I listened to last night's Q&A, and while I believe Brian Williams does not know how to take a breath, the following excerpt, to me, was more newsworthy than the subject of this thread:
LAMB: I mean, how do you so much the conservative media criticize anchors living in New York City and in Connecticut for being isolated and never paying attention to their thought. How do you do you ever listen to the Limbaugh show or any of that stuff?
WILLIAMS: Oh, often, often, and Im one of the few in a very select group that Rush has allowed on when Ive called in from the car. I do listen to Rush. I listen to it from a radio in my office or depending on my day, if Im in the car, I will listen to Rush and he will tell you Ive been listening for years. I think its my duty to listen to Rush. I think Rush has actually yet to get the credit he is due because his audience for so many years felt they were in the wilderness of this country. No one was talking to them. They would look at mainstream media and theyd hear sentences like the following: Conservative firebrand Newt Gingrich today accused Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy
.
Well, whats wrong with that sentence? My friend Brit Hume we covered the White House together, always would call reporters on this. Wheres the appellation for Ted Kennedy in that sentence, you remembers of the perhaps unintentionally liberal media? Why arent you calling Kennedy something if youre going to label Newt Gingrich a conservative firebrand? Thats what Rush did. Rush said to millions of Americans, you have a home. Come with me. For three hours a day you can listen and hear the like minded calling in from across the country and Ill read to you things perhaps you didnt see that are out there. I think Rush gave birth to the FOX news channel. I think Rush helped to give birth to a movement. I think he played his part in the contract with America. So I hope he gets his due as a broadcaster.
That is an answer that is meant to be absent ideology. But if youre anchoring a blue state broadcast that is headquartered in a blue state, its incumbent on you to know as much as you can. I like to feel I grew up in a red spot in a blue state. Elmira, New York, the Elmira of my youth, was classic small town America. My wife and I vacation in Yellowstone National Park every year out in the west. I feel I know that area intimately. I go down to the house where I was born, where my sister now lives in New Jersey. I visit my old fire house.
I feel I have a good, almost again to use the word tactile feel for America. Because of my roots and certainly nothing fancy, an education that was just middle of the road, I had to start out at a community college locally because thats all my guidance counselor in high school thought Id be up for. I feel I have a pretty good idea of what the message was in this last election and what real Americans eat, sleep, breathe, what they do, what they are and what theyre passionate about. And to make sure we know, were going to take this broadcast on the air, on the road rather. Were going to get out. Its one thing to guess about whats important in Ohio and Las Vegas and Alamagordo (ph). Its another thing to go there, put a microphone in front of someone and say, tell us about your life. How do you see the country right now?
Count the number of times he used the word "feel" in that short conversation.. People who "feel" instead of "think" make me nervous.