NBC Nightly News anchor, Brian Williams graces the cover of Men's Vogue this month and is profiled by Deputy Editor Ned Martel as being an anchor who, because of "today's debunking culture" (Wink Wink Newsbusters.org), is both "in the know and in on the joke."

Martel panders to Williams as an anchor who is "affable", "witty", and even "an unapologetic throwback to the era of Cronkite".

Martel says that viewers can relate to Williams because he, "has a vast interest in so many of their passions." He further says that Williams "embraces his regular-guy status" and "trumpets his middlebrow tastes".

Williams apparently considers his "instinctive understanding of Middle America" to be a payoff for Nightly News. That understanding must be a tall order for someone who wears a "black-faced Rolex and Supreme Court cufflinks" and splits his time between a "pied-a-terre in a new Upper East Side tower" and a "restored farmhouse in Connecticut".

He also hails Williams as being a "blogging pioneer" for his blog "The Daily Nightly", a blog that has only existed since 2005.

A Pioneer? Really?

Martel also takes shots at ABC News' Charles Gibson calling him an anchor with "gravitas but little gustso" and "out of breath and out of ideas".

Although the article was probably written long before it was published in between advertisements for cologne and $2000 suits, World News with Charles Gibson began to increase its ratings in January, scored a rare win in early February, and won the February sweeps period.

What did Brian Williams get? His executive producer, John Reiss was reassigned and Williams went to Baghdad.

—Paul Detrick is a research analyst at the Business & Media Institute.