sorry but...Brian Williams hosting SNL is part of the problem

[hiphopnation]

he tried to play it off in his monologue, ironic as it was, but nothing can take away from the fact, Brian, that you were still there hosting the damn show!

He said part of his motivation for appearing was because Cronkite, Kopel, Jennings had all come before him on SNL but ... heh heh ... they really hadn't. How ironic, Brian, that the fact that these real news reporters hadn't actually appeared on this show because they (at least some of them) were responsible enough to know that there's a line between valuable public information and entertainment -- a line that today's news reporters are all to quick to gray over.

it's cute, yeah, and he's not that bad of a comedic actor, but at the end of the day what Johnny America sees is a news anchor double-timing it on a comedy show and the two become conflated.

It works when Stephen Colbert and John Stewart do it because they're mocking your kind, Mr. Williams. You, on the other hand, have tried to flip the script while being completely oblivious to the residual affects of such a move. You chose your path, Brian, when you took the job of parroting corporate news -- sorry you do not have the same liberties that Colbert and Stewart do. You're a hack and we now know that you're also a mediocre comedic actor to boot.

:thumbsdown: :-(

edited to add: THE MEDIA IS BROKEN AND IS DIRE NEED OF FIXING!!

[MonkeyFunk]

1. I disagree

Nothing wrong with showing that he's got a sense of humor.

So far he's very good on the show. Very funny.

[hiphopnation]

3. ...

Nothing wrong with showing that he's got a sense of humor.

of course not. not arguing against this ... just arguing that there's a time and place for those disseminate "news" to display said sense and SNL ain't it.

i couldn't even make it past his monologue. let me know how the rest of it goes, i'll be in the corner weeping for the future of this country...

:-(

[U4ikLefty]

7. Colour me surprised. n/t

[MonkeyFunk]

8. Who are you?

and why would your surprise be of any interest to me?

The fact is, Williams' day job is to read a tele-Prompter half an hour a day, Monday through Friday. He's not an icon, he's not a hero, he's just some guy who reads the news.

He was good on SNL.

[hiphopnation]

9. your characterization of his job is completely inaccurate

you make him sound like some kid reading news to three neighborhood kids in his backyard.

perhaps you forget that he's broadcast to millions of americans every night. millions of americans who will now view his newscast remembering him as having a comedic side on SNL...

how many of them will think the next time they watch him "how serious could that news he's reading really be after all?"

that's not a problem?!? *ugh*

[MonkeyFunk]

10. I think that's a very silly concern...

Gerald Ford and Al Gore have both been on SNL - did people stop taking them seriously? Nixon was on "Laugh-In".

Obama was on tonight, too - will people no longer take him seriously?

I just don't see the problem.

[hiphopnation]

11. it's cute when lawmakers are on such shows

we, collectively, can appreciate the irony...Nixon, Gore, Ford all go back to doing their jobs as lawmakers...away from cameras.

Brian Williams goes right back to his "job" -- utilizing public airwaves to "inform" the public of the issues that directly affect their lives. not really, though, given the conflation of news and entertainment, promulgated by his appearence on SNL.

sorry, there's a big difference between lawmakers and the press (the only profession mentioned in the constitution) blurring the lines between information and entertainment.

[Oeditpus Rex]

16. Not to mention, Cronkite was on an episode of 'Mary Tyler Moore'

And how many actual newspeople appeared on "Murphy Brown"?

Also, BBC newsreaders Richard Baker (twice) and Peter Woods were in episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus." In fact, one of Baker's appearances was one of the silliest bits they ever did. He punctuated the news with some very odd gestures, and then spoke in anagrams.

[U4ikLefty]

12. Who are YOU???

Your interests are of no concern...be gone!!!

BTW, how do you love Gore's Nobel Prize???

[MonkeyFunk]

14. As I said

on the day he won, I'm thrilled he got it. What a great honor for him.

I just find it odd that I have no idea who you are, but you seemed to have a preconceived notion of what I would think about Brian Williams hosting SNL. It'd odd you would have any feeling one way or the other about that - I didn't even have a feeling about it until I saw the show tonight.

I'm flattered you're so interested in me.

