NBC’s Holt Lectures Viewers on the Meaning of the Statue of Liberty

Newsbusters ^ | 1/30/17 | Nicholas Fondacaro

[markomalley]

With the debate over the legality of President Donald Trump’s immigration and travel ban still raging Monday evening, NBC broadcasted their Nightly News program “from the shadow of the Statue of Liberty” accompanied by a lecture from anchor Lester Holt. “Behind me the Statue of Liberty, which for nearly 130 years, has symbolized the welcome arms of a country of immigrants,” he opined at the start of the program, “But tonight she also stands as a symbolic flashpoint in a country in the midst of soul searching over the limits of its generosity in an age of international terrorism.”

NBC, much like its competitors ABC and CBS, spent most of their Monday night program centered on the White House’s controversial executive order. “The White House calls it a necessary step to protect Americans at home from threats from abroad,” Holt continued, “Critics call it a solution in search of a problem and an unconstitutional and thinly disguised ban on Muslims.”

But neither ABC nor CBS treated it as a time to seemingly pontificate about the morality of the issue, let alone march out to the Statue of Liberty and use it as a prop:

And a final thought before we leave you tonight. There's been a lot of talk about who we are as a country and how we should represent ourselves to the world. For many, the ideals inscribed on the statue behind me frame that discussion. For others, the threats of a modern era necessitate adapting to a new reality. It is complicated and in many ways forms a new crossroads in America. And we will remain at the intersection of this unfolding story to report it.

Long before the show started, NBC was hyping Lester’s lecture with a video tweeted out by the NBC Nightly News account, where he said of Lady Liberty, “In many ways, it has become a symbol of a country right now wrestling to reconcile its creed versus its security needs.” And of the veracity of their reporting, he claimed, “Tonight we’ve got all the sides covered in this. The legal debate. The debates about what we saw at the airports. As well as the rationale for the president’s decision.” But the only side they covered it from was the left.

If NBC really wanted to cover “all the sides,” then they would have done what CBS Evening News did and actually report on the support for the ban. “Today the White House said that most Americans agree with the immigration ban and a respected poll from Quinnipiac University agrees,” announced anchor Scott Pelley, “It was taken three weeks ago, and by margin of 48 to 42 percent, American voters support suspending immigration from terror-prone regions, even if it means turning away refugees.”

CBS reporter Dean Reynolds actually went out and spoke with supporters of Trump and the travel ban, something NBC and ABC failed to do. “Trump supporters were on hand at Los Angeles International Airport this weekend voicing their belief that the president's immigration order is sensible and overdue,” he reported. Reynolds sat down with Trump voter and internet entrepreneur Vito Glazers who told him, “Well, I don't think it's perfect. I do think it's a great step to creating much-needed action in the right direction.”

When asked if he thought politics was involved with the order’s opposition Glazers joked, “Absolutely. I think that if we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse that the left would find a way to protest for zombies' rights.”

Instead of lecturing America on the values of liberty, Holt would have been better served by going out and talking to the people. 

Transcripts below: 

NBC Nightly News
January 30, 2017
7:01:20 PM Eastern

LESTER HOLT: Good evening. Behind me the Statue of Liberty, which for nearly 130 years, has symbolized the welcome arms of a country of immigrants. But tonight she also stands as a symbolic flashpoint in a country in the midst of soul searching over the limits of its generosity in an age of international terrorism. This evening protesters joined by some members of Congress have gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington. Following a weekend of fierce and emotional reaction and confusion over president Trump's temporary ban on travel to the United States by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries. The White House calls it a necessary step to protect Americans at home from threats from abroad. Critics call it a solution in search of a problem and an unconstitutional and thinly disguised ban on Muslims. Tonight we'll hear from both sides.

…

7:28:44 PM

HOLT: And a final thought before we leave you tonight. There's been a lot of talk about who we are as a country and how we should represent ourselves to the world. For many, the ideals inscribed on the statue behind me frame that discussion. For others, the threats of a modern era necessitate adapting to a new reality. It is complicated and in many ways forms a new crossroads in America. And we will remain at the intersection of this unfolding story to report it. That will do it for us on a Monday night. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, thank you for watching and good night from Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

...

