I applaud the initiative and look forward to the September broadcast, it should be must see tv for everyone.  How true it is that nearly every family is touched by cancer, mine is most definitely.  

Wouldn't it be great if one day in the not too distant future cancer would be the last thing to be considered as a diagnosis because it has been blown away with cures and preventative measures?  I for one can't wait for that day.

Dear Brian,

I tried to catch all three appearances.  I saw a little of The Early Show and GMA, but missed Today, because I was getting ready for work.  I will check out the website.  

Are you going to talk about Scott McClellan's book on the broadcast?  I have no respect for former members of any administration who wait to express their moral outrage until they are at a safe distance, and there is a book to be flogged.  McClellan should have resigned sooner, and come out with his criticisms at that time.  He's preaching to the choir now.  We all know the Bush administration is corrupt.  Duh.  Is there a White House that hasn't been, to some degree?

And now, for our daily dose of RE news:

http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=9484&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No

His LA appearance will be broadcast on C-SPAN2 this weekend.

Good night to Lisa, Jackie, Stephanie, Celine, Claudia, Anna, and Matt, with lots of love.  XOXO

 

@ Brian:  Early morning.  Thanks for the link.  I am going to do a "star" tonight.

@ Celine, no package yet from B & N.  Bummer!

@ Editor Normand, please tell me you were/are an Editor for a major publishing house in NYC.  

@ Stephanie:  I went to the market on Friday night and it was great.  Watermelons were 3 for $5.   Apples were 10 for $2 and corn was 4 for $1.   It was great.   I am going to make another trip on my bike on Saturday.  I just couldn't figure out how to balance 3 watermelons on a bike.  (Now that would be a sight for Funniest Home Videos.) I am trying to bike ride everywhere possible this summer.  

Bests to all!  We do have the power to change the world one heart, one mind and one soul at a time!    

Brian @ standing up

You aren't responsible for cancer.
But you are responsible for the first part of the Today Show interview.....which since being such an 'entertainer', you brilliantly sidestepped

I hope your newscast has a decent bit on McClellan.....but I'm not holding my breath.
Same as the Pentagon generals story.

Yes Brian......stand up.
Or just sit down and cash your check.

I particularly enjoyed the part where you all slapped each other on the back and congratulated yourselves for your hard-hitting pre-Iraq war reporting (except for Couric, strangely enough).

Maybe next year you can get back together and reminisce about how you all buried the story on the retired general propaganda campaign...

Congratulations on working together to defeat cancer.  I just wanted to say that and apologize for my profit margin Accounting joke on oil company profits in a posting on NBCs Newsvine site last night as well.  All the best with today's and all future broadcasts, NBC.

Dear Mr. Williams:  While I commend you and your fellow anchors on promoting a cause I hold dear to my heart, I'm not writing you about this issue.  I 'm writing you concerning a question that came up today during your appearance with both your fellow anchors about Scott McClellan's book and the role of the media in the Iraq War.  The fact that the only one of you who had the guts to admit that the media did play a huge part in the selling of a false war to the people of this country, saddens me greatly. I expected more of you. You all must know that you in the media took the easy way out. Every network in this country, including the cable news networks, promoted the war heartily as they knew it was "popular" with the American people, and, dare I say, with your corporate owners. You had jingoistic logos and music for your coverage of the war, you skewered anyone who had the courage to be against it and you made fun of the millions of people in this country who demonstrated against the war. You should all be very ashamed of yourselves and frankly, I rarely watch or read any of you at this point as I don't trust you. Your network especially is disgusting. From Chris Matthews to Tim Russert, they were all on the bandwagon in a big way. Promoting the president and the war. Once the tide of opinion turned, suddenly, they began asking questions, dumping on the administration a bit more...they're simply reporting for the masses; going with the polls. Shame on you for doing it in the first place and shame on you for not admitting your role in what will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the biggest defeats in the history of this country!

Try Jesus. He has been healing cancer victims in Lakeland Florida. Completely healed. Proven.

Dear Brian,

When I saw yourself along with Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson on the morning shows, I was immediatly taken aback. While each of you individually represent different networks, together you represent a single and worthwhile cause. While individually you are influential, together you are so much more. I hope that future events will bring the three of you together again.

Done. $100 for my late wife. Great idea Brian.

