Brian Williams seems to think he is some sort of big shot… at least that’s what I heard via my interviewers last week.
A friend of mine, whom I met this past summer when placed in campus housing with him, gave me a call the other day about a documentary he is working on. The point of this documentary is to highlight the ways in which younger generations are getting their news. Working to cover everything from traditional news network’s, their websites, and down the list to blogs, they’ve interviewed all kinds of people including Brian Williams of MSNBC. I got a phone call because my friend knew that I was at least vaguely informed on current events, spent a lot of time on the internet, and yeah, one might call me a “blogger.” I basically jumped at the chance to help a friend with what I thought was a “whatever” sort of video project.
As it turns out, this is not just a student project. My friend is assisting a professor in acquiring student perspectives on the current state of the everyday college student. What do we know about current events, how do we know it, and how much does it interest us. There is also the case of blogger vs big smart news anchor, specifically, Brian Williams, since it was a theory of the project that many college students used something new called “blogs” to get their information.
As it turns out, Brian Williams wasn’t to kind in regards to bloggers while he was being interviewed. He seems to think that a well paid, educated, and experienced “journalist” like himself is a much better source of information then just some schmuck in front of their computer typing out a blog. Ouch, sounds reasonable I guess, I mean obviously Brian Williams isn’t a schmuck that sits in front of a computer, right? Not only is he super smart and important, he clearly has good genes– as made clear when Mr. Williams chose to mentioned that his daughter goes to an “unnamed” ivy league university. Furthermore, who even KNOWS what asshole is typing out a blog, right?
Listen Brian, you do look and sound impressive all the way up their on your high horse, but lets make something perfectly clear; you are an ignorant prick.
First, respected journalist my ass. Brian Williams is part of the same bullshit sensational American media that all the ridiculous cable news networks, including Fox News, are a part of. The last time I heard anyone speak about the current state of the media presenting us with any sort of respectable journalistic work it was the early 90s, CNN was king, and the war we were involved in over in Iraq was legal. Weren’t those the days?
Second, Brian here doesn’t seem to understand what he said himself. Anyone could be writing a blog, yeah, someone who knows nothing, or perhaps someone who knows a LOT– for example, an expert in a specific field. Yes this is very possible. Someone who has first hand knowledge and understanding of what they are talking about and not just some reporter who is trying to understand it, then proceeding to simplify it almost beyond recognition to be consumed by the hungry ratings monsters.
Recently, I stumbled across this clearly uninformed little blog that didn’t seem to know what it was talking about. A comparison between CNNMoney and a Blog. If you don’t care to read it you can probably guess that it is a long explanation of how the blog made more sense than CNNMoney… and was right. The big difference? The blog knew the difference between correlation and causation while CNNMoney did not.
Well that is pretty damn hilarious to me. What a completely blatant example of how the media, in this case CNN, is willing to be herded like sheep. “Oh the NAHB and S&P seemed to plummet and sky rocket in the same correlated manner a little bit once? It MUST mean one is a predictor of the other. Get this up ASAP, we’ve clearly got an exclusive on dementia!”
Just for everyones further information, Brian Williams also noted that bloggers shouldn’t be able to sit down in front of their computers and just say whatever they want. It can be misleading and they aren’t educated journalists like him. I’ll have you know I defended mine and everyone else’s right to free speech on the internet by blog and all mediums during the interview. Though, if you aren’t in the business of informing people, then you shouldn’t be informing at all according to Brian Williams.
