So, who's the new wingnut taking over for Tom Brokaw?

[Sandpiper]

I rarely watch television news, but I keep hearing that Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw's replacement, is a wingnut and carries Rush Limbaugh's seal of approval for "fair and balanced" reporting.

I'm sure GE news has been tripping over themselves to find a guy who toes the party line, and I'm sure CBS will do the same once Rather is gone.

But anyway, who's Brian Williams and what's his story?

[callous taoboy]

1. You mean "Tokin" Tom?

Tom used to smoke a lot of pot, apparently. I heard an mp3 clip of an interview with him where he talks about kicking back in the 70's when he was new to T.V. journalism, he and some friends kicking back and smoking the good ganja of the day.

[MemphisTiger]

2. I have seen Brian Williams and he doesn't seem to

favor one side or the other. However, I never really saw Brokaw side one way or the other. Maybe I just never noticed. Either way, Brian Williams is not Fox News.

[Zero Gravitas]

10. He's a Republican

saw him interview some GOP pol on CNBC during an election and said something along the lines of "how many seats do we need"

[Yupster]

41. Any source for him being a Republican?

I always heard he was a Democrat.

[realFedUp]

3. He cleans his kitchen floor after coming home from work

read that I think in a Vanity Fair piece a few years ago.

Just another suit reading off a teleprompter.

[Butterflies]

4. On "The Daily Show" the other night

he was funny, and he kept up with Jon Stewart. They were funny together. I don't know his political leanings, but he didn't seem to be anything like other right-wingers I've seen Jon interview.

[noshenanigans]

8. TDS

I wasn't ever familiar with Brian really before he was on the Daily Show, but he came off as very quick and witty.

I hope he'll do the job Brokaw hasn't for the last 10+ years.

Hey, maybe that's exactly why he *did* do the daily show- to show himself off to the "stoner slacker/ but actually really informed and educated" demo.

[jayctravis]

17. That does give me hope...

He seems to have a good rapport with Stewart and they genuinely seem to like each other. Williams played the stereotypical "Anchorman" character for Jon who remarked something to the effect of "why do I feel like you could do my job better than I can!"

I'd pick a Republican with an actual sense of humor over the Hannity/Ingraham snark that they surely feel amuses their listeners.

[Sputnik]

11. Williams also

took up for Jon Stewart after the Crossfire episode. I wish I could find the link for that.

And, yeah, he's very funny in interviews. I've seen him on Leno and other shows over the years and he's very witty. One of the stories I always remember him telling was about the 1996 Republican Convention. During Bob Dole's speech, Williams said he turned to a young female intern and said about Dole, "He's actually doing well." The intern then replied to Williams, "Yeah, I guess. But no matter what he says or how he says it all I can hear is 'Hey, you kids! Get off my lawn!'"

[PROGRESSIVE1]

5. There is no evidence of him being a Right Wing Nut.

[cali]

6. Why do people jump to these kind of conclusions

based on rank rumor?

Brian Williams is a Democrat. He interned in the Carter WH.

[grasswire]

15. I'd like to see some substantiation...

...for your assertion that Williams interned in a Democratic WH.

[WI_DEM]

18. Go on the internet

and just write, "Brian Williams, White House Intern during the Carter Administration." and lots of verification will come up.

[rinsd]

22. Here's a link

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

"
Prior to his broadcasting career, Williams worked in the White House during the Carter administration, beginning as a White House intern"

Now where is your substatiation that he's a wingnut who listens to Rush?

I heard just is not going to cut it.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

31. I'll Confirm It...

It was in a Vanity Fair profile...

[Snivi Yllom]

7. He's Tan

Just Tan. Always Tan.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. What makes you think that he is a wingnut?

:shrug:

[robbedvoter]

13. Is approved to recite propaganda by GE?

[UTUSN]

12. I Call Him "The Wedding Cake Guy"

because, when he was on MSRNC, in the pre-Aaron BROWN slot, he looks like that-----a plastic figure of generic shape and looks, apparelled like a mannekin. My impression, hard to document, was that he skewed wingnut, insofar as referring to Shrub and the mal-administration as telling the truth. Lost track of him when he went to CNBC, and I never watch the networks. But lately, Don ANUS, doing his current schtick of idolizing BROCAW, has made references to The Wedding Cake Guy as being Red State, that he is an authentic Nascar fan from way back, before it was fashionable to talk about Nascar fans, that the Cake Guy pals around with star Nascar drivers. Now, this in itself doesn't prove anything, since we probably have some Nascar fans here and in the Dem party at large. But back then, in the days when MSRNC was running Savage WIENER, cancelling DONAHUE, running Tweety at his most traitorous (to Dems) self-------their pick as anchor was this Wedding Cake Dude, so...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. lmao.......you are so right!