[SoCalDem]

2. NBC owns him and will "rent" him out to any of their shows they want

Just like when Russert or Tweety writes a book and then "guest" on each other's shows..and it all passes for "news".. and guess what..the publisher and ad agency are probably owned or in cahoots with GE..

The whole media game is just a giant infomercial..:(

[hiphopnation]

4. egg

xactly. can we please seperate out the news media that's integral to an informed public from the flashy lights and big boobs please!?!? likely not...

cue the chorus rooting for the big boobs in 5......4.....3......2......1.....GO!

[hfojvt]

23. they really did it for advertising

they want to promote their newscast to SNL viewers.

I have lately switched to NBC, because CBS pi$$ed me off by running a Social Security hit piece featuring the CATO bullsh*t institute. I have found a few things to like about NBC and so far nothing that has really pi$$ed me off. First, they regularly advertise for KeithO's show on MSNBC. Second, they did a fairly hard-hitting piece on the fact that the war in Iraq has increased the terrorist threat. Of course, they did it on Sunday when everyone was watching football on another channel, but still.

[otohara]

35. Exactly, His Numbers Are Down

the old folks that moved over to ABC may not come back so they are going for the younger demo. Providing that demo will ever watch the evening news, they would probably settle on Williams.

This was an attempt to reach viewers on an NBC comedy show. Normally the cynic in me would say it was lame, but as a former radio marketing person, I can see their logic.

[MagickMuffin]

5. I was wondering if he got his Best Buddy Rush Limpballs to help write the skits

about the Dems debate. I didn't find the show very good, and fast forwarded thru most of the skits.

I was also wondering if Brian was trying to attract a younger audience by appearing on SNL. Yeah Brian you are so hip, so kewl. I can't tolerate him. It has been said he was GLAD Oil Slick Dick was VP on the day we were attacked on 9-11. These anchors at NBC/GE have been indoctrinated into the GOP with the help of Jack Welch.

[hiphopnation]

6. blech

*this is me scraping out the bad taste that his monologue left in my mouth*

:puke::puke::puke::puke:

[Cha]

41. You got that and I think brian williams

Sucks..he's just another coporatemediawhore propogandahead and it sounded like snl didn' fare any better.

[KharmaTrain]

13. It's His Night Off...

First...I could care less about Williams. He showed me a decade ago he was a corporate sockpuppet and, as noted above, is mostly a news reader, not a real journalist. I heard him interviewed once and he described himself with "repugnican leaning"...enough for me.

Next, SNL ceased to be funny to my generation around the time Phil Hartmann passed away. It's not the show that everyone dropped everything to watch like it once was. C'est la vie.

Williams, like Colbert, Stewart, Blitzer and even Cronkite are creatures of the media. They're voices and faces on a screen that are mixed with hundreds of other faces and voices a person encounters. Williams is attempting to show he's a "human being"...not this creature, just like a Leslie Neilsen went from doing straight roles into shtick comedy. If you think its much more, maybe you need to watch less of the tube.

[hiphopnation]

15. ...

If you think its much more, maybe you need to watch less of the tube.

wait wait wait...so Brian Williams is attempting a career move similar to...let me get a straight face here...LESLIE NIELSEN!??! i might as well rest my case here but i can't resist...

i mean, thanks for your commentary on the status of SNL (which I don't entirely disagree with), but thanks also (i guess) for completely missing the point of the post -- let me give you a hint, SNL ain't the problem, at least not in this context. i mean, if it's no longer the show it was when Phil Hartman was alive, yes that's sad and something to be discussed in another thread.

However, the thrust of my concern focuses more on the further conflation of news media and entertainment on OUR public airwaves ushered in by prominent news anchors appearing on well-known comedy programs. See?

[KharmaTrain]

26. You Finally Realized It???

Our corporate media long ago merged entertainment and news. Mike Wallce hosted Game shows in the 50's....big deal.

What appears on our TV screens are performers...some perform comedy, other perform news...they all are performers. Many of us here are very aware of the media manipulations and point them out on a daily basis. A news reader reading a teleprompter on the 8th floor rather than the 2nd floor at 30 Rock doesn't fit into an outrage.

