Posted on 12/02/2004 4:23:28 PM PST by WinOne4TheGipper
NBC's "Nightly News" may be changing in more ways than one when Brian Williams takes over Tom Brokaw's old anchor chair tonight.
While Brokaw was an inveterate liberal who regarded the new media with deep suspicion, Williams is a regular talk radio listener who considers Rush Limbaugh a media icon.
"Rush Limbaugh has a place in American history he has not yet received his due for," Williams told ABC Radio network host Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
"There were millions of Americans who were out in the wilderness and had no one who shared their voice," the NBC'er said. "And he came along and gave birth to a whole bunch of things."
Williams called Limbaugh "a leader in the business" and said he regards it as "my job to listen to Rush."
His comments may not go down too well with NBC morning diva Katie Couric, who's reportedly no fan of Limbaugh.
Describing a somewhat hostile encounter between himself and Couric some years back, Limbaugh told his audience on Tuesday, "There's still some tension there."
The decision for him to be the replacement for Brokaw has been years in the making. Tonight is his first duty as full-time, 5 night a week anchor of NBC Nightly News. Anchoring the news is a natural fit for Williams.
Don't be fooled....
I recall he did talk about his Disneyworld trip with his kids. It was also the same interview I found out he was a huge NASCAR fan, even that got a lot of laughs, even from David Letterman.
Rush likes him, Sean likes him and had him on his show yesterday.
He's makes a lot of fun of himself.
But I happen to see him the first night he was the anchor on the 8 P.M. news on MSNBC (I think I even watched it BECAUSE I had seen him on Letterman) and it was the night that TWA 800 crashed; MSNBC was so new, they didn't even have any graphics.
During a break, he went out to his car and got a map and held it up to show where the plane went down.
IMO, it was very impressive.
He had already finished his first shift before you posted this.
He gave the eulogy for Dale Earnhardt. They must have been pretty close.
I've never had an issue with him, and that's good.
As long as he doesn't think of the red states as a "foreign country" like Chrissy does, I'm thrilled.
Self-deprecating humor is probably the funniest.
It's airing in the Mountain Time Zone at the moment, and it will be airing in the Pacific Time Zone in less than 2 hours from now.
I heard that interview with Sean, and I liked it. I don't think Brian Williams is a dittohead, but he is thoughtful, and he IS aware of media bias. He gave a clear example of it, during his conversation, something like "Right wing extremist Newt Gingrich" and said media never says "Left wing extremist Ted Kennedy."
That said, we'll just have to wait and see what Brian does. I don't watch alphanet news, so I'll rely on FReep reports.
I honestly will say that I watched Brian Williams' show on MSNBC nightly, and stopped watching when he left and The News With Brian Williams was done away with. So I do recall that moment you're talking about quite vividly. :)
A lot of this could simply be posturing for the pajama posse viewership. Throw them a bone, act like you think they're actually a part of America and all that.
Time will tell whether he listens to Rush because he finds it illuminating, or because it's his perceived duty to hear the opposition.
Now if someone could get Bri a head brace so he trains himself to face the camera straight-on, I'd be impressed.
Rush seemed to go out of his way to praise him. Let's at least give him a chance.
I do recall he was an Earnhardt fan.
How was it? (I meant to watch!)
Rush fan, NASCAR fan could there be hope?
So far, so good.
He's going to end the show with a "Few thoughts on a new era". I won't be able to transcribe real time, but I'll provide a gist after I hear it, perhaps there may be a transcript of the news later. :)
He need to remake the whole newsroom. That's where the liberals are.
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