[grasswire]

14. on election night 2000...

...I heard Brian Williams say "we Republicans" when the vote was going against Bush.

From that day on, I knew his leaning.

And then I heard him say that he listens to Rush Limbaugh every day on the ride to work. They are pals.

But really, you don't need this kind of admission to know his bent. He gives it away all the time with inflection and intimation. He's a Pub. And a stooge.

[UTUSN]

16. Here's a Cautionary Link

He claims to be a "regular guy" (in Wedding Cake Guy apparel). He claims that Red State "morality" and hobbies are what made Shrub "win". He sees the CLINTON *********FAKE*****impeachment in terms of its seaminess, not about the lynching and attempted coup that it was. Oh, and he was a volunteer firefighter...

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2004/12/01/the_next_generation/

.... In fact, Williams's face adorns the official website of Elmira, N.Y., an unpretentious city of about 31,000 that sits on the Pennsylvania-New York border. And he was a volunteer firefighter in Middletown, N.J.. That regular-guy biography is part of a larger story that Williams is eager to tell. Rather than being some symbol of the elite Eastern media, he portrays himself as someone who understands -- and is eager to explore -- basic heartland values, something much of the establishment press is accused of overlooking or dismissing.

He is proud, for example, of his reporting on Cabela's -- a chain of popular hunting, fishing, and outdoor outfitting stores -- in which he identified Cabela's shoppers as ''the linchpin to a Bush victory." He has publicly voiced his concern that the major media focus too extensively on the two coasts and has expressed a desire to travel more to the great American middle. ''You can do this one of two ways," he says. ''You can guess at what the red state sensibilities are or you can go there."

As for his own values, Williams makes it clear that as a father of two teens, he is affected, sometimes adversely, by the raging culture wars. ''The Super Bowl halftime show did not go over well in my house," he says. ''The Super Bowl commercials did not go over well in my house." He also voices some dismay with the seamier public elements of the Clinton impeachment episode, explaining that ''our kids learned terms and stories from the media that we were not yet prepared to share with them."

Williams's ability to project, respect, and dissect the moral values and social concerns that were apparently a significant undercurrent in the presidential election may determine his ultimate success in the NBC anchor chair. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[cali]

20. For Pete's sake.

Brian Williams is a longtime dem. Google it. There are numerous articles to back up this claim, from a letter he wrote as a kid to LBJ, to his lauding of Carter. In addition, I have it on the authority of my mom, a militant activist dem, age 80, who lives in the same town as Williams, and has met him on more than one occasion. She's spoken with him about Carter, My mom was an early supporter of Carter and a Carter delegate.

[UTUSN]

25. My Impressions of Him Came Only from Watching Him on MSRNC

not from actual knowledge of his background. Perhaps he was over-compensating for his Dem politics by skewing wingnut in his presentation. I did do some Googling just now (see next post).

[UTUSN]

23. Well, If He Was an Intern in the CARTER Admin

perhaps his desire for down-homeness is CARTERite, not Shrubbite. Otoh, remember that it was a CARTER dude who started the Carlyle Group. And The Wedding Cake Guy scored a place on a hate list of the MRC, although not a top place.

*******QUOTE*******

http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/cyberalert/2000/cyb20001228.asp

Damn Those Conservatives Award, second runner-up

"Howard, who are the Republicans who are not happy with the way this event looked tonight and similar groupings of these six, meaning, and it’s red meat for conservatives, the positions rather strident tonight: anti-gay, pro-Jesus, and anti-abortion and no gray matter in between?"
-- Brian Williams, after a debate amongst Republican presidential candidates, to Newsweek’s Howard Fineman, Jan. 6 MSNBC’s The News with Brian Williams. <32> ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[UTUSN]

28. Otoh, Bartcop Sez The Wedding Cake Guy Mentions LIMBOsevic a Lot

And being a CARTER intern BACK THEN doesn't equate with being a Dem NOW:

1) Tweety was a CARTERite.
2) The Carlyle Group guy was a CARTERite.
3) And here's Bartcop's take:

*******QUOTE*******

http://www.bartcop.com/

Tearful Brokaw Says Goodbye, Chokes Up for 'Today' audience
Brokaw to retire and write books about the greatness of Bush the Flyboy

Wednesday was Tom Brokaw's last day.
Thursday, he'll be replaced by Rush Limbaugh's hero, Brian Williams.