IRC, Walter Cronkite did appear on an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore show and...by your barometer, wouldn't a Williams appearing on a Daily show...which is just as much a comedy series as SNL (both compete for the same Emmy) or on Conan O'Brien also be an outrage? Dare to check how many times Williams has appeared on those shows.

[Bicoastal]

17. Hoo-boy...

Say what you will about his mediocre newsreading skills, but I think very few people besides you would be "confused" by him hosting SNL. Even the great Walter Cronkite, accoring to Wikipedia, appeared in a cameo role on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in his heyday.

The guy is taking his Saturday night off--perhaps you should do the same?

Oh, and goodnight.

[hiphopnation]

18. perhaps

or perhaps it's all a symptom of the same epedemic to which even the great Cronkite isn't immune...

then again, maybe i should just quit. it just seemed hard for me to swallow. maybe it was the that it was the SNL forum that bugged me.

maybe i'm just a younger DUer and am not accustomed...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

does this mean that seemingly harmless newsreaders are free to appear as entertainers without fear of reproach?

[hiphopnation]

19. edited to add:

do you contest that there is something drastically wrong with our media?

:thumbsup:

[illinoisprogressive]

20. hiphop, no offense but, lighten up.

I hear Nixon made an appearance on Laugh-in. People like news anchors and pols have been making appearances like this for decades. Like all people, they need alittle fun, too.

[hiphopnation]

22. this seems to be the consensus...

that is...that I need to lighten up. point taken.

this was just my knee-jerk reaction at seeing his mug on that damned monologue. WHERE WAS HE DURING KATRINA?!?!?
maybe i'm way off on this one...



this is me *lightening up* :-)

[riverdeep]

21. I can live with someone normally serious hosting SNL, I guess.

What really bothers me are people like George Snuffiluffigus, who are part of the newsmakers, and then commenting on the news. That's ridiculous, going back and forth between what should be a sacred divide. Pick a side. There's lots of others, Pat Buchanan, David Gergen. I find it sickening. There's plenty of other ways they could make a living, "journalism" shouldn't be one of them.

[kryckis]

24. I agree with you sentiment

As far as I'm concerned news readers should be totally neutral and personally uninvolved with news, media and entertainment. I know this is not the case in the US but that's what I think would be preferable. They are there to inform us of the news and not distract us with their own personality and opinions.

As for Williams hosting SNL, news today is already just one big infotainment circus so I guess this isn't really a big issue for people.

[illinoisprogressive]

25. I understand the anger but, we are looking at two different things

On one hand, Williams is just an anchor. It's a comendy program and SNl has a history of having people like Williams, ect host.
On the other hand:
The larger question needs to be where was and is our government with Katrina.
Why, after 2 years, are things still so bad and why are the bushies allowed to contract it out to cronies who pocket the money and not do the job and get away with it.

[tomg]

27. Just a note on Nixon and Laugh-In

Found this on Wikipedia (which I don't let my students use for research, so take it as research for what it is worth)

"An invitation was extended to Nixon's opponent, Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, but he declined. According to George Schlatter, the show's creator, "Humphrey later said that not doing it may have cost him the election."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowan_&_Martin's_Laugh-In

Frankly, Brian Williams is pretty small potatoes in this regard, but the overall blurring of the lines between entertainment and news is, I think, extremely serious. Infotainment. Williams is not the problem. His appearance on SNL is simply a symptom - and not even a major one ( kind of like you are dying in the next month and one of the symptoms is mild gas). Overall it is a pretty complex issue, ranging from the appropriation of Clinton clips in Contact to the use of footage of McCarthy in Good Night, and Good Luck ( I still think McCarthy deserved Best Supporting), and into the current blurring.
Still one of the best books on the issue is Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

28. Hah. I bet you'd claim that The Daily Show is not real news, too! Hah!

ACtually, in some demographics, some folks get their ONLY news from Stewart & Co.