Good Evening Mr.Williams, I saw the video of you on the Today Show with Mr.Gibson and Katie Couric and it sounds like a really nice program and for such a great cause. It was nice to see all three of you together talking about it. I agree it is time we stand up against this terrible disease. Looking forward to the broadcast this evening. Peace to you and to all!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie and Stephanie!
Hi to all great ladies of this blog!
Be well always!

yep, me too, a beloved daughter-in-law, to the one really tough cancer we don't often talk about, ovarian.

I'm still mulling over if I agree with Katie or Mr Gibson on the run-up to the war. I stand by a remark made a few weeks ago here, this was a war the Administration wanted and got. I don't think any thing could have changed that. The excerpt of Mr McClellan's book seems to back my stand up. .
I will say, there was a look that briefly crossed your face that made me wonder if you were thinking "There goes the blog again!" (and that was meant as a joke lest someone take it too seriously)

If I don't get to post again tonight........
Lisa 7 days

You're still doing it - You - Gregory - Brokaw - you are still being complicit enablers.  Spread the filth that you want - but you were the last news show that I was able to watch.  Your attack on McClennen - and I think he's an idiot - was so one-sided that it clearly presented the enabling agenda.  But GE's agenda - the corporate media - is just disgusting.  Join the people of America and stand up for us.  Once, people like Huntley and Brinkley and Cronkite used to do that.  You will never be in those ranks.  Corporate shill media. Such sad day for American Democracy. I'm so disgusted and irritated by the SCLM.  There is really no "there" there.

Hi Brian I video taped your morning show. It is great that all three anchors got together for Cancer fund raiser. My family doesn't have a history of cancer if we did I wouldn't get help from the US and I don't have insurance. I do wish the best for those who are chosen or have insurance to maybe get cured. I have to be real and not live in the sand I'm an African American and that's not high on the list for care.

I don't know why the Media and public are so shocked about Scott McClellen's now honest statement. Look all this so called War on Iraq was fixed before 2000 election. Many reporters who call themselves White House insiders knew all along that this was fake information.  We're seen the documents of the Propaganda Dept and how it was fed to the major Media Stations. Pat Fitzgerald knew the lies and needed honest answers in his case with Libby. We didn't have to go to war and the American People and Law Makers were fed lies from the beginning. Many once honest reporters were part of the crime. McClellen is now trying to make money off the lies and crimes he played a part in. Don't look for Pelosi to impeach Bush/Cheney she's be brought and paid for as Speaker of the House.  Look for more crimes committed by this Administration as the Foreign Press long ago said the 9/11 attack was planned by US/Saudis.  The truth is hard to accept when we now know over 4,000 soldiers died based on those lies. McClellen should be charged with not telling the truth during the investigations.  

I wondered by John Kerry jumped in to support Obama after the Iowa win. Now I see what he was using Obama for. John Kerry would love to end his career as secretary of state. It would be a capstone to a life that has always been devoted to public service, but in particular has been focused on foreign affairs,"  No wonder John Kerry stepped over Hillary and Edwards to get to Obama for the job. I wonder with other Senior Dem. Law Makers are getting for slipping Obama in with Super Delegate votes.

If the White House were to bomb Iran the United States would get the shock of our lives.  As Iran never provoked the US, Iran would have the rest of the World Leaders and the United Nations support them. No need to attack the US as we'd go down on our own.  As the Middle East has already shown their wise and smart and will always out beat the White House. What really amazes me is how the US could quickly impeach Nixon for crimes, try to impeach Clinton for a personal affair yet Bush/Cheney are allowed to have thousands of soldiers killed, break the Geneva Rule and put the USA in a recession  and nothing is said or done about it. Some reporters even defend the criminal actions.  We're starting to look like a dysfunctional Country

Stephanie: I read your comment and your great, it just takes a moment of silence for those to know you care.

