Dear Mr. Williams,

I love your memo and whole heartedly agree about Paul Newman, the Brady Bunch box (love that term), and hope the academy takes your suggestion regarding Tina Fey and Steve Martin.  I'd love to see that dynamic duo front and center at the 2010 celebration!

Dear Brian,

I must admit when I hear the NBC Nightly News promo, "You count on us to get it right"  I wince.  I am disappointed that the mainstream media missed the whole "House of Cards" story before it was too late.  Several years ago, my aunt's husband warned of a very severe downturn in the economy, and a stock market tumble, because a "house of cards (his exact words) in the housing market.  There were others out there saying the same thing in 2007 and early 2008.  I've worried for many years that today's financial reporters are too insulated from the average person and don't do the serious digging required to uncover the real story.  My hope is in the future there will be more "shoe leather" on the street, and the networks will in fact "get it right" before the economy hits the skids!

Good Evening Mr.Williams, Another fine broadcast this evening. I enjoyed the Academy Awards very much and I'm glad you did too! Great to see "Slumdog Millionaire" receive eight awards including Best Picture! Congratulations! And Congratulations to all the winners! Now on to the broadcast. First of all the report concerning the economic crisis which seems to be always grim news. Trish Regan's report showing a rough day on Wall Street and more money needed for the banks proves these financial institutions troubles will last for some time.
The report by Mr.Faber was interesting because it reminded of how this crisis started back in 2002 with the easing of regulations on loans. Hearing employees of these companies had no experience handling loans was extremely disturbing in helping customers get loans on homes they could not afford. When prices went down drastically then delinquencies occurred on the payments. Now large amounts of money need to be poured into the system to save it.
On another note the report by Chris Jansing about the Academy Awards showed how global the talent. The film "Slumdog Millionaire" certainly made it mark and the cast was so very excited and happy. It was great to see the children smiling and cheering. A great evening!

Good to know Justice Ginsburg was back on the bench today!
The piece by Mr.Tibbles about how the airline planes are so filthy was definitely interesting. It was good the cleaning crew was scrubbing and cleaning the plane from top to bottom. People do leave much trash  behind in the seats and it is great they are taking care if cleaning it up. I hope all the carriers do the same thing as United.
Thank You for the broadcast Mr.Williams. Peace to You and to All!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie,Stephanie,Claudia,Celine,Anna,Lori,Cary and Matt!
Be Well Always!
Stay Extra Safe and Well Richard!
XOXO  

I entirely agree with you. Overall, I had a lot of fun watching the show. However, I have a question: are the children that participated in the SlumDog Movie really from the slums? Where will be be living now that the movie is over?

The Oscars were great and there was excellent talent to choose from. I did love the fact that Heath Ledger won and of course Wall E. I did like Slumdog but my favorite was Benjamin Button. Lester got a shout out from Hollywood.

People are still talking about the CNBC analysis Santelli who seems to have gone of his medication. I guess he forgot when the Katrina Storm hit all Americans held out as we're all Americans. Taxpayers 1 Trillion dollars was used for Iraq, yet Mr. Santelli didn't see that as a problem. Now every American is expected to pay their TAXES by APRIL 15th, no matter what, but these same taxpayers can't get help with their own money. Even the Bible spoke of helping your neighbor but I guess no body read it yet. Mr. Gibbs responded to the stupid yellings of Santelli like he was a 3 year old which is the way he acted. What's the shocker is CNBC pays to man who said 24 hours before the Stock Market Crash with his expert opinion the Stock Market/US Economy was stronge yes then the Stock Market Crashed. I do feel bad for the investers who took Stantelli's advice and lost everything.

AG Eric Holder went to Gitmo to see for himself the horror caused over 7 years. One innocent man was kidnapped at the age of 23 held tortured and yesterday returned home to the UK with no charges ever being filed. It seems 7 years ago the US made a mistake but kept him in prison anyway. He's now 30 years old and by medical examines show he was tortured for long periods of time. He might never recover from the injuries done by the United States. How many more will have simular stories and I pray no country does this to any American. At lease the US wasn't alone in this horror, the detainee allowed the UK to know former PM Tony Blair was part of the corruption. With so many pass Presidents bringing the highest from the World on human rights, now with 8 short years we're seen as a country that Tortures innocent men/woman/children.  This action is part of the Bush Legacy.

