Brian Williams Slams NYT for Tabloid Coverage, Then Runs Miley Cyrus Story
By SilentPatriot Tuesday Apr 29, 2008 12:29pm
On the same day he trashed The New York Times on his blog for covering petty and completely meaningless tabloid stories (and nominated Peggy Noonan for a Pulitzer Prize), NBC's Brian Williams runs a 2+ minute "report" on the latest "controversy" surrounding teen superstar Miley Cyrus and the pictures Annie Leibovitz took of her for Vanity Fair magazine.
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MediaBloodhound notes that Williams spent almost twice as much time on this nonsense than he did on the landmark Supreme Court voting rights case decided yesterday.
What's more, Williams and NBC poorly handled those eighty whole seconds they allocated to the Supreme Court ruling on voter IDs. They not only failed to present one dissenting viewpoint - whether from a Supreme Court Justice, legal scholar, civil rights lawyer or voters in Indiana - but also to point out how this ruling will impact the upcoming primary in Indiana, where, as the Associated Press reported yesterday, "more than 20 percent of black voters do not have access to a valid photo ID."
Glenn wants to know, What Liberal Media?
C&L's Jamie Holly weighs in:
I think the ones who look at that picture as sexual are the ones we should be concerned about. Of course Drudge had this headline Sunday night:
UPDATE: Glenn has a "response" from Brian Williams to the Pentagon propaganda story, something Williams and the entire elite media has refused to cover.
Didn't know that cameras also took 10 years off your age.
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You can't have it both ways Brian. You and your fellow Journalists(???) are soon becoming obsolete.
Is anyone surprized?
Note who NBC teams with on its polling. Yep, WSJ. Any wonder the love fest for Peggy Noonan?
Hypocrisy is coin of the realm in the "news" media.
Or as Aaron Brown put it [paraphrasing], it's not journalism, it's television. Pretty much sums 'em all up.
Maybe they oughta deal with their own truth and integrity issues, the lot of 'em. Learned nothing from Colbert, nor Moyers, nor Brown. They are spiraling into the maelstrom of obsolescence and these are the last thrashings.
Why do you think they are called MSM Whores?
There is NO journalism left in the media. It's INFOTAINMENT - that's all.
And the media wonders why they are losing viewers to the internets.
"On the other hand, one sparkling piece of journalism (which touched on a lot of themes frequent readers of this space will recognize) was by Peggy Noonan in this weekend's Wall Street Journal. Curl up with this one and give it the quality time it deserves. I'll say it again: Peggy is doing the work of her career and must be considered an early favorite for next cycle's Pulitzer for commentary."
You go girl friend.
After I finish "curling up" with the Piggy maybe we could have hot coco and gossip about boys.
Sounds like it’s time for another Congressional Hearing. Hopefully they will not only discuss the dangers of exposing bare supple backs but also too much botox in the lips. Some of the pictures in that vid looked like her lips were about to explode. Geebus.
This is rich from the outfit who elevated the Reverand Wright story to a 24 hour sensationalization. The day would start with 3 hours of Morning Joe (Ho?) and just run on from there. I'm sure poor Chandra and Natalie would be shocked by this development. Maybe OJ is one of their consultants?
brian williams and nbc "world news" are pathetic. NYT, coming from these buffoons this is a compliment.
i can't remember the last time i paid attention to abc/cbs/nbc "world news", it is just a truncated Today show, without al roker. and, sadly, that is, for many americans (if they watch "news" at all) where their only "information" comes form.
and we wonder just how and why we have been cursed with our corporate overlords....
On the Indiana SC decision -- does anyone know if there's any kind of volunteer effort to get voters government IDs in time for the May 6 primary? Shouldn't there be one?
No access to an ID? That makes absolutely no sense. Here in Utah any person with a birth certificate can get an ID card for $25, good for 10 years, or $2.50 a year, less than a pack of menthol cigarettes. How is it possible to have no access to an ID? That just sounds like a BS argument to me, and it looks like I agree with the Supreme Court. Scary!
This is the reason I watch C-span. Iraq a disaster, losing Afghanistan, Deficits, all of that and we hear about Rev. Wright and Miley Cyrus. The rich idiots don't have a clue.
It's interesting that the MSM remain so clueless. On the one hand, they continue to offer material that's biased, sloppy, or downright misleading. On the other, they complain non-stop about the loss of their audience. What they don't get is that we aren't stupid. Apparently, they are.