Best to my friends Lisa, Laural, Stephanie, Claudia, Anne and Matt

see you same time same place at 6:30pm

Good Evening Mr.Williams, First of all it was really nice to see Mr.Brokaw speaking with you this evening. He has such great insight into news of our world and the events that shape it. I admire his work greatly. I really enjoyed both of you speaking together and you asking questions about the time when the war started and the coverage of the media. There is a "fog of war" and a "fog of coverage" but many in the administration seemed to believe they were doing the right thing by invading Iraq. Certainly I do agree with Mr.Brokaw that in hindsight not knowing how this would turn out I think one would definitely look back on this as a big mistake. It is not going well and too many people have suffered greatly. The White House does control how much information gets to the press and to to public. How President Bush will be thought about in 10 or 20 years is not really certain, but this war is a huge part of his legacy and only time will tell. One does hope peace will be the norm in that region and that rebuilding instead of violence will be a constant theme.
On another note tha passing of Earle Hagen is a great loss to the entertainment world. He certainly wrote many of the theme music of popular shows. Nice to know he was the one who whistled "The Andy Griffith Show" theme song while his 11yr old son snapped his fingers. Thank you for the broadcast Mr.Williams. Nice to see you making the rounds of the morning news shows speaking about the campaign "Stand up for Cancer". Very good cause. Peace to you and to all!

Lots of to Laurel,Jackie and Stephanie!
Hi to all great ladies of this blog!
Be well always!

Brian - You've been around the White House for years  - How much of the daily press conferences are real, true information and how much are almost factual. We all know that Presidents learn very quickly to talk a language that is vague and often says nothing of substance.  Is that aim of the daily press conferences as well.

Interesting that Scott should be the Press Secretary to write this type of book, at the lecturn he was the mildest sort of Secretary.

Motive: I would guess that revenge on those who used him as a shill would be the answer to that.

Brian,
I am so disappointed that you and Tom Brokaw, two newsmen I admire very much, could sit together on the Nightly News and nod and say, "Nope, there's nothing we could have done" to stop the war in Iraq or at least to inform the American public as to the real agenda. I remember clearly having a sinking feeling ("deja vu all over again") but when our President says that our national security is being threatened with weapons of mass destruction, who am I to argue? But you, NBC news, all of your investigative journalists should have known better. You should have at least tried to ferret out the truth. If anyone at NBC news had said, "Wait a minute," I would have listened. None of you did. That's one thing. But to sit there and say there was nothing you could have done? No. You are kidding yourself. And I am very, very disappointed.
Kathy

I just watched your video segment on the Today show.  Katie and you said the strong-arm pressure from the WH and Pentagon didn't affect your decisions but I am wondering if you unconsciously restrained yourself.

I do a lot of ranting about bush and his administration to the letters to the editor of the local left-leaning independent weekly paper.  They have printed several of my letters.  In one email I was very verbose and was greeted by the authorities the same day with guns drawn.  They made a big show of force because they could.  I still rant and when I see I am getting carried away I exercise some self-restraint and tone down the language but not the meaning.

Did the threats and strong-arm tactics have an unspoken affect on your decisions?  No one wanted to be the one to lose your access to war coverage so some questions were left unasked or ignored.  

You can speak for yourself about not changing the questions you asked but is it true for the other reporters on the front lines.  The enemy is shooting in my direction.  Do I risk offending the generals in charge, the Pentagon or WH with this report?

It was a great piece and nice to see all of you together.  The only thing I didn't appreciate with some comments was "how nice it was to see Katie back".  Yes, it was, but that was not the purpose of the piece and I applauded Meredith for holding her own.  I'm sure it wasn't easy for her on today and she did very well.  It was nice of Matt to offer a little comfort with his joke about Bryant Gumbel coming back and doing a cooking segment.  It was Katie that left, no Meredith that took her job away!

I look forward to watching the special on September 5th.  

A lot of defense being played this quarter.

Brian, please have the health team take a deep look into Medicinal Cannabis.  Cancer just may be easier to fight then we know.

Thank you.

Rest assured we know you always do the best job you can, and you have a great team working with you.  A bump in the road can work wonders for an uncomfortable ride.

Well, well Miss Laurel another RE event.   That is "breaking news" for sure on this blog.   You scooped me!    Thanks for the information.  

I thought I was the ONLY one in America that watched re-runs of Book TV on Saturday night!     My true self revealed!    This blog does attract a very informed group of individuals!  

Bests to all!

I was ready to write a post about how you ignored the charges in McClellan's book like you did the Pentagon supplied network analysts story. So, first I should congratulate you for covering some of what McClellan revealed. That's a step in the right direction, and I underestimated you.

