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NBC News and Populist Politics: Who Needs Glaciers or the Rule of Law?
Lost in all of the hullabaloo over Jay Leno's final hours on the Tonight Show was a rather telling interview on May 22 with NBC Nightly News anchor and "journalist" Brian Williams (I put the word in quotation marks because that's what Williams calls himself). NBC Nightly News, as NBC employee Leno pointed out, is the highest-rated network television news program in the United States, and has been so for almost a decade with average weekly audiences in the region of 8 million viewers.
What made the interview interesting was not the blatant cross-promotion on the part of NBC, nor was it Williams' name-dropping of sponsors (such as Lipitor and Celebrex) during his wry set-piece on turning 50. These tactics have become so commonplace that they barely garner attention. What made the interview interesting is what it told us about Williams' attitude regarding three of the most important contemporary issues facing citizens in the United States (and globally): over-consumption, global warming and detainees at Guantanamo.
For a "journalist" working for General Electric, Williams does quite well, pulling in an estimated $10 million per year. It would take an experienced reporter at the New York Times, at an average of $90,000 per year, 111 years to make Williams' annual salary. Let's hope that NYT reporter is taking Lipitor and Celebrex. One would think that Williams' staggering income, combined with the fact that he is the anchor and managing editor of the most-watched network news program in the United States, might lead him to choose his words carefully on issues of national and global importance.
Thankfully for critics of the hyper-commercial US media system, however, Williams decided (in front of 6 million viewers) that journalistic "objectivity" wasn't really necessary when it came to discussing trifling issues such as oil consumption and habeas corpus. On the former, Williams played the populist card beautifully by suggesting that President Obama's efforts on mileage standards ignored the fact that, once you leave the big city (you know, places like New York, Washington and San Francisco where out-of-touch Marxists smoke weed and burn pictures of Lincoln while riding on "socialized" public transportation), the rest of America is generally a "Ford F150" country. Exactly how many people in the US actually need a truck the size of a Ford F150, on the other hand, Williams failed to joke about. Williams also noted that he was more interested in the noise made by the engine of his Mustang than fuel efficiency, and proudly announced that he actually did not want to know the gas mileage he is getting. Not surprising, I guess, given the fact that he makes $1140 an hour.
Williams then moved on to another hilarious topic: Guantanamo. When asked about the "debate" between Cheney and Obama over the closure of the prison, the nation's top journalist joked that the people in Guantanamo obviously could not be sent to the Bel Air hotel in Los Angeles. Once again, exactly who had suggested that the detainees should be coddled was not a topic for discussion. Williams made no mention, of course, of the time-honored US belief that individuals are innocent until proven guilty, regardless of how evil or criminal their cell-mates might happen to be. But populist analysis was, once again, the order of the day. With his Bel Air gag, Williams played into the notion that all detainees at Guantanamo, by simple virtue of the fact that they are there, must be guilty of something.
What all of this boils down to is story-telling power, and Williams has that power in droves. It might be acceptable for members of the general public to make the kinds of comments made by Brian Williams on oil or Guantanamo, but when the $10 million face of NBC news sits in front of an audience of millions and jokes about caring more about how his engine sounds than fuel efficiency while vast chunks of the polar ice-caps break off, or offers a throw-away line on an issue fundamental to US law, he insults not only the profession of journalism, but also the people he claims to be working for (...the public, not GE). Williams would do well to consider the fact that the same millions who watch him nightly, and who watched him on Leno, were, research shows, amazingly ill-informed by his network and others in the run-up to the war in Iraq.
Through his weak and irresponsible populist banter, Williams has once again illustrated both the depths to which journalism in the US has sunk and the reasons why corporate and governmental propaganda retains such a firm foothold in public discourse.
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12 Comments so far
Show AllBrian Williams should go on a nation-wide stand-up tour with that other populist, millionaire blue-collar comedian: George W. Bush. Dick Cheney would make a great straight man for their gigs.
Charlatans like Williams are the reason I coined the term "infotainwhore" a few years back to describe the entire class of celebrity corporate media puppets and flacks.