HaHa, the media is gonna need alot more fluff to divert attention from the nation's catastrophic economic situation! Their advertising sponsors Chevron, Exxon, BP, Ford and GM depend on it.
Williams like the others are simply marketing personnel for the corporations that own the news agencies.
This just in from the department of the obvious:
Adolescent actress coyly titillates with forbidden sexuality and puritan media freaks out.
I was watching TV the other night (MSNBC or CNN) the other night while I was flipping between channels and this story came up...
My eldest daughter (age 8): had the best observation... If she's sorry, then why don't they accept her apology and just move on.
(I've taught my daughters that if someone has wronged or offended you and they are truely sorry, you forgive them and move on, don't bring it back up.)
Give Me Convenience @ 10:
You idiot. There's no legal requirement in this country to have an ID. So yes, they do not have an ID.
.
Tabloid Journalism at it's best... Ahhhhhhh...
.
P.D. @ 11:
BBC news (at 6PM) is available on most local PBS channels. Here in the NY/NJ area it's available on cable on 13, 21, and 23, off the air with an antenna and it's also on channel 92 (if you have FIOS TV).
C&L, you complained about NBC running a fluff piece, by running the fluff piece?
Granted there has been a hell of a lot of real news happening that they should cover. But isn't there a better way you (C&L) could gripe about hypocrisies, than by replaying it for them? It's like Fox pissing and moaning about porn web sites, by showing the porn web sites ad naseum!
What the hell is wrong with any of those photos, especially the one with her dad? Those perverts need to get real jobs or at least ones that they are suited for, like maybe spin-testing garbage disposals or something.
Jeebus, no wonder the 'Murkan publik seems collectively retarded.
God the media in thsi country is such an utter embarassment. I learn more watching Jeopardy in one night than I would if I watch the so called news.
JonAtWork @ 17:
I like the part where it sounds like GMC has implied that people without the cash for IDs might be spending their extra money on cigarettes.
Give Me Convenience @ 10:
What kind of racist crap is that? Jeesus H. Christ, you f*ckers never stop, do you?
For more insightful, hard-hitting journalism check out this interview w/ Shell Oil President John Hofmeister:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/30/shell.qa/index.html
Sure didn't take long for the fat cats to start harping on Chimp's speech yesterday...
And John Roberts - now THERE'S a fine lookin' man!
BobD @ 20:
Yeah, we can't talk about things for fear of being accused of talking about them. :roll:
nbc does a tabloid story and misses the real tabloid story
the pics in vanity fair are tame....fully clothed in a shot with daddy is meant to shock? please
the real story is that miley has a myspace page, and the pics from that site are all over the internet
and those kids that parents wish to protect have now seen miley, looking stoned out of her mind, in different stages of undress
and what of the paparazzi pics of miley and teen friends out on a night on the town in short, tight dresses, leaving little to the imagination
the real story is that miley got popular thanks to the hype machine that is disney and a bs cover story of how much of a pure, innocent, christian she is
the msm needs to give up on doing tabloid...the internets have them beat
oh, and thx to the supremes, the corporatists will have complete rule over this country
drtoxic @ 24:
A citizen ought to be able to vote without having to apply to the government for a license to do so.
Roket @ 6:
Oh god ...*choke*... You typed "bare supple backs" and then I read it! Now I am flushed and embarrassed and I can't stand up at my desk for at least another 10 minutes. Somebody get me an ice pack!
Prepare to be sued!
Love,
What-the-MSM-Assumes-Must-Be-The Average-Viewer's-Mentality Man
/snark directed at MSM
BobD @ 20:
Au contraire - C&L is connecting the dots in order to prove a point. And its hard to prove a point if you don't display the examples. Look beyond your concern troll goggles.
JonAtWork @ 17:
The concept of poll taxes gets lost on some people(R).
drtoxic @ 24:
What's wrong with that, every black guy in Utah smokes menthol cigarettes. I just talked to him yesterday.
I don't even know who the hell Hannah Montana is, but from the clip above, why would any mother want her daughter to watch, let alone see that kind of behavior as a role model?
drtoxic @ 24:
Glad someone else caught that, too. Unreal, ain't it?
via @ 33:
Please don't try to apply reason to the process of raising an adolescent daughter in these United States.
Old Billy Hussein @ 32:
Haha. Now that's funny. Sad, but funny.
I was watching the Utah Jazz on teevee the other night (not for long, just in passing) and couldn't help but notice what appeared to be the bulk of the ethnicity of the crowd. Yyyyyep. Of course, this isn't exclusive to Utah's NBA fan-base, but anyway.