McClellan put the words "liberal media" in quotation marks when he said that if the media had done its job we wouldn't have made the mistake of going to war in Iraq.  The quotations show that even the former press secretary of the most right wing White House in my lifetime says the media only gives the GOP side of the story. That's the an incredible event, incredibly telling, and the truth,  Putting Tom Brokaw on you newscast with the phony excuse about the press wanting to be patriotic after 9/11 just delayed further they day that the real truth will come out, and all of you will be known for your dishonest betrayal of America and your profession.  To sell a tell all book, each new author must reveal something that hasn't been revealed before.  As future books come out, and they will, the entire role of the complicit media will be known to all.  Bush has seen to it that as many records as possible have been destroyed, but some are bound to survive.

One of the most offensive of the phony regret lines is the one that says, "We should have asked more questions." There was no doubt about what was going on before the war.  Nearly every claim Bush made about WMD was debunked before the war started. Aluminum tubes weren't for centrifuges. Supposed satellite photos of WMD sites were reported by the weapons inspectors to be nothing of the kind.  The former chief UN weapons inspector said there were no WMD. You didn't ask questions? Bush used his State of the Union speech to give a list of WMDs that he claimed the UN determined Saddam had. I took me a couple of mouse clicks to see that the UN said that those weapons were "unaccounted for", not that Saddam had them. All of us here in the blog world knew the case for war was agitprop. There is no way a big corporate media outlet like NBC didn't know. It wasn't the lack of questions, it was the intentional distortion of the facts to fit the GOP agenda that gave us news coverage that had almost nothing to do with what was really happening.

Brokaw dishonestly assessed that the media's culpability was limited to the Iraq and for only during a short time period.  NBC is complicit to this day.

Just a week ago, Richard Engel, in an interview, asked Bush about his remarks stating negotiating with Iran was a futile and appeasement. Bush, visibly angry, instructed Engel that Bush never said such a thing. The White House went into tantrum mode after the interview aired because NBC edited out Bush's denial.  Ed Gillespie spread accusations around the right wing media. The White House web site still has their attack on NBC on the top of its web page. NBC kept the full interview on the web in response.

But NBC, other than Olberman,  never mentioned that fact that when Bush denied calling negotiating futile and appeasement Bush was lying. Bush said those things exactly.  If NBC was doing a real job, they would have broadcast Bush's response from the beginning a pointed out what a lie it was.  Film clips should have been shown to prove what Bush actually said about appeasement and futility.

So we know that the White House takes so for granted that its lies won't be pointed out by the media, that the media will give the White House line whenever told to, that they actually had a tantrum because NBC didn't help them lie. And NBC let the White House get away with that. Perhaps that was because, as we've found out from Brian's blog about the tainted analysts and sworn testimony in the Libby case and the recent uproar over the Richard Engel interview that the White House feels completely able and entitled to call up NBC anytime a story doesn't meet their liking.

Brokaw was also wrong when he suggested that the covering up was only over Iraq.  In fact, from the start of Hurricane Katrina, Bush kept his vacation schedule and put a deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin, in charge of the relief effort when Hagin wasn't even in Washington or in continuous contact with the appropriate officials handling the disaster.  Hagin was with Bush in Texas and overseeing the vacation events. The Senate report on the handling of Katrina said of a conference call the day of Katrina that Bush himself wasn't a part of :

"Joe Hagin....listened to the warnings presented by Brown and others. He asked no questions and only offered the following statement - 'We're here, and  anything we can do,obviously,  to support you, but it sounds like the planning,as usual, is in good shape, and good luck to the states and just know that we're watching, and we'll do the right thing as soon as we can' "

Hurricane Katrina was NBC's signature cause.  I've never seen a word about what really went on with the president on NBC.  So its not just about patriotism, like Brokaw pretends.  There's nothing patriotic about failing to tell America that the president ditched his obligations to take the helm during one of our nation's greatest national disasters.

So far, NBC's complicity looks like it will continue. Cindy McCain was able to recently get away with saying on NBC that the McCain camp won't use negative attacks, when McCain  has gone as low as suggesting Obama is the candidate of Hamas.  McCain also got away with criticizing Bush for not being in New Orleans during Katrina, when in fact at the time, Bush was at a birthday celebration with McCain himself.

