Monthly Archives: February 2015

Random Thoughts: Extremism, Williams, the Inexplicable, Birdman

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  FEB 23

Thought #1: President Obama and  (Fill in the Blank) Extremism
The President has stubbornly refused to identify the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State in the Levant (ISIL) extremists as Islamic. His spokesman twisted American English into incoherent knots trying to avoid referring to those 21 Egyptian “citizens” whose heads were cut off by ISIS executioners as Christians.

National Security Advisor Susan Rice, the one who did such a good job explaining Benghazi, admonished us to keep the terrorism of the Islamist extremists, ISIS, in the proper perspective. It isn’t as great a crisis as the media make it out to be.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf lectured us recently about the “root causes” of the extremist war, which she thinks is economic, not religious, and can be solved over time by Continue reading

His Words Jumped Off the Pages

BY JOHN FEEHERY
FEB 15 | Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

His words jumped off the pages.

And at that point, I knew I was in the Major Leagues.

I moved to Washington in September of 1989, and improbably found myself with a job in the office of House Minority Leader Bob Michel.

My dad’s colleague, John Coyne, a former speechwriter to Spiro Agnew, had set up a meeting for me with Bill Gavin, who was writing speeches for the Leader. Continue reading

Brian Williams & Bigger Problems in Journalism

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  FEB 11

“I think the thing that makes the story suspect is he violated one of the rules of old soldier’s war stories. That is you tell war stories about the adventures of others that you observe. Many of his war stories are about him. He became a part of the story. “

Lt. Gen Russell Honore’, former commander of restoration after Hurricane Katrina, commenting for the CNN show Reliable Sources February 8, 2015 on NBC News anchor Brian Williams reporting from New Orleans in the aftermath of the storm.

Good journalism is enhanced by good story telling, my spouse, a former broadcast anchor often reminds me, but good story telling is not necessarily good journalism. Continue reading

Credibility Anchors News Shows

BY B. JAY COOPER
FEB 8 | Reprinted from The Screaming Moderate (bjaycooper.com)

NBC News anchor Brian Williams is on the hot seat for his memory lapses or, better put, his memory enhancements, when it comes to his recollections of his coverage of wars and disasters. Mockery has begun! And that, my friends, is worse.

Brian says a military helicopter he was flying on was shot down. But it wasn’t. That was the chopper a half hour in front of his helicopter, which did not take fire. And, Brian, while in New Orleans covering Katrina said he saw a dead body float by his room in the Ritz Carlton, but the floods were blocks away from the hotel. Continue reading