Brian Williams is once again stupidly throwing stones from within his glass house:

I especially enjoy the risible self-regard of a guy who refers to his tireless development of “credentials to cover my field of work” when said “field of work” primarily consists of reading words off a teleprompter.

Brian Williams really should try reading something other than Democrat Underground.

As I see it, it's just Mr. Williams trash-talking a competitor. Nothing more than that.

The thing that has annoyed me about the news recently is three fold...

The first is that the news is more or less splintering off into ideological slanted networks...there are few if any really objective "just the facts Maam" kind of reporting...it is all "opinion news".

Second is that now that it is ratings driven it is kind of the Son of Sam theory.."stop me before I kill again". The wall to wall IMus coverage at times just borders on the insane and innane.

Imus apologized...OK now the Rutgers team took a vote to see if they would accept it? WTF?

When a person apologizes it is an apology that absent some clear and convincing reason (like snark) has to be viewed as sincere..."Took a vote?" This is just ridiculous...

The third is that the people reporting the news have really no background in anything but looking good and how to report the news. Fox lead the way on this with their "take me" female anchors (OK I tune in to see what Patti Ann is suited in as well) but the situation has become absurd....

Robert

It's a good week! Robert and I have agreed on two posts.

Reading off a teleprompter competently without errors is actually pretty hard. Just ask anyone who's worked on Saturday Night Live. They screw it up consistantly, even with the benefit of multiple takes.

There is no excuse however for not being able to pronounce 'Ahmadinejad'.

I have an idea that most people foul up Ahmadinejad's name because they that give a damn how to pronounce the name of meglomaniac developing nuclear weapons and has the stated goal of destroying Israel. Really, there are better things to do with that guy than worry about offending him by improperly pronouncing his name. So yeah, I think people could come up with a good excuse.

Posted by Leland at April 14, 2007 06:53 AM

Leland...I would find it culturally offensive for me to missprounce the leader of Iran's name.

So I call him President Tom.

Robert

I'm not worried about offending him, newsreaders go right ahead.

What I find absolutely hilarious though is that a large number of individual newsreaders have each mispronounced it over the course of a few weeks in multiple incorrect ways. It's happening so frequently on a certain channel that Stephen Colbert has decided to make it a running gag.

The first is that the news is more or less splintering off into ideological slanted networks

I see the slant more between who research their stories vs those who make up for a lack of depth in their coverage with hypnotic eye drawing graphics.

Both the 'Bush News Channel' and the 'Clinton News Network' are guilty of the later.

Both the 'Bush News Channel' and the 'Clinton News Network' are guilty of the later.

Posted by Adrasteia at April 14, 2007 08:52 PM

All networks (well the cable ones anyway) are guilty of presenting "the news that their readers/viewwers want to hear/see".

Fox just does it in a more appealing package...aka the likes of Patty Anne Brown!

the difference between Fox and MoveOn is the likes of PAB...

Robert

Regardless of their motives, which I strongly doubt are political, they're completely destroying their more lucrative audiences. If they keep alienating both under 35's, and highly paid and educated (i.e West Wing viewers) markets, fairly soon the only advertising you'll be able to run on CNN/FNC will be for depends and catfood.