McClellan is only the start, and as more comes out they'll all rush to blame each other, and the media will be included in that.  Its best to get smart now, like McClellan did, and get out in front of the crash and tell the truth now.

It's Wednesday - means I was with the church folk & no evening news for me.  However, it wouldn't have mattered.

KATIE WAS BACK ON THE TODAY SHOW!  Pardon me for getting so excited.  (Yes I know I lead a dull life.)  I love Meredith on the show, but I still miss Katie with Matt, Ann & Al.  As Kathy Lee said later in the morning: read McClellan's book before you start commenting about it.  I also fully agree with what Matt said: if the media had known then what it knowns now, I'm sure the questions would have been much more harsh and vicious.  I'm sure ratings did have a lot to do with the sedateness of the build up to the war.  (Read "Taking Heat" by Ari Fleisher for an excellent view of the media and the Bush White House.  I found that book to be quite enlightening.)

Pardon me.  Yes, it was good to see you on the Today Show, too, Brian, and you looked as awake as you do in the evening.  I, however, was still curled up in bed with one eye open!  Seeing Charlie on the broadcast also reminded me of how I enjoy his reporting style, too, but since I don't tend to stray to ABC often (smile), I don't see it often!

While the cancer initiative is a great thing, I admit I am a skeptic in this respect.  I am fully convinced that the cure for cancer has already been found but what drug company is going to let the secret get out?  They make way too much money off of the ill and dying.  As for my family, breast cancer claimed my paternal grandmother when my dad was still in high school & robbed me of the opportunity to know her.  Cancer also stole my mother's two sisters and nearly stole one of her sisters-in-law.  I don't advocate raising money for cancer RESEARCH as much as I do raising money for LIVING with cancer ie: surviving treatment.  Yes, I do understand that its all circular.  I just don't believe the drug companies are out to help the public.  

I will consider naming a star.  I think my aunt, who was a tween when my grandmother died, would be thrilled to do something like that to memorialize her mom.

Anna, just imaging you trying to balance 3 watermelons while riding your cycle made me smile.  I would love to have my ten-speed again - unfortunate for me, someone stole it out of my front yard where it was chained to my front door.  I had no other place to park it.  I think if I tried to peddle a bike today I'd fall over and die before I got a tenth of a mile!  Would require lots of stationary bike riding to get a little better in shape before I try balancing on the open road.  

Jackie, your statement makes me so sad, but I don't doubt it.  Being African-American shouldn't mean you are given any less medical care!  Tell them I said so!  ;)  

So, when is the RL fan club going to provide us not officially members of the fan club a book report on the new volume?  Shall we all meet on Shelfari.com and discuss it?  :)

Hello to all the regulars & those passing by!

Brian,

You said "There was a lot of skepticism raised about" the Colin Powell speech.  "I think the questions were asked. I respectfully disagree with the gentle lady from the Columbia Broadcasting System. I think the questions were asked. . . . I can remember getting in trouble with administration officials for asking questions they didn't feel comfortable with."

For which questions exactly did you get in trouble?  

This blog would be an excellent place to highlight the questions that got you in trouble with the administration and to describe how you responded.

Scott McClellan is my new hero. For an insider to come out against the Bush-Cheney-Rove cabal takes a lot of courage. It is infuriating to hear Karl Rove say that McClellan should have voiced his objections earlier -- right, Karl, and what would you have done? Cranked up the smear machine and gone after him and his family, as usual.  It was an impossible situation -- the White House had full control of the message and no one wanted the "anti-war" label in the months following 9/11 -- and the Bush administration used that to their full advantage.
I still remember former weapons inspector Scott Ritter trying to make people listen -- the Iraqis had neither the manufacturing infrastructure nor the materials for a weapons program -- and you DON'T make chemical and biological weapons out of the back of a truck!!  But they went after Ritter, and his wife too.  And as far as the media goes, they would cut off their access if they questioned too much.
There are really no words left for this group who seem to have confused America with some other country.