[NYCGirl]

29. Here's a clip of Edward R. Murrow interviewing Liberace:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5483256598239028791&q=edward+r+murrow+person+to+person&total=16&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

And about the series:

The series and Murrow received frequent criticism. Respected television critics, including Harriet Van Horne, Philip Mintoff, Gilbert Seldes, and John Lardner pointed to Murrow's petty, aimless chatter, arguing that television demanded more substance and depth, especially from someone of Murrow's journalistic background. For Murrow's colleagues, the series diverted his valuable time and energy from other projects, and added an unnecessary burden. When Collingwood took over as host, these critics quietly accepted the series for what it purported to be.

But Murrow steadfastly defended the series. When an author, such as Walter White, mentioned a new book, book sales increased. Thousands of viewers requested a one sentence, fifty-seven word Chinese proverb read by Mary Martin, which she had engraved in a rug. If two or three children committed themselves to piano lessons after seeing Van Cliburn, Murrow believed the criticism worth taking. Moreover, the range and variety of people interviewed was unprecedented for network television at the time. One three week period in 1957 included interviews with the political cartoonist Herbert Block, media market researcher, A.C. Nielsen, and Robert F. Kennedy, Chief Council of the Senates Select Committee.

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/persontoper/persontoper.htm


So if the greatest journalistic lion, Murrow, could do that — I can cut a much smaller figure a break.

[tomg]

30. Oh, and in a delightful bit of irony

has anyone noticed the ad at the bottom of the page ( at least as of now) which asks
"Is John Stewart Fair. . . Take the PollingPoint"

Of course he's not "fair." He doesn't have to be. He's a comic.He can't be "fair." Think about it.
"Is Bill Hicks/ Lenny Bruce/ Richard Pryor/ Jonathan Swift ( the first one)/Juvenal/Aristophanes Fair"

[high density]

31. Al Gore hosted SNL

So I guess he can't be president now, just like Brian Williams can't be newsman. ???? :wtf:

It's a freaking joke. Brian Williams has been on Conan O'Brien's show plenty of times, and he has a decent sense of humor. SNL is around to make people laugh (supposedly), so Williams actually seemed to be a decent fit. I haven't watched the entire episode yet, but what I saw was better than some musicians and sports idiots they've trotted out to host in recent years.

[Neshanic]

32. Agree. He should not be hosting a comedy show. Further blur for moronic polulace.

[Cha]

42. brian williams hosts a propoganda

show that's tragic/comedy and apparently waning in ratings so they thought they'd put him in their declining snl spot.

[Mutineer]

33. I agree.

100%

[immoderate]

34. "The Cronk" hosted the Miss America Pageant.

I remember.

--IMM

[Neshanic]

36. Was that befor or after he told the nation on air that Vietnam was a lost cause?

I guess I am still waiting for some type of "that's it" from Williams.

An news anchor ( not an a Maher, or a Keith) should objectively and accurately report the news and in very special cases, make a comment, like Cronkite did. But since we have a media conglomerate that thinks it would be cute to have their photogenic talking head on their comedy show, and cannot make the statements like Cronkite was allowed to do, it's sickening to see him on SNL. Now if was allowed to objectively report the news, then maybe it would not be so objectionable, but he is not allowed. He is told what to say.

Just read the news Brian, just read it.

[Bluebear]

40. I don't believe that happened.

It was always Bert Parks in that era.

[immoderate]

44. I can't find a reference. It might be a false memory.

I did find that Douglas Edwards, Cronkite's predecessor, hosted Miss America in 1957.

Apologies to Walter and everybody if I got it wrong.

At least I have no reputation for credibility to protect.

On edit: He was on Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1974.

--IMM

[tinrobot]

37. Mike Wallace hosted game shows in the 1950s....

He also used to do comedy with Spike Jones in the 40's.

I guess those infractions invalidate the remaining 50 years of his career....

[Bluebear]

38. NBC plays "Pimp my anchor". The line between news & entertainment continues to disappear. nt

[Neshanic]

39. Correct. "He's so comforting reading the shit on the screen and he's funny too!"

[tammywammy]

43. Damn, that Brian Williams should know he's not allowed a sense oh humor

Damn him to hell.

[JVS]

45. THIS IS AN AFFRONT TO THE DIGNITY OF THE BEACH BOYS ORGANIZATION!

[tammywammy]

47. LOL

:rofl:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

46. K n R, hhn23

You are so right. MKJ