Hillary is helping Palestine at last. It's the lease the US can do since the Bush Administration went along with the attack and even gave Israel cluster  bombs to use so as many people as possible could get killed. Israel and Palestine have been fighting for so long I really don't think they know when it started. Abraham had two sons from different Mothers and God blessed both sons. It seems that Ismael and Isaac were longing brothers  and their Father loved them both equally. As generations passed then comes the conflict. Maybe the two Leaders should try looking at what they have in common and start there.

I read about the comment Senator Bunning said about Justice Ginsburg and that lesson is old as time. Becareful what hard you wish apone another, ( you know the rest). I remember when Senator Johnson fell ill and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert said his second home was behind a grave yard and the Senator could be buried there. Shock as I was with prayer and God's blessing Senator Johnson is great but where is Hastert. I remember my GrandMother saying don't wish ill on anyone no matter what they say or do to you leave it in God's hands.  I didn't know it then but she was right along.

Now President Obama said things would get worse before they got better. So no surpise with the Stock Market falling. Trust and honesty has to be brought back for people to invest again. After listening to Hank Paulson/John McCain/George W. Bush say how great things are then the Crash now a recession and the duo of Madoff/Stanford who would trust the US Market. At lease Hillary got China to continue to support the US knowing we owe then so much money we borrowed over the pass 8 years.  Just think if Bush hadn't told Iraq they didn't have to give us back any of the Trillion dollars we gave them things might be a little different. Bush is use to giving away other people's money as that's been how he has lived his life never having to take responsiblity as his Father will take care of it.


See you same time same place

Minutes ago your program expressed that our troubled financial system was brought down primarily by the housing industry, including banks, sold property to people they could not afford. This is very true. There is a serious situation that nobody wants to bring out to the public in a in your face way. This is the fact that loans are bundled and sold to wealthy investors. The loans were shakey at best, and, in order to make these bundled loans attractive to buyers, the industry skirted the law and offered what in fact was an insurance policy that guaranteed the loans would be paid in full even in default. The bundled loans sold like crazy. There was no risk to the buyer. This situation was allowed by government overseeres. It made the total loss double maybe more. Everyone involved in this fraud should be made to pay both financially, and should be brought to justice through the courts and slammed into jail.

There seems to be a sense that the people living in houses across this great country of ours, have somehow gotten themselves into those homes because they bit off more than they can chew! That at least was the sentiment from the emotional debacle from the stock exchange last week. NOT SO. Many of the folks who bought those home did meet credit requirements, had substantial downpayments and believed everything they were told by realtors and mortgage lenders. I mean, if someone told you that though you made a measly $50,000 a year that you could own a $500,000 home -- wouldn't you leap? You would if you were young, uneducated about mortgages and were desparate to buy into the great "American Dream." These folks aren't people who don't pay their bills and somehow want a handout. They are good, honest, working-class Americans who were duped --at best by a greedy market. My husband and I have tried (on at least 3 occasions) to buy a house. Our income almost exceeds $100,000. However, due to our credit score and low savings, we've yet to be approved. I thank God every day that we haven't been approved. We could have gotten into some unscrupulous deal that would double or triple our mortgage payments once the deal "reset" itself. Trust me, many of the folks were properly approved. But with the way things were being done at the height of the housing market, many more people were taken advantage of. And that's the real crime here. Not that a family bought into the American Dream that any decent human being would want: their own home.

I'm laughing out loud over the memo to Joaquin Phoenix.  

Also laughing out loud at Microsoft trying to get money back from laid off employees.  Yeah, good luck with that!


I think I've finally reached my limit when it comes to hearing about the economic crisis. Are there any catchphrases yet for the bad news burnout?  
Maybe I'll stick my fingers in my ears for a while, and someone can let me know when we've finally hit rock bottom.