Dear Brian, It was nice seeing all the network News Anchors together this morning.  And it was especially nice to see that one of them was a woman.  Even if one of them was Katie, "just kidding."  I agree that there was nothing the news anchors could have done to stop the war in Iraq.  After 9/11 Bush had the people in this country right where he wanted them, "afraid and Gullible".  They believed every word he said; Even though it was Bushes fault 9/11 happened in the first place.  Bush was warned that Arabs were taking flying lessions and learning to fly commercial Jets.  The papers were right on his desk, he never looked at them.  I always said Bush would never have won a second term in office if 9/11 had not happened.  He won because people were afraid to change presidents at a time of war.  Even though the war with Iraq was a big follie and based on lies.

It's late, but here is one for the regulars. Is it the purpose of journalism to report the news, or to make it?
So many of the "drive-by posters" seem to feel that somehow the broadcast anchors could have stopped the current war, if only they had "asked the right questions" or not had this analyst but that one. They keep invoking Cronkite. I'm assuming because of his documentary after the Tet offensive, but that was 1968, at a point when so much of America opposed that war the Lyndon Johnston stepped down.It has been reported that Johnson said "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America"

Washington has always controlled the news it seeks to present to Americans.. dating back to the first Adams.
If any of you have access to a World War II vet ask about the censorship of letters home.. I've seen one that was so blacked out it didn't make much sense. When asked about it much later the writer said he thought he was griping about the weather in the blacked out portions.. censors were worried that might give away location.

I could go on and on. Some blame media for Hillary Clinton's fall. But how much of it was media, and how much of it was lousy budgeting by her campaign manager, and a lack of strategy after Feb 5? Jackie, I hope that doesn't take me off your friends list, but you've got to admit it does play a part.

To end this rambling my point is this, To the Bill Dunns and the David's from Arlington TX, to all the others, please understand that the role of a journalist to to view the news and report it with the facts at hand. They are only as good as the source.A fact that you as a thinking consumer of the news should be taking into account in the first place.

Stephanie, Well sock it me!! You made me feel really really old when you said  you'd never heard of Dan Rowan or Dick Martin.. (;>)

Lisa, since it's past midnight where you are it's now 6 days  

I thought tonight's broadcast did an excellent job of representing all parts of the country...east coast, west coast, and the midwest.   This is something your often east-coast-centered show sometimes misses.  Thank you and please keep it up.

I did not see your broadcast last night May 28.  I was taking advantage of the cool of the evening working in the yard.  I did however watch the video (via internet) with Tom Brokaw.

I continue to admire Tom's wise and distinguished take on the then's and now's.  "All wars and it's propaganda", right on Tom, tell'em.

I remember when I heard we were going to war with Iraq.  This horrible heavy feeling came over me.  Our young men and women were marching into an area of the world that has been in turmoil for 2000 years.

So - today is "Stand Up To Cancer Day?"

In other words, it's "Let's not talk about how I enabled the Iraq War Day?" or "Let's not talk about the failure of celebrity journalism day?"

I guess that's what it is every day.

Stand up to cancer.

Right.

Let me ask you, Brian:  when even little Scottie McClellan writes you off as a patsy,  don't you feel just a little bit ashamed?  

Don't you feel you owe our country a little more?  Don't you feel that your position of privilege and prominence comes with a little responsibility?

Don't hide behind cancer.  

I'M unemployed collage educated no work. what would a family do if there was A major health problem There are  million uninsured in America and according to the Institute of Medicine  some of them will die as a result of not having health care I do want to thank you for bring this subject up aswell

It's good that you're trying to do your part while people actually care about what you say.  Too bad the news media is now the least trusted institution by the American people - polling lower than both the President and Congress.  It won't be long before you, Charlie Gibson, David Gregory, Tim Russert and the rest of the stenographers in the news media get replaced by people who actually think it is their job to get to the real truth, rather than just relaying what Karl Rove tells them "in confidence" over a steak at The Palm.

It will be a cold day in hell when Brian, Charlies Gibson, and the rest of the blow-dried brethren ever admit to the least bit of complicity in the never-ending debacle known as the Iraq War.  At least it sounds like Katie has a bit of a conscience.  Good for her.

Brian, Thanks to you & your competetors for shining a huge spotlight on this issue. My mom is a colon cancer survivor, thanks to God & modern medicine. I will check out the website & look forward to the fall simultaneous broadcast.
Keep up the good work!

