Should Brian Williams be held to a higher standard?

Mika Brzezinski, the sidekick to Joe Scarborough on the MSNBC eye-opening (only because it comes on at 6:00 a.m.) broadcast Morning Joe, commented on the Brian Williams incident Monday. And, what she had to say, well, it wasn’t exactly deep. She was trying to take a higher ground while trying to defend Williams who has lied to the American public as he’s delivered the news for the NBC Nightly News. She’s quick to not take sides, one way or the other (“I just mean…” she usually says before trailing off without further opinion). She tries to justify everyone’s opinion except those of which she disagrees and then she’s wishy-washy.

To paraphrase, or at least report what was thought to be said, Mika, who for some odd reason is a model of excellence to viewing women while the men who sit around the table with her each day appear to be somewhere else when she talks, asked if Williams should be held to a higher standard and therefore not exaggerate his reporting, especially when it comes to injecting himself into the story as part of the news. Mika couldn’t decide to defend or trash the news anchor.

The TV news these days is less important to watch as it was years ago, prior to the Internet, Twitter and all the other social media. And before that, CNN and then MSNBC and then Fox News made the 30-minute broadcast at 6:30 each day following the local news obsolete. Except for the weather, the local news broadcast is nearly outmoded. Of course, if you like murders, fires and traffic jams due to wrecks, you can watch the top of the local news broadcast to learn about murders, fires and traffic jams due to wrecks. There has to be more important stuff to report. Death and taxes may be absolute but the local news doesn’t have to report it each day. While government and politics is not sexy enough to the masses, local TV news as well as local newspapers should educate with its reporting instead of playing the shock and awe ratings game. “Hey Mildred, come watch this trailer fire in Goldsboro.” And we wonder why educating the children is so difficult.

Back to Williams and Mika who should give us more depth for no other reason than she’s the daughter of Zbigniew Brzezinski, a smart man when it comes to foreign policy and national security even though he worked for President Lyndon Johnson (supporting the war in Vietnam) and for President Jimmy Carter (no need to say anything else about that). Even the show Mika co-hosts has added more “entertainment” at the expense of politics, government, economics and other subjects that give the viewers something to think about other than how a selfish musical artist acted on the Grammy Awards the night before. Even though it is more of an opinion show, Morning Joe (the show)—just as Williams, who probably will not return to the news theatrical stage—should be held to a higher standard when it comes to content. First point of emphasis should be to remove personal involvement in favor of real news such as Walter Cronkite telling us that the United States is losing the war in Vietnam. Wonder if Mika’s Daddy heard that.
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For a closer look, watch Jon Stewart.

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Dictionary.com word of the day

commensal (adjective) [kuh-men-suh l]: eating together at the same table