CBS Evening News
January 30, 2017
6:40:27 PM Eastern

SCOTT PELLEY: Today the White House said that most Americans agree with the immigration ban and a respected poll from Quinnipiac University agrees. It was taken three weeks ago, and by margin of 48 to 42 percent, American voters support suspending immigration from terror-prone regions, even if it means turning away refugees. 53 percent support requiring immigrants from Muslim countries to register with the government. Here's Dean Reynolds.

[Cuts to video]

DEAN REYNOLDS: Trump supporters were on hand at Los Angeles International Airport this weekend voicing their belief that the president's immigration order is sensible and overdue.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He’s keeping our country safe and lawful.

REYNOLDS: Vito Glazers is a Chicago internet entrepreneur who voted for the president. What do you think of this executive order on immigration?

VITO GLAZERS: Well, I don't think it's perfect. I do think it's a great step to creating much-needed action in the right direction.

REYNOLDS: Mr. Trump's stand on immigration was important in winning Glazers' support, and while he's only one voice, polls say his views are representative of many fellow Trump supporters.

GLAZERS: I don't want America to end up in a place where political correctness is being used against us to destroy us.

REYNOLDS: Do you think politics is at work here?

GLAZERS: Absolutely. I think that if we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse that the left would find a way to protest for zombies' rights.

[Cuts back to live]

REYNOLDS: He also said something else that probably a lot of Trump supporters agree with, Scott, that it’s ironic that so many people are upset with a president who is merely following through on promises he made during the campaign.

PELLEY: Dean Reynolds in Chicago, thanks

[RummyChick]

[Moonman62]

I consider comment sarcasm, and leave it at that.

[RummyChick]

It’s not sarcasm. It is a fact. It was originally suppose to be a muslim peasant for the Suez Canal.

Statute of Liberty was born a Muslim..and the creator went through a lot to get it to NYC.

[SoFloFreeper]

I find it amazing that ABC and CBS actually devoted at least SOME time to the other side.

[RummyChick]

Veiled Muslim peasant

[matt04]

Try to get into Canada with a single DUI and you are turned back. Doesn’t matter if you are black, white, orange, Muslim, athjest, Christian, etc.

Yes, they do have a very strict process where you can get a special visa once you can prove you are reformed.

[Mollypitcher1]

“IT” wasn’t designed for Egypt. The statue of Liberty was designed for the entry into New York harbor and Bartholdi selected Bedloes Island specifically.
The sculptor had hoped for the commission of a monumental LIGHTHOUSE for the Suez canal and did design a LIGHTHOUSE for Egypt in the form of a woman holding a lamp. However, he did not receive a commission and his plans were for naught.
Sometime later, he was contacted to design a statue for the centennial of the Constitution. it wwas NOT the same statue designed on paper for Etypt. It was a design he made specifically for America.......Freedom enlightening the world.

[Mollypitcher1]

WRONG!!!! The Suez lighthouse drawing was NOT the Statue of Liberty! The Statue of Liberty was designed for New York harbor as a symbol of friendship between France and America.

[Moonman62]

You’re telling me about the physical characteristics of the statue planned for Egypt.

I’m talking about the purpose of the Statue of Liberty, and what it commemorates.

Two different things, so stop telling me to get a clue.

[spintreebob]

re: Pat Buchanan

You are so right. Hannity would have Pat on radio and make fun of him as the only conservative opposed to open borders. Pre 2002 every neo-con, every social-conservative, every traditionalist, every libertarian, every corporatist, every capitalist (including me) was for open borders and free trade.

Pat Buchanan was ridiculed universally as the lone voice. Only the labor unions sided with Pat.

[RummyChick]

I disagree .

It is clear to me that the designer had an idea. It started with a muslim woman in a harbor. That theme carried out and he changed the story line until he got his project built. And yes, it appears at one point it was based on a black woman as he progressed. But the whole thing started with a Veiled Muslim peasant.

Oh ...and Eiffel didn’t come up with the idea as you indicated.

https://ourladyliberty.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/lady-liberty-what%E2%80%99s-in-a-face-part-2/

[RummyChick]

The purpose changed more than once as the Sculptor tried to sell his vision and get the funding...as have the stories and myths around the Statue.

