Flashback 2006: NBC's Brian Williams Points Finger At President Bush
As NewsBusters previously reported, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Thursday, reacting with predictably similar disgust as the rest of the media to the picture of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer pointing her finger at Barack Obama, asked viewers, "Who have you ever seen talking to the president like this?"
Maybe he should have looked in the archives of interviews he did with George W. Bush wherein he was guilty of making the exact same supposedly offensive hand gesture at the President of the United States (videos follow with loads of commentary):
The video above was posted by a YouTube user named Stulz on January 21, 2007, and linked at Free Republic by Nachum about an hour ago.
Compare this still taken from that video
to this one that has been generating mountains of disgust from media outlets all over the country:
From that Williams still, it looks like he and Bush were in quite a heated argument as opposed to the tremendously cordial exchange they were having, doesn't it?
Remember press members expressing disgust for Williams pointing his finger at the President that way?
Apparently Williams doesn't either, for here's part of his highly outraged report from Thursday:
7:00PM ET TEASE:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Also, finger pointing. That photo everybody was talking about today. Who have you ever seen talking to the president like this and what was this all about?
7:06PM ET SEGMENT:
WILLIAMS: All of this takes us to the photo everybody's been talking about today. The governor of Arizona with her finger in the face of the President of the United States. You don't see that often or maybe ever
You were saying, Mr. Williams?
Maybe folks like him should have considered the full context of this discussion rather than jumping to absurd conclusions from one still shot.
That would have been especially reasonable given the raw video of Brewer's warm greeting of the President as well as the contents of the letter she handed to him.
But doing so would have been too much like actual journalism, wouldn't it?
*****Update: The original article claimed in the headline this Williams interview took place in 2007. Real Clear Politics reported it as August 2006. Upon review, RCP is correct. Actual air date was August 29, 2006. NewsBuster Brent Baker wrote about the interview at the time. Full transcript of interview is available here, video here.
Something else to consider is that this interview took place in New Orleans on the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As such, it likely was quite well-viewed.
Yet nobody minded Williams pointing his finger at the President of the United States.
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Comments
Balance??
Submitted by Samaritan01 on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:04pm.
Are you telling me that our news media is biased?? Who knew.....
Too Bad
Submitted by tvhall on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:54am.
They caught Brewer but never released the film of all of the BJs the media has given Obozo!
A finger for Brian Williams?
Submitted by KyWriter on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:03pm.
I can't think of anything more appropriate.
tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:16pm.
I really don't get the medias angle that somehow this is a negative to Brewer or an avenue of sympathy for obama.
Is the president such a wimp he needs protection from a female with some attitude?
I can't believe obama hasn't ducked the occasional flying lamp at home.
⇒ Of course not, MA
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:21pm.
Remember that fat lip from the "basketball game"?
You don't get it, MA! Black
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:30pm.
You don't get it, MA!
Black women: wives, girlfriends, mothers, are noted for pushing around the men in their lives.
But Brewer is a white woman! A white woman just doesn't dress down a black man unless she's treating him like a...boy, if you get my drift.
sit up straight young man
Submitted by MidAmerica on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:48pm.
Yeah and it probably gave him flashbacks to his typical White Grandmother who would have disrespected him by gettin' in his face for misbehavin'
What a world-class hypocrite
Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:24pm.
Especially since, in contrast, THIS is how he treated President Obama!
Yeah, but Bush is WHITE!!!
Submitted by killa37 on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:24pm.
Yeah, but Bush is WHITE!!! And a Republican!!! And girlie-man Bri-Bri (the handsomest man to NEVER make a movie) is a bona fide member of the State-Run Media.......................so what's the problem here??
lies/memory
Submitted by Dr. Ron on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:30pm.
to paraphrase William F. Buckley...liberals lie as a matter of course. To quote Aslan: Chronicles of Narnia, Book Seven: "They will not let us help them. ...Their prison is only in their own minds. Yet they are in that prison and so afraid ...that they cannot be taken out."
But, again and ever: if one of "you" do/say something, it is WRONG and offensive...when "we" do the very same thing, it is justified, brave and we forget it instantly...why can't you forget it and stop reminding us of our blatant hypocrisy??!!
Of course it just depends...
Submitted by FearMonger on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:55pm.
on what your definition of the word 'pointing' is...
Oh man, someone needs to
Submitted by tcm14 on Sun, 01/29/2012 - 11:58pm.
Oh man, someone needs to confront Williams, on air, with this evidence. I would pay to see it.
Brian
Submitted by mmilesll on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:03am.
At least Brewer is a governor, Brian isn't even a "journalist"-he is a news reader.
He is a "punk" journalist..
Submitted by jkwtrading on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:51am.
He is a "punk" journalist..
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4
Submitted by WarEagle66 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:10am.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41625923
i just sent a message to nbc asking if brian williams remembered his finger pointing. i linked this story....
I just sent it to drudge..
Submitted by jkwtrading on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:56am.
I just sent it to drudge..
good for you jkwtrading
Submitted by grammajane on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:39pm.
Hope Drudge puts it in his head-lines!!
He is a "punk" journalist..
Submitted by RR GOP on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 1:02am.
He is a "punk"
journalist.."Under Capitalism, man exploits man. Under Communism it's just the opposite."
"All that Communism needs to make it successful is for someone to feed and clothe it."
Bill Clinton pointed his
Submitted by big.league.slider on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 1:23am.
Bill Clinton pointed his finger at the American people.
Oh Please...
Submitted by Jimi Streets on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 2:02am.
