Howard Kurtz: Brian Williams Is Conservative

Is NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams really a conservative? "Washington Post" media analyst and CNN "Reliable Sources" host Howard Kurtz implied that he is. Kurtz appeared on the October 10 edition of "The O’Reilly Factor" to promote his new book "Reality Show: Inside the Last Great Televsion News War." When Bill O’Reilly inquired on the lack of conservative representation on the network news, this exchange followed.

BILL O’REILLY: What news man at CBS or NBC is conservative?

HOWARD KURTZ: I wanted to make- first of all, Brian Williams, we can talk about him in a moment, probably President Bush’s favorite anchor.

O’REILLY: He just likes his ties.

KURTZ: Has quoted Rush Li- has quoted Rush Limbaugh, reads conservative blogs as well as liberal blogs.

O’REILLY: I know Brian Williams. He’s about as conservative as Les Moonves.

As the MRC’s Brent Baker documented in a "National Review" column, Brian Williams has a long history of liberal bias. For example, Williams called the late Bob Casey, former Democratic Pennsylvania Governor, "ultraconservative" because of his opposition to abortion.

Since his anchor position at NBC, Williams suggested leaders of the American Revolution "might have been called ‘terrorists’...by the British crown" and gave hard left academic Michael Eric Dyson a platform to call the Bush family "clueless patricians."

More examples can be seen at Brian Williams’s "Profiles in Bias" page. Click here to read all of NewsBusters’ past coverage of Williams.