Wife of Brian, life of Ezra: Last Monday, David Carr penned the Standard Press Corps Profile of regular guy Brian Williams. All the standard hooks were there, though Carr waited a while before making his way to these guild-mandated chestnuts:
CARR (10/17/11): It is that wink, along with the impression that he actually knows his way around a Target store, that makes him appealing. He is like the local anchor that we love to watch, the funny one, the nice one, the handsome one, except he talks to almost eight million people every night about global and national matters.So humble he shops at Target. Check!
[…]
He swears he would happily go to work at NY1 if he got fired tomorrow. (In fact, during Hurricane Irene he sat in for an hour on WNBC, the local New York affiliate, just to give the anchors there a break.) Mr. Williams is talent, but he skews normal and is the kind of guy who would be happy working as a volunteer fireman, which he has, or the type who didn’t finish college because he got interested in other things, which he also did.
Worked as a volunteer fireman. Check!
Didn’t finish college. Check! And don’t say why he dropped out (to go to work in the White House.)
Carr dragged his heels before doing his duty. Then, as he continued, he dropped this big loud bomb:
CARR (continuing directly): Because he is busy getting ready for the new show, and I am on deadline, we met at the Midtown apartment he shares with his wife, Jane, who covers education for Bloomberg Radio, and with his daughter, Allison, an actress who will soon appear on the HBO series “Girls.”Say what? Williams' wife covers education for Bloomberg? Question: Is there anyone in the mainstream press corps who isn’t part of the Bloomberg cult—who isn’t on retainer from the billionaire mayor, who isn’t in some manner or fashion paid to pimp his ideas?
Most likely, somebody isn’t. But it probably wouldn’t be Ezra Klein, who seems to be cashing checks from every source in the land.
Background:
Last March, Klein penned a rather strange column in the Washington Post (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 3/3/11). We thought it was odd for two reasons:
First, the column was very dumb. Second, it dealt with public schools, a topic Klein rarely discusses.
What made the column so strikingly dumb? In the Standard Scripted Dumbkopf Manner, Klein bashed and trashed those public school teachers and their infernal unions. He specifically praised a New York City org established by the queen, Michelle Rhee.
We were puzzled by the piece, both because of the subject matter and because it was so scripted and dumb.
Does this supply our explanation? Click that link, and you will see that Klein went on the dole from Bloomberg just a few weeks after writing that piece. Truly, these people shop themselves around like there’s only one buck left on earth.
Bloomberg is into the wife of Brian—and he’s into Darling Ezra. He’s deeply into Charlie Rose (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 7/13/11).
In the world of post-journalistic insider trading, who doesn’t this billionaire own?
The correct way to profile Brian: Some years ago, we helped you see the official standard way to profile the regular guy Brian Williams. For part 1 of our hard-hitting three-part report, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 12/4/07.
I read Greenwald, not Ezra. Ezra is one of my least favorite "liberal" commentators. He rarely has strong criticisms against the powerful. And he is in love with Obama.
ReplyDeleteIt's disappointing that Carr left out Williams' work in getting Obama nominated, particularly the debate of 10/30/07 in which Brian and Saint Tim Russert brought the hated witch down to earth, giving their guy the opportunity. As Chris Matthews said, they saw their opening and went for it.
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