Tom Brokaw is no longer revered, if he ever had been. This has nothing to do with the bland job he did at last night’s pointless point-counterpoint session (debate). It did not start with him referring, twice on NBC’s Meet the Press last Sunday [transcript], to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers as “a school reformer in Illinois,” though seems to be an insidious symptom of his shrinking veneer of integrity. No… this is about Meet the Press.
When Tim Russert died last June at age 58, Brokaw took over and the MTP ratings began to plummet. I monitor the show, among the others, every Sunday, and as this election season progresses, I’ve seen Brokaw transform from confused and overwhelmed to poorly-prepared and hostile.
The New York Post piece (linked above) is not prepared to blame the ratings drop on Brokaw, instead declaring that “only explanation for the sudden drop” has to be “[t]he loss of the very popular Russert.” None of the other hosts have changed, though, and Russert was not canned in favor of Keefums or Matthews, so it is obvious that the quality Meet the Press has fallen dramatically under the partisan, doddering Brokaw.
As for Brokaw’s assertion that an unrepentant terrorist is only “a school reformer in Illinois,” that stems from the work the terrorist Ayers did with Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which ended in 2001. That was also the year when Ayers wrote that “[e]verything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon” and later told the New York Times, when asked if he’d do it again: “I don’t want to discount the possibility.” (The Times published that one the same day when Ayers got lucky. Al Qaeda dive-bombed the Pentagon for him.)
And if there were another Vietnam, he is asked, would he participate again in the Weathermen bombings?
Ayers answered with a bit of doggerel from Nobel Prize winning poet Seamus Heaney which seemed to indicate, albeit obtusely, that he would.
Just a school reformer in Illinois? Perhaps the Ayers has lost some of his terroristic talents, as Tom Brokaw has clearly lost his way journalistically. Barack Obama? He does not know which way is up, down, or right.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
Russert's Death and Obama's Ascent
NotSoBlueStater (Diary) Wednesday, October 8th at 1:29PM EST (link)Russert’s death will leave an indelible imprint on this election cycle. He asked the tough question in a year where we’re constantly feeling as though the tough questions aren’t being asked — particularly about and to Obama.
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Obama's driving habits
JLenardDetroit (Diary) Wednesday, October 8th at 1:37PM EST (link)Yep, he only knows Left… In order to make a Right hand turn, Obama has to make 3 Lefts. lol
The only presentation that will matter to Democrats/Independents, is to re-play Hillary Clinton’s comments about the ties between Obama and Ayers… We must use Democrat’s own words against them, as (of course, we know) many just dismiss anything said if it comes from the mouths of a Rep./Conservative – but if it comes from a Clinton, it’s Gospel, so we must ensure they hear it from Hillary.
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Obama, Ayers and education
Russ Martin (Diary) Wednesday, October 8th at 1:58PM EST (link)For the life of me, I can’t understand how John McCain missed the opportunity last night to link Obama with Ayers via education. Obama served it up to him on a silver platter.
McCain could have said:
“Well, since Sen. Obama brought it up, let’s take a moment to review his record on education. Sen. Obama’s only executive experience was serving as the president of Chicago’s Annenberg Challenge. He was given this position by William Ayers, a leader in the infamous Weather Underground which, for those that may not know, was a radical anti-war domestic terrorist organization in the 1960s and 70s. Among other atrocities, Mr. Ayers has admitted to bombing the Pentagon, the US Capitol building and the New York City Police building. Another member of the Weather Underground was convicted of murdering a NYC police officer. As recently as 2001, Mr. Ayers is on record as saying that not only was he not ashamed of his actions, he actually felt like the Weather Underground didn’t do enough.
Clearly, Sen. Obama has very close ties to Mr. Ayers because when Sen. Obama first decided to run for office in Chicago, Mr. Ayers hosted a political coming-out party for Sen. Obama at his own home.
Sen. Obama’s campaign now tries to mitigate Mr. Ayer’s terrible offfenses by calling him a “school reformer”. But Mr. Ayers and Sen. Obama have a somewhat unconventional view of education. The Annenberg Challenge decided that instead of focusing on improving math, science and reading scores, a more appropriate method of teaching our young people was to instruct them in political activism. Sen. Obama, at the behset of William Ayers, disbursed some $60m of charitable donations to further that end. After spending all of that money, the test scores of Chicago school childred showen no demonstrable improvement in math, reading or science. We have no scores to determine how they did in political activism:).
If that wasn’t enough, Mr. Obama is on record as supporting the teaching of “age appropriate” sexual education public school children as early as kindergarten! I’m struggling to imagine what type of sex education would be “appropriate” for my 5 year old son or daughter and as a parent, I certainly don’t want Sen. Obama, Mr. Ayers, or any government beauracrat making that decision for me.
Regardless, I don’t believe that I would want ANY of my children attending any schools that Sen. Obama or Mr. Ayers had anything to do with.”
I believe that this would have made an effective 90-second sound bite. As eloguent as he is, I doubt Mr. Obama would have been able to provide any sort of reasonable response that would have resonated with middle America.
Oh well – maybe in the next/last debate, not that anyone will be watching.
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” George Washington
There's
RJD (Diary) Wednesday, October 8th at 6:28PM EST (link)a reason Brokaw retired. He just doesn’t have “it” any more. Politics aside, I always liked him better than Peter Jennings, Brian Williams any body on CBS.