Actually, while we've been affected somewhat by this downturn (like a major hit to retirement savings), we're doing okay.  We're keeping up with the bills and we didn't buy more house than we could afford.  Of course, I can see how easily the rug could be pulled out from under us, though.  -Especially since my husband works for large regional bank. His job is probably safe (we hope!), but if it were gone, it could be quite easy for things to snowball financially.  Kind of scary to think about.  

Time to stick my fingers back in my ears.  (Lalalalalala!  I can't hear youuuuuuu!")  ;-)  


-Hello to the regulars!  If I seem a little slap happy in my post tonight, it's just from total lack of sleep.  

Bush was one of the best Presidents. One of these posters on this page must be off her "medication" When talking about the housing crisis tonight why were not the names Dodd and Frank mentioned??

Brian,

Great suggestion for next year's co-hosts. I echo your sentiments about Paul Newman and thought the same about Charlton Heston.

Root beer sprayed out of my nose when I heard Brian sardonically report (and write on today's blog) that Sen. Jim Bunning misspelled Ruth Bader Ginsburg's name when Bunning issued an apology for his insensitive comments concerning Ginsburg's recovery from pancreatic cancer surgery.  Hello?  Nightly News is the poster child for incorrect spelling.  In the past months, Nightly News has misspelled the names of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, NTSB Member Kitty Higgins, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Kay Hagan, Gov. David Paterson, Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, as well as the country of Colombia and the city of New Delhi.  Amy Robach misspelled Barack Obama's first name in her blog last December.  And on his blog, Brian himself has misspelled Condoleezza Rice and Alison Krauss (this last one was just a few weeks ago).  And he has the nerve to mention Jim Bunning?  Brian, people who work in glass studios shouldn't throw dictionaries.

Can someone please buy the Nightly News producers a calendar?  During Sunday's story about the development of a flu vaccine, the pages of an animated calendar flipped across the screen to indicate the passage of time.  Unfortunately, 7 out of the 12 months contained errors:

*January--Jan. 28 was missing; Jan. 29 appeared twice
*February--Feb. 8 was missing
*March--Mar. 8 was missing
*April--Only had 29 days (should be 30)
*September--Had 31 days (should be 30)
*October--Oct. 28 was missing; Oct. 29 appeared twice
*November--Nov. 8 was missing

When this story was repeated on Monday, the displayed calendar pages were limited to January, February, March and April, but these four months had the same errors as they did on Sunday.  I really don't understand how this could have happened.  Maybe NBC uses the Lunar calendar, or perhaps the early Roman calendar.  Here's a hint for the producers:  Thirty days has September/April, June and November/All the rest have thirty-one/And February's great with twenty-eight/And in a leap year, February's fine with twenty-nine.  You'd think that with all the pharmaceutical ad money NBC takes in, they'd have a few Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline calendars lying around the office.

For the second time in six months, Nightly News has become a shill for United Airlines.  Last Aug. 21, Brian devoted a good part of his blog to heaping saccharine praise on United.  He wrote, "While we're tough on the airline industry these days, our experience on United Airlines en route to China and en route home was enough to restore one's faith in the commercial airlines business...I've never seen flight attendants work harder to treat all passengers with the same respect and level of service."  (As if every passenger gets treated like Brian Williams.)  Brian went on to laud the "incredible" O'Hare ground supervisor who, "...loves his great city, United Airlines and the Chicago Bears."  Cue the patriotic music.  And on Monday's broadcast, Kevin Tibbles presented a story that amounted to a two-and-a-half minute infomercial for how spotlessly clean United's planes are (And just to drive the point home, Tibbles wrote more about United's cleanliness right here on the Daily Nightly).  Obviously, NBC aired this story as a way of thanking United for all their advertising dollars over the past years.  Shameful.  But wait--it gets better.  Monday's "What Works" segment about United was sponsored by Detrol LA.  So NBC actually got paid by Pfizer for the gratuitous story they did on United.  Brilliant.  If only Tibbles had figured out a way to include a clip from "The Office" in his story, he would have hit the trifecta.  It would be nice if NBC spent more time reporting actual news and less time rewarding their sponsors with commercials masquerading as news.

http://fotki.yandex.ru/top/users/mer320/view/172684/

wonderful view

Hey there, Brian!

