Posted on 02/11/2015 3:38:01 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As crazy as the 'NBC Nightly News' with Jon Stewart may sound, the timing of Stewart's announcement and the length of Brian Williams' suspension is oddly perfect for exactly that to happen.
Jon Stewart's retirement announcement times up perfectly with Brian WIlliams' suspension ending. Is there more than meets the eye in that coincidence?
For media conspiracy theorists, it doesn't get any better than this.
At almost the exact moment NBC gives Brian Williams a six-month timeout, Jon Stewart announces that somewhere around the time those six months are up, he will become a free agent.
Coincidence? Oh yeah, say the doubters. About as coincidental as Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker finding reasons to give a speech in Iowa every 20 minutes.
Last Friday, while Williams was still trying to swim through the quicksand, Rush Limbaugh was on the radio predicting NBC would use Williams's troubles to court Stewart, as part of the ongoing effort by the "drive-by media" to pack newscasts with liberals.
Given how Mr. Stewart and El Rushbo feel about each other, let's assume that speculation was not based on personal conversations.
There are all sorts of reasons why it's unlikely NBC would want Stewart to anchor the nightly news. For one thing, NBC tries to take that program seriously while Stewart is known for trying not to treat anything seriously.
On the other hand, NBC did woo Stewart as a potential host for "Meet the Press" when David Gregory was being asked to pack up his stuff.
No one knows what will happen when Brian Williams' suspension is over at the end of the summer, mostly because it isn't known if Williams will get the trust of the viewers back.
So when chagrined packs of high NBC officials were meeting over the last few days to figure out how they could scrape this ostrich egg off the network's face, it's not at all unlikely that someone said, well, what would we do if Brian left?
And not at all unlikely Stewart's name came up.
Along with other names that will never leave the room.
Now that we know what NBC has officially decided about Williams, the question lingers, simply because no one has any idea what will happen when Williams's six months are up.
Does Lester Holt sign off one night in August and the next night Williams returns and all this stuff will magically feel as distant as the War of 1812?
Or would we get a revived round of jokes about how Williams was probably standing next to Francis Scott Key when he wrote "The Star-Spangled Banner"?
Alternatively, does Williams come back on the air and say that after six months at Conflators Anonymous, he understands his addiction and he pledges to do better, one newscast at a time?
We don't know. There's just not a lot of precedent for a man whose currency is trust being sent home for six months because his bosses are afraid no one trusts him any more.
As with many things that are sad, like multi-car accidents, this has been a spectacle we haven't been able to stop watching.
So when Stewart decided to create his own newsburst by the side of the same road, it was hard to miss. It was also hard to think his timing was entirely random.
Stewart has said in recent years that he maybe didn't want to do "The Daily Show" forever. That makes sense. But he's not so tired of it that he's just walking away cold, or even walking away in time to spend the summer watching his Mets.
Maybe he knows something about Matt Harvey's rehab that we don't.
But in the meantime, the rest of us get to play Fantasy TV Anchor Ball — and until the real season starts, it's a splendid way to pass the time.
Stewart as the replacement NBC anchor? He or someone actually believes he fits the remotest definition of ‘journalist’?
I guess NBC should just get it over with and hire him. They can hire his whole team of comedy writers too. That’s what NBC has been making of professional news/journalism anyway.
Suddenly, the prospect of an “Ow! My Balls!” show doesn’t seem so distant.
“Bring in the Clowns”
Maybe he’s running for office?
Don’t bother.
They’re here.
Coincidence?I don’t think so??I guess what should happen is that Jon Liebowitz should become”Brian Williams”(and vice-versa)?????
Fixed it!
“For one thing, NBC tries to take that program seriously while Stewart is known for trying not to treat anything seriously.”
Except they put a known (to them) liar at the helm for years, and more Americans get their news from Stewart than any other source.
While a far-fetched comedy, the movie was actually prophetic in a way. I especially loved the continuing sequence in it that shows the professional couple pitted against the redneck with respect to the family tree their actions created. Pretty funny.
And "Amusing Ourselves to Death" was prophetic. And my Daddy was right - "Television will rot your mind."
It would finally confirm that the nightly “news” is a bad joke.
Ow, that hurt!
The sad truth is that the movie, “idiocracy” is actually a documentary of the future of democrat party control.
Even more bizarre would be rehabilitating Brian Williams. The total news staff is suspect because there have to be those who knew that Williams didn't do news, he did historical fiction. Brian Williams days should be over. Real journalists need to put professional standards before friendship. Do I believe they aren't all part of the game? Of course not. But it should be "game's up".
For NBC, putting in John Stewart and a show that's biting, takes a personal and humorous view, might be the best way to compete. It's beginning to seem that Stewart's news and his in-the-open biases are more honest than what we've been force fed by the networks and news stations with their agendas to promote.
JMHO
Thing is, the movie is turning into a prophetic look into the not-to-distant future from when the movie was made. Incredible that the movie never was released in the theaters.
Great week!! In one week two leading lib/socialist spokesmen are off the stage.
Maybe Brian will become Brianna and come back a new person.
But I don’t get it, Brian Williams gave himself a one week vacation, shouldn’t that have been the end of it? Now how is he going to explain to himself that he’s been overruled and it is now a six month suspension without pay?
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