Bonkers Hussein @ 23:
Menthol cigarettes.
what a putz. just another media whore sell out. "gotta be number one." and the country goes to hell, but you're number one.
Old Billy Hussein @ 35:
Just be happy you don't know who the hell Hannah Montana is. I'll give you a hint, her real name is Mylie Cyrus, daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus - he of the heart that is both achey and breaky.
Oh come on now. Of course the photo is intended to be erotic. You can disagree about whether that's appropriate or not, given her age, but that's also why BW and the rest of the corporate media spend so much time on the story -- so they can be mildly titillating.
My take on the photo itself is that the controversy is just one more manifestation of the puritanism that's so deeply embedded in American culture. Obviously 15 year olds are post-pubescent and they are sexual beings. It's wrong to exploit children but it's also wrong to pretend that adolescents are asexual. That's where we get abstinence only sex education. Leibovitz tried to calculate exactly how much suggestiveness she could get away with photographing a girl that age and some people think the photo is appropriate and others don't. Hence controversy, which is what Cyrus's parents and handlers also wanted because it means publicitity. She'll be 18 pretty soon and then it will be time to start marketing her sexuality explicitly. Anybody who doesn't know what's going on here is an idiot, as far as I'm concerned.
And I'm sure I'll get all kinds of nonsense from people who don't understand what I'm saying.
Old Billy Hussein @ 39:
Ugh. Not sure what to think of that shot of her and her father, to be quite honest. Gave me more than a little bit of a creepy feeling.
cervantes @ 40:
How dare you! Now I have to pluck out my eyes!!
/snark
Bonkers Hussein @ 36:
I love it when sports teams move but don't change their previous region-specific name. "Utah Jazz" is the best, but L.A. Lakers is pretty good too. I always wished the Oilers had kept their name when they moved to Nashville. But my fondest hope is for the Heat to move to Minneapolis.
JonAtWork @ 17:
Thank you JonAtWork. This guy is an idiot.
FunMe @ 4:
...and to Comedy Central. At least Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are up front about being entertainment first.
Good Christ. They don't have a hope of a clue now, do they.
cervantes @ 40:
I think you make plenty of good points. Readjusting my opinion a bit after reading what you have to say still brings me to at least being aghast and amused at how titillated, as you aptly put it, the media gets by this kind of crap.
Maybe Myley's publicist should get a raise.
via @ 41:
You rest my case.
OFF TOPIC DESERVES its very own thread
Kos Diary about robo calls in NC -- Women's Voices Women's Votes, group tied to Clinton machine, doing robo calls with deceptive registration information. Worth a follow up....
Hope I haven't offended w/off topicness!
Give Me Convenience @ 10:
So, just to drop some information here, a lot of older folks who were not born in hospitals (or who were born black in some regions of this country) were not issued birth certificates. And Utah has an apparently lax policy compared to many other states.
Rusty Shackleford @ 43:
L.A. Smog?
Good natured hairdo fails to report 'both sides' of an issue when it suits his corporate masters.
Brian; you're a bitch. Hang it up.
Now THIS is an indecent picture of Miley Cyrus. Look at those enormous bare boobs!
via @ 33:
because of the pics, or the vapid nature of the show and music?
It's certainly odd that stories about corruption in politics. Lying in politics are reported and disappear. But some stupid story about sex, or in this case a sort of racy picture gets 24/7 attention for days and days and days.
I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus.
Could you describe the ruckus, sir?
Old Billy Hussein @ 50:
True. A few years ago I helped an elderly black woman in Memphis get a photo ID so that she could visit her son in prison. She had to get a copy of her birth certificate, which was hard (she was born in a small county in Mississippi) and then she had to get a certified copy of her marriage license from yet ANOTHER small county in Mississippi to prove that her married name was what it was. Quite a few hoops to jump through.
Brian takes himself waaaaaay too seriously.
He could be more pompous than Charlie Gibson. Charlie will at least laugh on occasion.
Austin @ 51:
Heat in Minneapolis. Har! How about the Marlins getting moved to Kansas City?
How about the LA Implants?
I've been thinking that Utah would have been good as the Raptors, as opposed to Toronto who took the name because of the popularity of the dinosaur movies. I mean, aren't there a lot of digs out there? Do they find raptors? Fine, then they could pick another dinosaur name. Anyway, Utah "Jazz" really doesn't work.
My fondest wish, as it relates to sports, is that the Cleveland Indians retire Chief Wahoo altogether. Now that is offensive.