I am turning off anything that even resembles what you have called "news" because it has been fatuous, corporate led, right wing fringe demagoguery. I will be contacting your commercial sponsors with this information. In order for any credibility to be returned to what was once a respected journalistic free press you must begin reporting and apologizing about your complicity in the pentagon propaganda machine, and your fall from presenting a fair debate in political issues.

Hoo, boy, is it gettin' hot in here or is it just the revelation that Mr.Williams buried anti-war information in 2003 at the behest of his corporate masters?  I have an addition to your magnificent title of 'Anchor and Managing Editor'.  Enabler of Death.  Millions of souls are screaming at you Mr.Williams.  Can you hear them in your nightmares yet?  Trust me, you will.

Stephanie, shelfari.com it is!   I think you should be the leader.  We will need a moderator!   I think the east coasters are going to have to agree to late night discussions after Nightly of course.   We don't want Brian's ratings to slip while we are shelfaring Richard's book.    

My book is out for delivery today with UPS so give me and possibly everyone a few weeks to read it cover to cover and make some notes.  

Celine, are you done yet?  Being a retired teacher, you must be a power Evelyn Wood reader.

Lisa, has Brian agreed to your guest blogger status for the RE tour?

(Note to Normand: Yes, shelfaring is a non-sense word! Hugs to our Editor Normand! :))

Before you report on the plight of the farmer, I would recommend you look at the revenue. Mr. Ryerson will net $400,000 this year.

Dear Brian,

Pre-War coverage was awful, and any media figure who says otherwise is either deluded or lying.  I'm not sure which better describes you, but I hope you realize soon that many, many people see through the BS being fed to them by the Bush Administration THROUGH YOU.  History will not look kindly upon George Bush et al., nor will it look kindly on you, Charles Gibson, and all the other media-failure deniers.  If reporting government propaganda unchallenged is the job of a news anchor, then you and Charles Gibson are masters of your art.  Hang your head in shame.

Claudia Anderson

I'm really looking forward to the Senate Hearing and watching Kerry & Hillary accuse Brian of tricking them into voting for the war. Please don't bust my bubble.

Stefanie: I'm fine with the reality of America and I've got to see my country at it's best and now it's worse. I'll let God handle my medical problems as to date I'm in great shape.

Claudia: I best friends are those who disagree with men even when my Dad was alive he'd challenge me all the time. What would this life be if everyone agreed with everyone. I told you always speak your mind and don't let anyone change you until you want to.  I love you ladies on the blog and want you to be just who you are nothing more nothing less. That's how many learn from others by giving their point of view freely. Look I always need to keep on my toes these days and not get lazy. smile

Mr. Williams and the entire staff at NBC News,

I don't normally catch the evening news because of work commitments, but I watched your telecast Tuesday evening.  And to say the least I was appalled at your lack of reporting the whole story.  You went on and on about how bad the economy is.  How high gas prices were.  In fact you spent the first 15 minutes reporting nothing but negative news.  Yet, a report had come out that day about oil sliding down from $135/barrel to $127/barrel.  Be it ever so humble, that is positive news.  The economy and people's opinions are based on the information they receive from news organizations such as yourself.  It is apparent in your broadcasting that you want America to continue to suffer.  Perhaps, if you and other news organizations would state the whole truth, then maybe Americans could see a ray of hope.  And through that we could once again start working toward a positive, unified nation.  It is your moral and ethical duty to make this world a better place.  Just like it is for me.  So I ask you.  Are you going to stand up for what's right and report more than just doom and gloom?

Well Brian, your phone is ringing. You and the msm have an opening here to tell it like it is. You have explained numerous times on this blog that access is everything and that is the game book by which msm must play. But the continued silence only perpetuates uninformed conclusions. Time for you and all, with backbone and clear undersrstanding of the peril we are all in, to "Tell it like it is". May be the last chance to redeem integrity.

As Glenn Greenwald sez...

Yesterday was actually quite an extraordinary day in our political culture because Scott McClellan's revelations forced the establishment media to defend themselves against long-standing accusations of their corruption and annexation by the government -- criticisms which, until yesterday, they literally just ignored, blacked-out, and suppressed. Bizarrely enough, it took a "tell-all" Washington book from Scott McClellan, of all people, to force these issues out into the open, and he seems -- unwittingly or otherwise -- to have opened a huge flood gate that has long been held tightly shut.

