Maureen Dowd: Anchors Aweigh (Brian Williams)

The New York Times ^ | February 7, 2015 | Maureen Dowd

[EveningStar]

THIS was a bomb that had been ticking for a while.

NBC executives were warned a year ago that Brian Williams was constantly inflating his biography. They were flummoxed over why the leading network anchor felt that he needed Hemingwayesque, bullets-whizzing-by flourishes to puff himself up, sometimes to the point where it was a joke in the news division.

But the caustic media big shots who once roamed the land were gone, and “there was no one around to pull his chain when he got too over-the-top,” as one NBC News reporter put it.

[eartrumpet]

G. Gordon Liddy always referred to Peter Jennings as Peter Perfect due to his luxurious hair. Brokaw and Williams both sport a perfect hairdo, too.

[bandleader]

A piece of advice?Don’t Hold Your Breath???

[Nextrush]

Just like Dan Rather he went too far......

[Catsrus]

I have watched over the past few years those who criticized and made fun of Sarah Palin in the media, are being brought down one-by-one. Katie Couric is another one - the Bible means what it says - “touch NOT mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” saith the Lord. Mitt Romney is another one who was brought low - he lost his presidential bid in 2012 by an embarassing number. Her critics think they are cute - and that it’s cool to get on the hate Sarah bandwagon, but woe to those who do. This is the same for every believer - the Lord fights our battles

[onyx]

Dearest you, thank you so much for that! You are so right.
God bless and keep you and everyone you love.

[clintonh8r]

She left that outfit at my place.....

[Stand Watch Listen]

[dfwgator]

So Brian Williams WAS Left Shark!!!

[Stand Watch Listen]

[batterycommander]

Deep down I believe Lyin Brian’s resume inflation has to do with his academic failure. He attended 3 colleges over the years and yet he accumulated a total of only 18 college credits. But in 2005 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Bates College, from which his father had graduated. I suspect Bates is regretting that honorary award to Brian. I had a similar failure in my youth, attending five colleges and achieving no degree. It was only after my father’s death that I graduated at age seventy with a bachelor’s degree...and with summa cum laude honors.

[leapfrog0202]

I read something that said the execs at the network told him several times over at least a yearlong period to quit telling that story. So they knew. They should have fired him when he ignored them.

[AlaskaErik]

OK, I give up...who is she?

[stillonaroll]

That's Catherine Zeta Jones, now married to Michael Douglas. Maureen Dowd, the far-left NYT columnist who authored the article, is Douglas' former mistress.

Longstanding FR rules require that any Maureen Dowd column posted here must be accompanied by a photo of Catherine Zeta Jones.

[namvolunteer]

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, the author of this article, used to date the actor Michael Douglas who threw her over to woo and wed the actress Catherine Zeta-Jones. It's Free Republic tradition to malign Dowd with pictures of the exquisite CZJ! Here's a 10-year old FR thread that explains it: http://wallpapermine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/catherine_zeta_jones_24.jpg

[Talisker]

I graduated at age seventy with a bachelor’s degree...and with summa cum laude honors.

You're an inspiration - well done!

[SaveFerris]

Fame went to his head. I hadn’t paid a tremendous amount of attention until I started watching what was happening in 2008. Many of his statements and “journalistic” behavior made me think he had a very strange outlook on things.

I normally switched away from NBC News if I happened to look, if he was anchoring that night. Already knew what to expect.

[Bon mots]

Waiting for Mo's Hillary expose…

She is a far worse pathological liar than Lyin' Williams.

Hillary Clinton's List of Lies

Admitted Lies

• Chelsea was jogging around the Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (She was in bed watching it on TV.)
• Hillary was named after Sir Edmund Hillary. (She admitted she was wrong. He climbed Mt. Everest five years after her birth.)
• She was under sniper fire in Bosnia. (A girl presented her with flowers at the foot of the ramp.)
• She learned in The Wall Street Journal how to make a killing in the futures market. (It didn't cover the market back then.)

Whoppers She Won't Confess To

• She didn't know about the FALN pardons.
• She didn't know that her brothers were being paid to get pardons that Clinton granted.
• Taking the White House gifts was a clerical error.
• She didn't know that her staff would fire the travel office staff after she told them to do so.
• She didn't know that the Peter Paul fundraiser in Hollywood in 2000 cost $700,000 more than she reported it had.
• She opposed NAFTA at the time.
• She was instrumental in the Irish peace process.
• She urged Bill to intervene in Rwanda.
• She played a role in the '90s economic recovery.
• The billing records showed up on their own.
• She thought Bill was innocent when the Monica scandal broke.
• She was always a Yankees fan.
• She had nothing to do with the New Square Hasidic pardons (after they voted for her 1,400-12 and she attended a meeting at the White House about the pardons).
• She negotiated for the release of refugees in Macedonia (who were released the day before she got there).

[Rummyfan]

It was only after my father’s death that I graduated at age seventy with a bachelor’s degree...and with summa cum laude honors.

Congratulations!

[Ann Archy]

Dan Rather was NOT a Marine???? I’ve heard him say that.

[KosmicKitty]

I think MoDo may have been making fun of their hair/toupees.