I hate it that NBC has turned their news division over to a ditto-monkey who craves the approval
of the vulgar Pigboy. Williams mentions Rush often because he knows the bigger-than-the-Queen-Mary
ego of the vulgar Pigboy forces him to play the Williams clip on his lil Nazi hate show the next day so he
can remind his 4 million sheep that he's an important man in William's eyes.

Brian Williams?
Tim Russert?

Why not just give NBC News to Rush and Sludge?

********UNQUOTE*******

[rinsd]

21. Interesting.....

You heard things but it would be nice to have a link.

But when I used google I found this bit of National Review slamming him

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-baker053102.asp

This from frontpage mag mentions his Carter affiliation

http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=13191

Here's a bit on him working in the Carter White House

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

"
Prior to his broadcasting career, Williams worked in the White House during the Carter administration, beginning as a White House intern"

Ths only thing I found dealing with Rush is from EJ Dionne who says this:

"Today, our friend Rush Limbaugh told his radio listeners he almost stayed home from work not due to any health reasons, but because he was so livid at the speech given yesterday by former Vice President Al Gore criticizing the Bush administration,”

Now this is without context so I can't tell if he was being sarcastic.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh093002.shtml

Other than being critiqued form not being hard enough on our poltiical enemies, I just don't anything out there.

So the right wing loathes this guy. I just don't see where people can claim he's a wingnut. What is this based on?

[grasswire]

26. I don't believe he's a wingnut

I believe he's a tool of the corporations that own the press and lean Republican. A la Tim Russert, Jack Welch, Wolf Blitzer, etc. etc. etc.

[rinsd]

27. Corporation tool is one thing....

...you implied much more than that.

[grasswire]

29. did not

I said that I heard him identify himself as a Republican, read that he listens to Limbaugh every day, and called him a Pub and a stooge.

And gee, I have no idea why ANY Democrat or progressive would be defending any member of the complicit press so vociferously.

[rinsd]

30. How is this vociferous.....

You made a post about something you heard.

I was not aware of it and while surfing google, I found out rwers hate his guts. And posted such. Someone else found something on Bartcop. I thought part of what makes DU a better information source is people actually research and present evidence.

"And gee, I have no idea why ANY Democrat or progressive would be defending any member of the complicit press so vociferously"

For someone who made their bones on DU posting mostly Free Republic threads, I would watch for that glass house while throwing any stones.

[grasswire]

37. what the hell is your problem?

Back off from the bottle, pal. You're not making much sense.

[rinsd]

38. Don't touch the hard stuff...

I gave it up years ago.

I really don't have a problem. You were the one making the insinuations.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

39. So what? Pat Caddell was in the Carter admin too and HE's a wingnut

and Zell Miller gave the 92 keynote address for the Dem convention and HE's a wingnut. Nothing about Williams past indicates who he is now.

[rinsd]

40. Not arguing that he's a progressive or liberal....

Simply replying to the argument that he's a wingnut sans evidence. I just couldn't find any and when the corner, MRC and FR hate his guts, well let's just say he's seems to be pissing off all the right people (no pun intended)

[AlinPA]

34. Plus he is a loudmouth, and seems to shout the "news".

[Fla Dem]

36. I like him other than that.

Thought it was only me that felt like he was shouting. What's with that?

[Cuban_Liberal]

24. There's no proof that he's a wingnut.

'Wingnut' and 'Republican' are not neccessarily one and the same thing.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

32. He's Not Neither...

Sometimes the ideological rigidity on this board is amazing...


Like we are going to get Michael Moore to read the news....



And one DUer infers from the fact that Brian Williams had a problem with the Janet Jackson stunt that he's a Pug...


If Brian Williams is a Pug I'll eat my hat...

[Cuban_Liberal]

33. No shit.

It's amazing, sometimes.

:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

35. Regardless of "party-leanings" they are all corporate toadys

The one who pays the piper, calls the tunes.

We will never again see the freewheeling investigative style of newsgathering that used to exist.. The mergers and consolidation into the hands of basically FIVE RICH MEN have assured us all that we will get homogenized news... sanitized for their our protection.

The truth is .. there is SO much that is wrong in the world, that NO 1/2 hr newscast could do it justice..

I have not watched the nightly news ABC/CBS/NBS in over 20 years.. They just don't report news.. they read from a prompter, and "go to commercial"..

It's all just "fill" between commercials..