Network executives obviously know that these revelations are quite threatening to their brand. Yesterday, they wheeled out their full stable of multi-millionaire corporate stars who play the role of authoritative journalists on the TV to join with their White House allies in mocking and deriding McClellan's claims. One media star after the next -- Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams, Tim Russert, Wolf Blitzer -- materialized in sync to insist that nothing could be more absurd than the suggestion that they are "deferential, complicit enablers" in government propaganda.

I have little doubt that they would be telling the truth if they denied what Yellin reported last night. People like Williams, Gibson and Gregory don't need to be told to refrain from reporting critically about the war and the White House because challenging Government claims isn't what they do. And amazingly, they admitted that explicitly yesterday. Gibson and Gregory both invoked the cliched excuse of the low-level bureaucrat using almost identical language: exposing government lies "is not our job."

Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and company are paid to play the role of TV reporters but, in reality, are mere television emcees -- far more akin to circus ringleaders than journalists. It's just as simple as that. David Halberstam pointed that out some time ago. Unlike Yellin, Donahue and Banfield, nobody needed to pressure the likes of Williams, Gibson and Russert to serve as propaganda handmaidens for the White House. It's what they do quite eagerly on their own, which is precisely why they're in the corporate positions they're in. They are smooth, undisruptive personalities who don't create problems for their executives. Watching them finally describe how they perceive of "their role" leaves no doubt about any of that.

From a "newsman" to a television mc.  How sad.

from Greenwald today (Thursday May 29) on former MSNBC reporter Jessica Yellin:

Yellin clarifies in a post today that her comments "involved [her] time on MSNBC where [she] worked during the lead up to war" and that she was referring to "senior producers." She says that "many people running the broadcasts wanted coverage that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the country at the time." That, of course, is the same network that fired Ashleigh Banfield and Phil Donahue, and where David Gregory, Tom Brokow, Brian Williams and Tim Russert all now insist that they performed superb journalism in the run-up to the war.

On a different note, contrary to the standard establishment journalist excuse that there were no real anti-war advocates for them to include in their coverage, there were ample politicians and experts speaking out against the war. Aside from the numerous examples listed above, many of the nation's leading international relation scholars were forced to pay for ads in places such as the The New York Times to make their anti-war case because the media would not -- and still will not -- include them in its coverage. Numerous non-liberal factions -- from foreign policy scholars at the Cato Institute to former Reagan defense officials -- were vehemently against the war. But the networks featured an endless stream of know-nothing war cheerleaders while almost completely excluding actual opponents of the war.

I agree with David,Arlington,TX on one thing.  It's getting HOT in here.  I think I will step outside; it's only 90 degrees out there.

It is downright refreshing to see all the anger on this blog.  It was anger and hatred that fueled and energized the right-wingers from Goldwater down to the present.  It's about time the rest of us caught on and started using it to fuel the energy it will take to clean up this awful mess!

Brian,
You and Charlie Gibson are really lame.  You are an arrogant and egotistical shill.  Until you report on the Pentagon Message Multiplier Propaganda story you are nothing but a liar and propagandist.
It is a total laugh that you and Charlie think you are some kind of hard-hitting journalists that really questioned the Iraq situation in the run-up.  You really suck.

Dear Brian, I applaud your efforts, to raise millions of dollars for cancer research.

I want to know how much of the research money will be directed to John Kanzius and his incredible "Cancer killing machine", as shown on 6o minutes?

How much of the money raised actually goes to research?

Thank you.

Renee Brown

Brian, I have newfound respect for Katie Couric but zero for Charlie Gibson and yourself. At least Couric was reflective and thought hard about what she had to say. You two guys were pathetic, you sat there with worried looks on your faces just hoping the subject would be dropped and hoping that Katie would shut up. Nice going pal. You guys let this administration roll you over again and again. You allowed these criminals to frame the debate while they laughed at you behind your back all the while deluding yourself that you were asking "tough questions". But you, David Gregory and the whole lot of you at NBC won't raise a finger to nail these weasels because they know you don't want to anger them. No way. You won't get invited to their cocktail parties for shmoozing anymore and we can't have that. I hope you don't expect to win any Edward R. Murrow awards, he'd probably roll over in his grave.

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