Bill Maher has some ideas about what really destroyed Brian Williams’ credibility with the American people…and it has absolutely nothing to do with his recent suspension.
From Mediaite:
See, what “destroyed” Brian Williams’ credibility in Maher’s eyes was “ten years of wasting precious news time with bullshit stories.” It really bothers him that national nightly newscasts shirk their “sacred responsibility” to report the news in favor of viral YouTube videos, cutesy human interest stories, and lots and lots of weather coverage.He called it “journalistic malpractice” for Williams to spend so little time reporting on climate change and instead covering east coast blizzards “like white Godzilla is on the way.”
Watch:
Personally? I think it’s both. I think that, at least as long as I’ve been alive and cognizant of the national media, there’s been a lot of media malpractice that America is all too willing to overlook.
Maher focuses on the stupid filler stories that plague nightly news shows, but I think the bigger problem comes down to how the media picks and chooses winners and losers in American society. We’ve already seen the kind of media shenanigans that go on during an election cycle—and we should be prepared for more. (It’s already starting.) They completely fumbled the ball during coverage on North Korea; they refuse to acknowledge Palestinian obstructionism; they’re so obsessed with the existence of Fox News that they beclown themselves in an attempt to lampoon the network.
Wouldn’t it be something if national networks caught on to what Maher is selling, and started covering more substantive stories? Even if they focused on Maher’s pet subject of climate change, it would at least offer an opportunity for debate and discussion.
As for Williams—I think at least our readers have spoken.
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