NBC Goes with The Journalist

BY TAYLOR MARSH

Tom
Brokaw with be moderating “Meet the Press” through the general
election, with Brian Williams hosting on occasion.

When on MSNBC, Brokaw was critical during the primary season, suggesting that
the talking heads at MSNBarack get out of the way of the coverage. He was particular
harsh on Keith he is no Edward R. Murrow Olbermann. One of Brokaw’s
best primary slap arounds:

“It was inappropriate, for journalists especially, to try to cut the process short,” NBC News’ anchor emeritus, Tom Brokaw, told The Associated Press. “It was an appropriate issue for people to report on, in context, but there was an awful lot of commentary disguised as reporting that gave the impression that people were trying to shove her out of the race.” Brokaw’s old-school attitude often put him at odds with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann when he joined them for primary night coverage on MSNBC this year. One example was last Tuesday. Brokaw was talking about the contrasts between McCain and Obama when Olbermann interjected about “a third one trying toshoehornn her way” into the coverage. “Well, I think that’s unfair, Keith,” Brokaw replied. “I don’t think she shoehornedd her way in. When you look at the states that she won and the popular vote that she piled up, and the number of delegates that she has on her side, she’s got real bargaining power in all of this.” Brokaw called all the discussion about Clinton’s exit a product of “too much time and too little imagination.”…

When it came to Olbermann during the primaries, “too little imagination”
is the kindest thing you can say.

Brokaw
also went after Matthews, but also his colleagues across the board.

BROKAW: No, no we don’t stay home. There are reasons to analyze what they’re saying. We know from how the people voted today, what moved them to vote. You can take a look at that. There are a lot of issues that have not been fully explored during all this. But we don’t have to get in the business of making judgments before the polls have closed. And trying to stampede in effect the process. Look, I’m not just picking on us, it’s part of the culture in which we live these days. I think that the people out there are going to begin to make judgments about us if we don’t begin to temper that temptation to constantly try to get ahead of what the voters are deciding, in many cases, as we learned in New Hampshire when they went into the polling booth today or in the last three days. They were making decisions very late.

On Iraq, Brokaw called out what few others would. Yes, it was with Imus, but
Tom Brokaw still managed to cut through it.

BROKAW: No, it’s — you know, as we portray ourselves around the world as the champions of democracy and the rule of law — first of all, that began to unravel in the eyes of a lot of people in that part of world with Abu Ghraib and the great cruelties and indignities that were imposed on people there. The debate goes on here about Guantanamo and about access to people’s private records. And then to say that we are going to install in Iraq a judicial system and a democratic form of government and have something that resembled the worst kind of nightmare out of the old American West. Not much dignity. He was, he was a god awful man and he did have a trial, but not have control of the execution, and to have it really just fuel more sectarian violence at a time when we are trying to dampen that is not helpful, which is an understatement. IMUS: Well, I guess the New York Times reported and I was also talking to Richard about that the United States apparently unsuccessfully prevailed about Maliki to delay this. BROKAW: Yep. IMUS: I wonder, I wonder why he refused? I mean… BROKAW: I honestly don’t know either. But Saddam Hussein who had disappeared, in effect, as some kind of a symbol over there, suddenly becomes a martyr. He was a terrible tyrant who was responsible for an untold number of deaths, you know, waged his own jihad against the Shiite in that country, especially in the south following Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, and now he’s able to stand up there with the hood off and invoke prayer and even invoke the Palestinians, and go out in the eyes of his people at least as a martyr. via Think Progress

So the announcement today from Williams was good news. That said, I won’t be
expecting more women to show up on “Meet the Press,” especially Democrats,
just yet. That would be asking for a miracle.

However, the appointment for the general election is a tremendous move on NBC’s
part. As you can tell from Brokaw’s comments above, he obviously has been watching
and is concerned about the NBC brand. Reviews on Brokaw regarding “Meet
the Press” will have to wait until we see him in this format, but maybe
this move signals a taking of the reigns by the professionals, which have taken
a beating with the disastrous cheerleading for Barack Obama on MSNBC. Now that
Obama is the Democratic nominee, mind you, I don’t mind the bias as much. But
it’s good to remember that bias swings back to bite.

If it’s a summer Sunday afternoon, it’s an open thread.