Several movies have been made over the years dramatizing the truth that corporate media news anchors are typically dopey, conformist, dull teleprompter-readers with great hair and teeth. And colons.
It's not a secret.
Yet there they remain.
H.L. Mencken's assertion that “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public” is in no danger of being superseded.
· Yr Obd't Servant
For several decades now, other than a select few exceptions, if you want to be informed, you don't watch TV news, because it's an absolute waste of time. Christensen shows very well why it's the Propaganda System, not journalism.
If US citizens were genuinely informed, people like Williams wouldn't be able to exist.
Williams? Good Lord, who could stand to look at his droopy, hound-dog face, much less hear his bogus drivel? Eight million? The Sponge Bob crowd has more sense.
Brian Williams committed a WAR CRIME by having Pentagon-prepped Generals on his show who pimped for the Iraq war while they were being paid by Defense Contractors.
Brian Williams knew their conflict of interest but did not disclose it to his audience.
Glenn Greenwald at Salon expertly covered the story the rest of the media censored:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/04/30/williams/
P.S. Google Julius Streicher. He was a "Journalist" like Williams, who was HUNG at Nuremburg for the War Crime of inciting a war.
Solid article.
I've been off network TV news now since May 2005, save for a few video-only clips of Hurricane Katrina in 2006. I'm more informed now, less confused and have a greater understanding of the world and the US's (dismal) position in it, and do not subject myself to the network propaganda trash that they sell as news. I feel sorry for the saps who've listened to dog-face Williams even once since then.
One major problem is that even if you and I do not want watch this false, shallow, and distracting corporate crapola presented as news, it seems as though eight million others are still watching it. They call this distracting disinformation barrage "journalism" and then they complain about the educational system. I have not seen the clips that the writer refers to, but what he reports does not give one hope about having an informed populace.
A word to the Swedish ex-pat: this isn't populism, and as a left-populist, I resent your douchebaggery. What you're describing is the use of "folksiness" as an anecdotal and rhetorical device. Populism is a political philosophy, not that you'd know.
Yes, Williams is a corporate whore. For 10 mill, you'd be, too.
Although even for a mere, what, 40k Kroner, you appear to be more than happy to smear populism with a no less ignorant brush.
At least Williams holds out for the money.
In addition to the many excellent comments, thank you so much for this article Mr Christensen. I am SO tired of watching people fawn over Brian Williams, knowing how many people only watch tv news. I'm not sure when exactly it was that I completely lost patience with him, but I remember watching the same tv program you did, and what I said then was mostly full of profanities.
Tonight he made a fine showing of the White House in an NBC Special, and I feel like the public is as asleep as ever, with his help, again.
Maybe you could write another article about that "Special"?
Christian Christensen's article has merit. It's important to now and then point out that the most popular news media are, after all, presented for entertainment, not enlightenment. But we shouldn't forget that real intellectual power and innovation arises not in the glare of popular culture, but in the dingy dark areas where talented people are rooting out the truth. They're doing it virtually for free compared to the likes of Williams, because their primary goal is to know and disseminate the truth, not get rich and famous.
I follow the MSM simply because so many of the people I love and depend upon have trouble understanding even news reduced to pablum, and could care less about what's really going on. Williams and other news entertainers tell me what these folks are thinking. When I want deeper insight (that is, every day), I check out the comments in places like CD -- even some of the articles. And I celebrate whenever someone rich and famous like Frank Rich hits upon an idea moguls like Williams can barely understand even when it's put in front of their noses.
In other words, count your blessings. There are thousands of really gifted people out there. You just have to look for them. And don't hold it against them if they try to get the MSM to publish their insights.
Thank you for this excellent article. I think that the standards that journalists once had for themselves have evaporated. We need more articles like this, and the reading/listening public to demand more from these ‘journalists’ and ‘reporters’.
Some of the most ‘in-depth’ interviews I hear are on Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, because they ask interesting questions and challenge ideas. Not always, but in my view, more and better than most.
Again, thanks for the article and the great links.