Here is what the NPS says after an investigation

https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/black-statue-of-liberty.htm

[RummyChick]

” But the Statue of Liberty was not intended entirely as a monument to the end of slavery”

https://www.nps.gov/stli/learn/historyculture/black-statue-of-liberty.htm

[Ohioan]

I'm sorry, but the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty, hardly defines American values--hardly defines the settler ethos and historic perspective that led to Independence and the dawn of specific American values. It is, at best--if even that--an American reflection of the same idle philosophical egalitarian day dream among members of a leisure class with too much time on their hands, as that which led to the disastrous French Revolution.

The Founders of America would have considered it an insult.

[Moonman62]

” But the Statue of Liberty was not intended entirely as a monument to the end of slavery”

...

That implies that it was mostly to commemorate the end of slavery. The other purpose was to commemorate the centennial of America’s independence.

So my original statement was for the most part correct. Don’t you regret saying that I didn’t have a clue?

[Opinionated Blowhard]

I always love it when someone lectures the public on the “meaning” of the Statute of Liberty. It was dedicated in 1886, when Jim Crow laws and Social Darwinist theories were in full swing. People had very different attitudes back then. Lester has no idea what the “meaning” of the Statue of Liberty is. What Lester is doing is imposing his own modern view of what it means. All of us are entitled to do that, but no one is entitled to claim that they have a monopoly on its “meaning” as if they know why it was erected.

[RummyChick]

The sculptor was a marketer. There is no doubt it was conceived as a Veiled Muslim peasant. The myth..the history.. ...the cache was changed over and over depending on the audience..to get the funding and to get it erected.

Need bonds..lets talk immigration
Need more money..lets talk about moving it to Philly to get NY riled up.

Need money..let’s make up a story in a fund raising pamphlet about the creation of the statue..etc etc etc..

Need a pedestal because it is sitting in crates for over a year ..let’s engage the middle class and the poor ..some who donated very little in order to get the pedestal.

Think they were thinking about slaves when it was erected after donating money for the pedestal ..in the era of Jim Crow???

The Statue of Liberty is a myth based entity who has come to symbolize certain things in this era..but I doubt those values were on the mind of the founding fathers.

[Moonman62]

So you don’t regret saying I needed a clue. Sad, as Trump would say.

[RummyChick]

“The Statue of Liberty was built to commemorate the end of slavery in America, not immigration, legal or otherwise.”

I stand by what I said. Look at your comment. Immigration was indeed brought up to raise funds.

The fact is that the sculptor did what he had to do no matter what country...to get his original idea erected...including making up a story in a fund raising pamphlet to help sell it.

The original drawing was not made to end slavery. It is clear that the drawing was the basis for our statue with changes made to sell it.

If the statue was erected because of the end of Slavery..then why didn’t NY or Congress fund it?

It started with an idea and a sculptor that was bent on getting that idea erected somewhere. That is a tribute to him...not Eiffel who seems to get the credit on this thread for being the originator of the sculpture idea

[RummyChick]

and for the French side of it:

http://www.statue-de-la-liberte.com/en/Funding-of-the-statue-of-Liberty.php
When the idea of the construction of the statue was issued in 1865 there was only a vague project, interesting but that was part of a future not so concrete as that. When Bartholdi could look a little more seriously on that construction, he fell ill: The authoritarian government of Napoleon III, then head of government, prevented him from implementing a project statue of criticizing his regime, which was the hidden purpose the statue. The power of monarchical support in France was scuppered any attempt to public funding. Then, in 1870, the Franco-Prussian war broke out, leaving the land fallow. Bartholdi chooses exile in the United States, as much to escape her occupied country to discover that this young nation and to build relationships that allow him to make his statue. When he returned after the historic episode of the town is completed, the MacMahon government was still strong monarchical power. It took until 1875 for the Republican ideas are strong enough in the opinion that the government tends toward more openness, and he dismisses 1876 MacMahon. So it is not until the mid 1870s that the project of the Statue of Liberty was able to do.