Hoookay! Wayyy off topic....
Since when did a 15 year old corporate puppet become news ? Oh, I forgot... people are actually *attached* to their reality television. Save your words for prose or poetry expanding on the profundity of Scalia's insight into torture not being punishment... Are journalists listening to anything that normal people are saying ? How about the Rev. Wright's speech at the national press club ? It was brilliant ! If your people were slaves, being lynched, and still being discriminated against, wouldn't you want to stand up to this injustice ? I don't see anyone revisiting the horrors that summary judgements leading to lynchings and the lingering shame that as a country, we should still be atoning for. But then again, my mindless banter is not going to sell disposable DVD players that are going to be used by polar bears working on the national alaskan wildlife reserve oil pipeline, because we all know how great things are going in Iraq/Afghanistan - come to think of it, please, sign the petition below for George to be made King for life, and even like that Ashcroft in Missouri that lost to a dead guy, we should innovate and get a dead King George to lead us to glory... but I digress.
I.......
Want.... George W. Bush....
For Permanent (vacation?) king !!!!!
signed...... Ghandi of the media (peace be it to those that buy nothing)
But how can the kids know what they are talking about---partial nudity etc, unless they keep showing it again, and again? Is this what they call pious pornography?
lj @ 61:
LOL
You get a cookie. Very good point.
Give Me Convenience @ 10:
How stupid do you have to be to post something contrary to your own name? Wow.
Maybe the picture wasn't exactly "sexual" but it was innapropriate as all get out. Smeared lipstick? Just get out of bed hair? WTF???? The girl is 15 years old and Vanity Fair should have known better. Hell, Annie Liebowitz should have known better.
Still, original point taken. No argument there.
IF they want to protect Cyrus, arrest Billy Ray.
This is actually about protecting Disney's valuable property - Mickey Cyrus.
shaker o salt @ 64:
This is about her papa - Billy Ray. She is a kid and shouldnt be a billion dollar monkey. This is her daddy's influence. (And our sick commercialized society)
Old Billy Hussein @ 50:
Nay nay, Utah is quite strict in their requirment that the parents listed on the birth certificate must be second cousins or closer.
Give Me Convenience @ 10:
As a fellow Utahn, you embarrass the shit out of me. God I am so sick of you self-righteous a-holes without a clue.
Does Brian Williams make the decisions about what stories will or will not be aired?
The news media is just selling soap - topless 15 year olds are more interesitng than 9 old men taking away voting rights. Bill OReilly would be proud.
bitter kep306 @ 70:
My bad - 8 old men and a woman.
Albatross @ 28:
Drudge, posting from his closet, says the girl is 5 years old.
He's really more interested in 5 year old boys.
The real problem with photo I.D.'s (in addition to poor blacks and others who do not drive, etc.)...is the impact on those who are elderly or infirmed. My mother is 87, has never driven and has voted in every election since eligible and I have no idea what she would have to go through to get such an I.D. nor do I understand why she even has to in the first place.
This is nothing more than a means of stifling or suppressing those who generally vote Democratic and anybody who doesn't think so is dreaming.
Oh, and think of all those who have voted via absentee ballots for years on end and who may forgo their constitutional right to vote because of the hassle involved in proving who they are.
With this new "scandal", the US are, one more time, the joke in Europe.
Workpost @ 69:
Yes, he's Managing Editor.
P.D. @ 1:
Correction: YELLOW
flamethrower @ 7:
I prefer to call it "Morning Jo(k)e"
anon @ 66:
I agree with both of you. I keep hearing that this picture is not inappropriate because it was Annie Liebowitz that took it. WHAT? If it had been a guy named Vinnie taking pictures of the local 15 year old cheerleader he probably would be arrested. You're right Liebowitz should have known better.
Technically it is a pretty picture. But still I see exploitation of a 15 year old.
Bonkers Hussein @ 59:
I totally agree with retiring Chief Wahoo and the name of the Washington Redskins.
By the way, the link to Williams's blog should be marked "not safe for sanity." Williams says that Peggy Noonan should get a pulitzer for some random column in which she is writing another thinly veiled argument for racial profiling.
I want to slap Peggy Noonan. She reminds me of all the characters in Steel Magnolias whom I hated.
Wonder if the Iraqies had to present ID to vote in their elections.
This Brian Williams guy doesn't even look trustworthy. He always looks like he's speaking out of one side of his mouth. The "world news" is a joke.
On the other hand, the BBC is very good at journalism and not sensationalism.