Fortunately, many of these celebrities do not have the irreparable knowledge of outliving their child once ridicule sets in. Brian Williams, to note, still has his family and his children in his life. And in the end, their feelings and opinions will matter far more than ours. None the less, the Brain Williams affair showcases the measures taken on what we consider the news. Or rather, what we are told is the news and who will bring us the news outside of newspapers. Since the news media lives in a world where blogging and the internet are still treated as an unknown device (not unlike the now funny Today Show 1994 look at email), what is considered news is akin to whom is considered the personification of trust. There are four such individuals where news and celebrity exist; along with news and influence.
Brian Williams is for all intents and purposes a spokesman for a corporation. Until two years ago, that corporation was General Electric. GE, then and now, are amongst the leading defense contractors and war profiteers in the world. Indeed, from 2001-2005 or thereabouts, NBC News was The place to get the most obvious amount of war propaganda. You remember that moment in Apocalypse Now where Francis Ford Coppola has a cameo where he tells Willard (Martin Sheen) to move a certain way so he can get his perfect shot? Well, that is exactly the sort of thing NBC was doing during Afghanistan and Iraq during the first 4 or five years of the war of terror.
It was NBC News that had pretty much every one of their anchors and reporters in Iraq, embedded with the troops during 2003. It was NBC that had the exclusive access to the latest war propaganda, the latest hi tech gadgets, and the sensationalist stories to tell. To go through all of these examples would be unnecessary. We know it was and still is a lie. So, does it seem a reasonable conclusion that the stories Brian Williams told were written and told to him by his superiors at GE/NBC? It seems pretty darn reasonable to me.
So why is Brian Williams now becoming the only person penalized for the Iraq lie? Perhaps it is more than these tall tales. A personal foible to not be revealed, maybe. Or, and I think this is likely; Brian Williams was getting too much clout. And the clout only intensified with the success of his daughter, Alison. Perhaps some of the executives of Comcast (NBC's new parent) felt Alison Williams doing the Peter Pan telecast was a case of nepotism. I think it was not; I certainly liked her Peter Pan and thought it was better than the production of The Sound of Music made the year before. Outside of the family, Brian Williams was getting involved with veterans' organizations, making appearances at important sports and live events, and had shown an increasingly funny side of himself. One could say, Brian Williams wanted to become Jon Stewart.
By comparison, Jon Stewart has possibly wanted to become Brian Williams. I have no doubt the Daily Show these past 16 years have been interesting and newsworthy in and of itself. If you need to understand; go back and look at some of the Craig Kilborn era shows. They are not that good. Now, with Stewart at the helm, matters pertaining to news media changed significantly. As the years went on, Stewart became just as interested in being part of the political scene, in the same breath mocking the political scene. I noticed this when certain political and economic leaders would give first dibs to Jon Stewart for an interview.
The quantum jump with Stewart, I think, occurred last year with the release of his movie, Rosewater. I have yet to see the movie; though I am aware of its independent journalism overtones and the need to make news matter to agents of change. Once a person does something this ambitious and personal; where else can one go with what is essentially a comedy show? Well, it is either the Stephen Colbert route of entertaining people, the John Oliver route of going deeper in analysis of news events; or perhaps, a third option that Stewart might take. That is to say, to go from mocking the news on a nightly basis to anchoring and editing the news on a nightly basis. I would not be surprised were I to see Stewart anchoring a 6:30 newscast.
So, we have a newsman going beyond the news with Brian Williams, and an entertainer who is also a newsman in Jon Stewart. Are not there noted people that have done more to influence others in the news and humor fields than the two above? Why yes, there have been indeed. We first need to pause for station identification and a word from sponsors. In the meanwhile, here is the news with Electric Light Orchestra.
Talk to you sooner rather than later,
Robert
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