Spare me the indignant charade from the liberals. If they had one iota of integrity they would have been aghast when Williams did it. Ha! No doubt he was a hero at the Upper West Side cocktail parties afterward.
I just can't fathom the lack of a conscience the media has about the continuous stream of hypocrisy that flows from their broadcasts. I see it, I know it when I hear it, but I will never understand it. Normal folks would have the restraint to think, "Gee. I'd better not criticize a conservative for something I didn't criticize a liberal for." I don't get it.
Has the media sold its collective soul? I think it has...
I think you call that
Submitted by Okieflyover on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 3:07am.
NEWS BUSTED by news busters
He's touching POTUS!!
Submitted by Norto on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 3:19am.
Where is the SS when you need them?
Nothing new here
Submitted by DontFeedTheTrolls on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:54am.
More 'do as I say, not as I do' from our 'liberal' friends.
Simply Disgusting...
Submitted by Aubrey on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 9:31am.
Arrogant Communist Media.
ooh, nice catch!
Submitted by sarainitaly on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 10:07am.
I added the video to my post about this. Great catch. Of course, you guys always make great catches!
sara...good to see you back here!
Submitted by Blonde on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 10:15am.
The liberal media bias never ends.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
thanks,
Submitted by sarainitaly on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:23am.
Thanks, but I am always here. ;O) I read newsbusters daily, just don't comment much because I always agree with everything!
good for you.
Submitted by Lipton on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 10:21am.
I'd like for this to get attention.
typical
Submitted by Orpheus75 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:27am.
I love how the Liberal brain is wired with an automatic filter that removes any and all memories of the crap they pull, and dumps them. But yet has a "Tea Party", "GOP", "Conservative" catch system that allows them to latch onto it immediately and use it with such an indignation like you've never seen before.
Hopefully this [video] will get used anywhere and everywhere possible, and call that hypocritical coward out.
Iraqi Jourmalist
Submitted by River City on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:32am.
The MSM were all excited when the Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at GW Bush. Wishing they could do the same and still have a job. Brian Williams does the same thing as Jan Brewer and now WE have a problem? Every episode like this gives the MSM less credibility. If they have much left as it is.
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand
Deleted
Submitted by River City on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:48am.
Deleted
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand
Deleted
Submitted by River City on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:47am.
Deleted
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand
Deleted
Submitted by River City on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:44am.
Deleted
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand
Deleted
Submitted by River City on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:46am.
Deleted
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand
Deleted
Submitted by River City on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 11:45am.
Deleted
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand
williams
Submitted by grammajane on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 12:42pm.
and brokaw. The 2 biggest bias whiney cry-baby's in history.
Brian Williams and Presidnet Bush. Promoting hate and division.
Submitted by Gary Hall on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 1:17pm.
And, there was never any respect - on the whole - by Brian Williams, of President Bush. Seems pretty apparent in the video above, that Williams has no personal admiration of the President, and discussing Bush's reading list is simply another angle in which Williams is trying to challenge Bush.
Williams spent much time - any, is too much - attempting to portray President Bush as a racist, over Hurricane Katrina. A summary of William's coverage of Katrina is that he sought to shift any and all responsibility for all that went wrong - all the great many mistakes and failures of state and local government - by pointing his dirty little finger at President Bush.
Even as the federal government had spent well north of $100 billion on the Katrina recovery, including historic tax-free grants to individuals to rebuild (129,660 people received an average of $68,800 each from the federally funded, state administered RoadHome Program), and quickly moved in to construct massive new barrier walls, locks and gates, etc., Brian Williams would continue to suggest to the audience that nothing had been done.
Then, as we watched in horror at the incompetence of the Obama Administration, in the failed effort to contain the oil spill from the BP disaster and the embarrassingly pathetic effort in the clean-up and in providing assistance to those in despair, I doubt that at any point in time, did Brian Williams cast any blame directly towards President Obama.
True to form, through and through, Brian Williams is a major player in promoting distrust, hate and division in the United states.
(;~/ gary
Amazing...
Submitted by taznar on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 2:29pm.
Nobody seems concerned with the condescending and controlling way in which Obama is reaching out with his right hand. Invading a woman's space like that has always been seen as a man "controlling" the smaller woman.
"Night At The Museum" Moment
Submitted by Norto on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 2:41pm.
Remember when Sandler is interacting with the guard, Brandon/Braundon? Then with the Pharoah, 2 great scenes. If you touch me I will kill you! Then, if you don't touch me I may kill you!! You have to watch Battle of the Smithsonians which is the sequel-one of the few sequels to actually succeed.
Gday to you.
Beckel having a hissy fit over West
Submitted by Radical1979 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:31pm.
Wow. How on earth can the left possibly have a leg to stand on after all the $h1t that was thrown at Bush?
Thankfully Lt. Col. West is a man and will not care what the idiots say.
Dear Leader is closer and closer
Submitted by Radical1979 on Mon, 01/30/2012 - 6:36pm.
Part of what is disturbing about this and the commotion over West's remarks is that the left is sending the message that we can't criticize the president. West's remarks referred to the policies of Obama, but that is intentionally misinterpreted as being a personal attack and vilified.
The Tea Party is the only hope for our country, because I don't see the GOP standing up for anything but fundraising.
ChickaBOOMer: NBC's Brian Williams and His Fickle Finger Of Hate
Submitted by StewartIII on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 12:26pm.
NBC's Brian Williams and His Fickle Finger Of Hate
http://chickaboomer.blogspot.com/2012/01/nbcs-brian-williams-and-his-fic...