Great to see your views on the Oscars Sunday night. You're absolutely right about Paul Newman, I was somewhat surprised that the Academy didn't pay tribute to him. The most they did was save him (the best) for last, but they really could have done so much more for him. I was expecting somethine special. He is an icon, for many reasons, and really deserved to be honored with something special. I thought it was great to see a tribute to Jerry Lewis and to see him rewarded, having been a big fan of his since I was a kid (thanks to my dad).

Of course, seeing Tina Fey and/or Steve Martin always brightens up my day. I love both of them so much, and it would be a great Oscar night with them hosting as a duo one year.

I thought it was so odd how many shots there were of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt . . .


Onto other things,

Thank you for the broadcast Monday night!
I want to wish you a great Tuesday, and a great broadcast for tonight.

Looking forward to it,
Take Care everyone!
-Cary

Last night, you said that President Obama intends to “raise taxes” on the rich – another rightwing talking point.  The President actually said he would allow the Bush tax cuts for the very rich to expire as scheduled.  He needs no new legislation to do this.  

Last night, you also channeled Lou Dobbs by reporting that all of the President’s auto industry task force drove foreign cars, including a Mazda and a Volvo.  Did you know that Ford Motor Company owns 100% of Volvo?   Ford also owns a large stake in Mazda and at least three Mazda models are made at Ford plants right here in the United States.  So the question is: do you know which Mazda model the President’s adviser owns?

Head of the IRS who doesn't pay his taxes.  Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council, fell asleep on the podium during fiscal sustainability summit. Now the man who called us a nation of cowards will be the one hiding in a bunker for tonight's Presidential address. Jon Stewart must be loving this. Guess none of that should seem odd though considering the greatest "hope" we have now is that this administration will return the deficit to where it was before the democrats took control on congress in Jan 2007. Which is half a trillion over budget and "out of control" according to them in 2006. Wahoooo!!!

Hi Brian Williams,

I am a fan of your news reporting on NBC Nightly News.

But I had to laugh last night and comment about the reporting of the cars that several members of President Obama's team drive. If any of the members who have been cited for the lack of ownership of American cars, there might be a reason.I drive a Mitsubishi Lancer  - 2006 - purchased used. I am very happy with it. However, I really wanted to purchase a Chevrolet. When I went to the Chevrolet car dealership with $ 2500.00,(because of my past credit history due to a divorce), the sales men went into the next room and laughed hysterically. They insisted that I would need a co-signer if I were to purchase a compact Chevrolet.(Despite the fact that at that time
I had been at my place of employment for 20 years with a good salary.)

I really don't know what was involved with the ownership of the foreign cars of the Obama team, but I do know that every one that worked at the dealership where I purchased my Lancer was American.
They all treated me with respect.

I know Brian Williams that you were just reporting the news, but if this comment gets posted it might get some people to stop and think before passing judgement on anyone that drives a foreign car.

Again, I think that you do a great job on NBC. You really are multi-talented. I really enjoyed you on Saturday Night Live, also.

Thanks for the venting time!

Dear Brian,

I indeed enjoyed the Oscar's the other night, and i thought that the panel concept was perfect and that they should indeed keep it. however i cannot understand why you dislike the moving Screen i too thought that it also add a glamorous look.

Brian,
I like your evening broadcast and think it is superior to the others. Sadly, I have stopped watching and now watch one of your competitors. Reason? I grew weary of watching the same "packages" repeated on Today the next morning. It's worse on weekends. I've seen one of your evening packages that ran Friday night again on Saturday (twice, once on Today and once again with Lester in the evening) Sunday (only once, mercifully) and saw it for the fourth time on Monday morning's Today show. Perhaps I'm watching too much tv news, certainly too much NBC news. Now while I may see similar stories on other broadcasts, I move around enought between the three networks that I don't get the same voiceovers, same video, etc.

Mr. Williams:

I watch your broadcast on most evenings, however, I have noticed that the reporters are referring to President Obama as Mr. Obama, rather than President Obama.  While I am not a fan of our new president, I believe it is inappropriate to refer to him as Mr. Obama.  I don't remember anyone referring to President Bush as Mr. Bush.  Perhaps I am wrong and I am sure you can validate this.  The most recent example was on Tuesday evening.

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