Frankly, who cares what Brian Williams says?

-- T. Suarez

Brian Williams has benefited to the tune of multiple millions of dollars, due largely to what he says. So, I'd have to guess that a lot of people care what Brian Williams says. That being the case, maybe it's not such a bad thing to call him out, as Glenn has done, on his propaganda and clap trap.

The sociological analysis of Gate 14 is about as sophisticated as something David Brook's would come up. (Watch out Dave: Peggy's gonna have an edge on you.)

Waiting for a plane must be the only time Peggy encounters people who aren't Irish-American "regular folk." Her fantasy that Gate 14 is a real community just goes to show what kind of isolated fantasy world she lives in most of the time. Apparently Brian Williams wants to join her club.

But not as sweetly. To paraphrase someone over there:

The sky is blue, grass is green, Williams is an ass.

By contrast, the Very Serious Newsman, Williams, devoted roughly 10% of the 22 minutes he's allotted for delivering the "news" to a pre-adolescent star from Hannah Montana -- on the very same day he pompously pranced around as a Man of Substance.

All over these United States, ten-year-old girls are deeply interested in all things Hannah Montana. Why, at my local library we have not enough HM books and movies in the holdings, and so have huge reserve lists. This makes little girls cry, Glenn! (Tho it must be said, many of them live with families in -- ewww-- efficiency apartments.)

That Brian Williams knows what The People want, bygawd. For shame, Glenn.

...and reeked of entitled faux-patriotism. The sole purpose of her article was to defend anti-intellectuals from having to think about larger issues, instead imbuing them with a halo of warm, sepia-tone nostalgia for the way 'real' Americans' used to be in them thar good old days. How could a black man in America possibly understand the risk-taking ambition and sacrifice of the white guys seeking to 'find' their fortune by literally digging a hole in the ground and finding it full of money (gold)? Clearly Obama, and all other black men, have had it way too easy.

The fact that Williams extolls the beauty/meaning of such tripe is not surprising, coming from a man who says "All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I'm up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn't left the efficiency apartment in two years." Might as well have said "But I have the Porsche! I have the hair! They should all believe ME -- not Vinny!" Because nothing a guy name Vinny says or thinks can possibly have any relevance, value or merit to you.

...here is what I wrote about it then on another site:

http://online.wsj.com/artic le/declarations.html

"This is absolutely astonishing! Peggy Noonan actually argues that Obama's patriotism is in question because of the history of this country being pervasively racist. Due to long standing--and justified--resentments about grave injustices from slavery through Jim Crowe and beyond, the reason Obama (read "any black person") is deserving of scrutiny regarding his patriotism is because given the US's deplorable history of racism and violence against black people it is legitimate to question whether Obama has internalized and weeps with heart-felt reverence at the unquestionable greatness of all of America's story. How could anyone actually be patriotic and love their country if their view of that country is somehow inexplicably colored by systematic oppression and violence even during that person’s lifetime? How dare they even try to claim that they love their country! What snooty, lefty, pompous elitism to even intimate that he/she would or even could!"

Check out the post:

http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/4/25/191643/239/Diary/Are-Blacks-Incapable-of-Patriotism-

Has anyone discovered the law(s) that folks at the Pentagon may have broken? I've seen several comments that laws may have been broken, but have yet to see the law citation. I've looked here, but to no avail:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

@hoeyst - that looks great, the best counter yet. (though the blue on black is hard to see...)

But has he ever gotten misty-eyed over . . . the Wright Brothers and what kind of country allowed them to go off on their own and change everything? How about D-Day, or George Washington, or Henry Ford, or the losers and brigands who flocked to Sutter's Mill, who pushed their way west because there was gold in them thar hills? There's gold in that history.

These names and images really mean nothing to Noonan other than to act as sound bytes of wholesomeness. She could have substituted Walt Disney, the World's Fair, Grandma Moses, a train, or any other icon for the names she mentioned, and she wouldn't care about the complexity or richness of their history.

Liked it. Thanks.

He's got her beat. At least there's a possibility, just by chance, of some disparity among a group of random travelers.

But according to a USA Today profile of Williams, in 2004 "he flew to Dundee, Mich., to take the pulse at Cabela's, the popular hunting and fishing mail-order house whose megastores draw 4 million customers a year."

After that eye-opening and completely unbiased random sample of Americans, according to the piece:

"Williams reported — presciently in light of President Bush's re-election — that Cabela's customers were a force to be reckoned with: God-fearing conservatives who like guns, fishing and the outdoors, and that in 2000, "six in 10 gun owners voted for President Bush."

His scientific, sociological discovery moved Williams so much that he "wanted to go back to our newsroom and say, 'Guys, this is who you don't know. While we haven't been watching, this is what America has become.' Not to pander, not to customize the news, but a newscast that forgets what its audience has become and takes its eye off the ball in terms of what America is, is doomed to failure."

Another excursion into the field pays huge dividends for the intrepid journalist/anthropologist/sociologist/man of science/ urban adventurer/Nascar dad - Brian "Look how red the map is!" Williams.

Here's the link http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2004-11-09-williams_x.htm