Okay, I’ll admit it: I haven’t watched network news with any regularity since I lived with my parents. But still, this picture of Brian Williams made me pause:
This is how we’re given the news these days? In a format that makes it look like the dude just set up a video camera in his wood-paneled studio, printed out some emails, and got to work? Only thing that’s missing is a bobblehead doll, or maybe some Post-Its.
Anyway. Not sure why I find this so odd, except I suspect Peter Jennings would never have stood for it.
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I think Whitney that it is supposed to make the news look like it is happening right now. That the journalists our out searching for stories and that we watching the stories unfold instantly. It is the true appearance of meta while in fact every piece has been vetted and approved by corporate hours ago. Cronkite and Murrow wouldn’t have standed for it either but that’s the news now. Good night, and good luck.
At least he’s wearing his Wriststrong bracelet.
It does seem a little hokey.
Like you Whitney, I don’t watch much news either. I think they try too hard to make “news” out of insignificant topics.
His legs not so pretty as Kati Couri or Peter Jenings.
See Tim, I saw it as the producers trying to make the newscasters more relatable to viewers. Meaning, they’re not these perfectly polished professional. (Sorry for the obsession with p’s). Anyway, I don’t watch the nightly news, when it’s on 24 hrs. on CNN and the internet.
I spy with my little eye….Wriststrong!
i watch when i can. Williams is excellent, i think. but Gibson and Couric have their plusses as well. i’m not sure what you’re driving at, Whitney. are you wanting jazzier news visuals like Fox News to appease your low attention span? or MTV. a little gravitas with my news is a good thing.
Wriststrong! wear it proud!
The reigning king of news is as everyone knows… CNN, which frankly, I find biased and some of their ‘changes’ I find annoying … but informative none the less.
This is yet another pathetic ploy of a rival news channel to attract more viewers. Is it working? I think not.
Considering Peter Jennings was the ABC anchor, and Williams is at NBC, I doubt Jennings would have stood for it, either.
The glasses and the laptop are yes, a bit over the top.
williams is broadcasting from a temporary set while a new set for nightly news and msnbc is being built
I usually work past 6:30, but whenever I can I watch the NBC Nightly News. I grew up with my dad watching Brokaw, so it just seems appropriate. But more importantly than that, 30 minutes of news every night means we’re hearing what’s important and we’re hearing it in a planned, polished, direct way. Way better than 24 hours full of crap like we get at CNN and Fox News. A lot of people may say the style is obsolete, but I’d trust Williams and his team over some schmuck blogging out of his basement any day.
i haven’t watched the news religiously since 9/11. I may catch a broadcast at the hair salon or when I visit friends, but I don’t make an effort to watch any newscast, local or national. I’ve found that if it’s an emergency, I’ll get a phone call faster than the news can tell me, and that all the interesting “nightly news” end up on the internet for me to watch at my leisure.
Ah, if only we could return to the days when “news” was actually NEWS and not carefuly honed sound bites, political agendas, and annoying graphics & music meant to draw in the ADD MTV generation. God, I miss Peter Jennings!!!!!!!!!
Looks kinda like he’s broadcasting in front of the flatscreen TV in his parents’ basement. His credibility took a bit of a hit when he started doing the “Giant Head of Brian Williams” on the Daily show, although I admit I do love that gag.
Remember who the audience is (old people/retirees). I can’t think of one person who is done with work and home by 6:30 pm. If you are lucky enough to get out of work before then, you go to the gym, do errands, have a life. I imagine even the housewives / househusbands / housecivilunionparticipants are busy with the family dinner responsibilities at that time.
This is 2007. “We” get our news from the internet (news sites, blogs, podcasts, and of course popwatch), and maybe some CNN. 6:30 pm news is for meemaw and peepaw.
This is so sad…what are you people still doing at work at 6:30? Unless you are a teenager or a college student, there is no reason to still be at work at 6:30. No job is that important. Go home to your family. (Sorry to attack, but I work from 10-6 but I rarely get to go home then because the a-hole attorneys I work for don’t want to see their families so that stay here until 8 or later–I have to stay but I’m a slave to the rich).
I agree, anyone who says they are consistently at work from 9:00 (or earlier) until well past 6:30 is full of it. On occassion, sure, everyone needs to stay late, but not every day. Please, stop trying to make yourself sound important. The typical job is not important enough to require ten+ hours per day, every day of the week. As someone else said, go home, be with your family, and get a life outside of work. Sorry if this comes across as harsh, but I’m in my mid-twenties in DC and constantly surrounded by sycophantic yuppies who are always complaining about having to work so much and not having any free time (when I know, for a fact, there’s no way their jobs could always require that much time). It’s a pompous way of saying, hey, look at me and big important job and it’s exceedingly annoying. Ok, rant over, you may now return to your scheduled programming…
To Michael – Whose payroll are you on?
i like how the picture is called “bracelet_l”
I’ll be honest: I get most of my news from either Reuters, the AP, or from The Daily Show/Colbert Report combo. Yes, I’m aware of the last’s agenda; I still like it.
Network news is still on??
Central time zone. Hour+ commute. Nat’l news is on at 5:30. I don’t get home till at least 6. Most of the people I know don’t get home in time, even if they had the inclination to watch.
Oh, I bet Peter would have been OK with it. Heck, they smoked in the studios back when he started out, so I doubt things were than uptight then. And people like to get their news in a casual way today. He’d probably be for anything to proliferate broadcast news.
Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but is that a “Wrist Strong” bracelet he’s sporting? It makes him look quite fetching.
Maybe he didn’t want to leave his house?
He has his wriststrong bracelet on!
Nightly News with Brian Williams is my favorite of the evening news programs. He brings class to the news whereas the other stations might tout the sexiness of their anchors. Williams is easy on the eyes plus he has a very good sense of humor as shown by his appearances on Conan.
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