned all other cards for a few seasons. All other players actually. I had so many Rameses II cards, I put them in the spokes of my bike.
Games were boring then, too. With Ramses the only one playing, every game was a no Hittite shut out.
tsquared2001
@yodecat: Fuck that guy. It was either him or Brokaw, on Leno, who were slagging on John Edwards’ expensive haircut and had the nerve to say the last time he visited a barber it was like 12 bucks.
Yeah. Okay, multimillionaire anchor with hairdressers and flunkies everywhere.
If he goes down for this, I for one will clap.
Morzer
@Peale:
You had a bike? With wooden.. what were those things called again? You know, those round, rolling things. Never thought they’d last, honestly. Give me a tall camel and a star to steer her by any day of the ten day week.
I do remember the *ahem* God On Earth Baseball League, which our crew of young shavers renamed the Godawful Baseball League. Good old Moses and his walkout. Although that didn’t quite go as intended, all things considered.
Death Panel Truck
@Morzer: Moses played in the Burning Bush League, as I recall.
Pappenheimer
so bad the puns…Tut Tut
mikej
@Death Panel Truck: Was his brother Aaron in AA ball?
BillinGlendaleCA
@mikej: Yup, Joshua was in AAA. He drove a tow truck.
Keith G
@kindness:
As seems to be the case with some here.
Somehow, I still seem to be surprised at the anger/vitriol that people on the internet are able to self -generate over the most pointless occasions.
Guess everyone needs a hobby.
Mike Furlan
@Corner Stone: Interesting. Nassim Taleb, one of the more rational people I’ve ever read has also gone “off the rails” over events in Syria. He is ranting about how of only we were brutal enough terrorism would go away.
Kathleen
@Tommy: LOVE the Meters and this song! It does make the world a better place.
Kathleen
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Indeed he does. Bootsy and The Meters in one thread. Great start to the day.
Kay
It isn’t his job to be nice and ingratiate himself to the military. Media being nice and ingratiating themselves to the military is (part of) what created Judy Miller along with a hefty dose of self interest in their own careers.
If he wants to honor The Troops he could do good and careful reporting which may lead to fewer invasions and fewer dead and injured troops. That’s his one and only duty.
Why is he talking about himself at all? That’s what I would ask him if I was his boss. Why is he so far out front that he is now the news?
They can’t have it both ways. If they seek “media personality” status and all the benefits that come with that then they’ll be judged on THAT work, not the work they’re supposedly doing.
MBunge
@Keith G: Somehow, I still seem to be surprised at the anger/vitriol that people on the internet are able to self -generate over the most pointless occasions.
There’s a lot of free-floating anger in general and in specific that’s just waiting to come out.
In William’s specific case…
1. He has received money and fame in life far out of proportion to his talent or contribution.
2. Williams, more than most other modern news stars, has thrown himself into the role of entertainer/performer on talk shows and the like.
Mike
Kay
I find it helpful in my work to occasionally step back and remind myself what it is I’m supposed to be doing- what is my job? Who do I work for?
What’s his job? Is it to recount his personal experiences at work to make a point or advance an idea? I don’t think so, but if that’s what he’s doing then he’s being judged on his work, which isn’t “journalism” but something else entirely. He can’t really complain about that.
Keith G
@MBunge: You are right. I regard Williams as a newsreader / entertainer. Brian Jennings (ABC) may have been the last reporter / news anchor we’ve had on network news.
Kay points to a very significant problem with modern journalists. When they insert themselves into the story, when they refer to their experiences without using a reporter’s detachment, when they refer to themselves in ways other than “I saw” or “I heard” these reporters are very apt to be running into in the awaiting ditch.
Josie
@Kay: Thank you. You have, as usual, cut through the bs and put your finger on the exact point of this whole mess. I was not really sure how to view BW’s problem, but you have given me the correct lens. I wish you would post more.
Mandalay
@Kay:
But this is precisely what their employers want, because it promotes brand loyalty. That’s why they are happy for them to appear on late night TV shows, and that’s why they stick them on a plane and get them to put on a safari suit on the other side of the world if something bad is happening.
From a reporting perspective the media personality stuff is needless and absurd, but from an advertising revenue perspective it makes a lot of sense.
Kay
@Mandalay:
I agree. That’s the deal he made. I don’t even know if they LIKE doing it, but it does benefit them along with their employers.
I have a problem with the whole frame around The Troops.I think some of their sappy, sentimental love of the troops comes about because there’s some shame around how we came to invade Iraq. You know what? It IS shameful. They (we) could just face that instead of turning it into a scene from a movie. That would “support the troops”- facing what we put them into and why we did that.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
While I do love seeing media personality get beat up, this does some rather pathetic, doesn’t it?
Kathleen
@Josie: This + infinity. Thanks, Josie and Kay.
john fremont
@PsiFighter37: This. I shake my head when Obama’s comments about the Crusades are taken as proof of his disdain for Christianity. Yet, in the year 2000, Pope John Paul II made an apology to Islamic clergy and the Eastern Orthodox about the Crusades during a papal Mass.
Obama couldn’t do enough about Ebola, yet with measles vaccinations it’s tyranny to even behoove the American public to get these done.
Sheesh. ..
Ron Thompson
Why are you such a consistent apologist for this corporate hack?