Prime Brian Williams

[PGage]

Wondering if anyone else sampled “Election Night w Brian Williams” on Amazon Prime Tuesday night? For the portion of the night before real results came in, and after key counties in key states did and pointed to the inevitable outcome (heartbreakingly early as it turned out) I checked in and out, and liked a lot of it. For the few hours when we were getting meaningful returns I attended to MSNBC, hooked on the still wonderful Steve Kornacki. For a while I watched both, one on my TV and the other on my IPad.

I have always been pro Williams, even during his all-too-human false memories fiasco, and enjoyed him on what I thought was clearly the best show on MSNBC. On Prime he recreated much of that vibe - collegial, professional, smart, funny, relaxed but articulate. He is a broadcaster (Streamer?) in the mode of Bob Costas or David Letterman, and like them it is usually a pleasure to be in their company regardless of what they are talking about. I would have fewer of the other exiles and rejects from cable news shows ( Don Lemon was an idiot long before Trump was a presidential politician), but I liked it enough that I hope they put together some sort of weekly show. Of course he was my choice to take over for Trevor Noah on TDS,

Aside from Stevie K, MSNBC was a mess. Yes we know they are the liberal outlet, and I don’t mind that they were all explicitly rooting for Harris. I was too after all. But  I don’t watch the news to have people I agree with blow smoke up my ass and try to induct me into their delusional system. Even Fox News, as horrible as they are, usually have some news person who is connected to reality. 

On MSNBC it was like none of the hosts were even listening to Kornacki during their many breakaways. Joy Reid was at her absolute worst ( a level she never strays too far from). Late into the night she continued to assert that when Philadelphia came in the race would look different, as if she was the only one who knew there are a lot of Black people in Philly, and also as if she had not listened to, or understood SK 100 feet from her explaining all night how Kamala was underperforming Biden enough in key swing PA counties that even unrealistically high margins in Philadelphia would not make a difference.

I usually ambivalently defend MSNBC against Kevin’s broad dismissals, arguing they are 33% better than Fox. Tuesday night they were much worse than Fox. Too bad too, because during the Trump Sequel we are really going to need credible journalists to call him to account, and instead most Trump resistors will be stuck with The Clown Show.

https://www.salon.com/2024/11/06/brian-williams-night-prime/

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[PGage]

[Kevin M.]

There is no such thing as journalism on television anymore. 

There is no such thing as journalism in big city newspapers anymore. 

If we had journalists working in traditional media, this week would’ve been very different. 

Kevin M. (RPCV)

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[Tom Wolper]

Everybody who voted for Trump knows what he is. For the people who don’t know, there’s nothing the news media can do to connect with them.

Journalists still do a reasonably good job in covering local news and business news. The reporters and pundits doing national news have gotten into a closed circle and think of each other as their audience.

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[PGage]

I did not watch much TV News this cycle, but I thought the quality of newspaper journalism covering Trump was pretty good, much better than 2016  and 2020. They labeled his untrue statements as untrue, described his racist and misogynistic statements as racist and misogynistic, and provided context for much of what he was trying to do, including documenting the oligarchs and would be oligarchs falling into line behind him. The reelection of Trump can not be blamed on low-information voters or journalistic laziness or cowardice. The American people chose exactly the leader most of them wanted.

And back to my original point, I thought Williams did a pretty good job is illustrating how to cover Trump on television.

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