If there’s someone you don’t want doing your fact checking, it’s probably Brian Williams. Yet, the disgraced ex-Nightly News anchor began MSNBC’s State of the Union coverage on Tuesday by triumphantly asserting, “We will fact check” Donald Trump’s State of the Union claims.
Excitedly opening the program, Williams cheered, “As I said, our entire team of correspondents will analyze what we see and hear. We'll fact check it on the fly, as well.” Again, this is the guy who falsely said he was shot down in Iraq in 2003, who told tales about seeing dead bodies while covering Hurricane Katrina. Someone at NBC should have been fact checking Williams.
Williams marveled, “On what was day 376 of the Trump administration, tonight president Donald Trump after shattering so many of the norms of the modern presidency tonight gets to enjoy perhaps the most presidential backdrop of them all: A joint session of Congress.”
Who else is fact checking Trump’s speech? Why, it’s liberal MSNBC journalist Ari Melber. He bragged that the network’s “very special coverage starts at 8:00 P.M. I will also be a part of that, fact checking the speech afterwards.”
In other words, the fact checking will be done by a man known for making stuff up and a liberal host. Typical MSNBC.
On FBN’s After the Bell, Howard Kurtz blamed others for the scrutiny of journalistic fact checking: “I think in the pre-Twitter age, before the toxicity of social media and fact checking, people thought, ‘Wow, a fact checker says it.’ Now, nobody even believes the fact checkers.”
To see a partial transcript, click on the expand button below:
MSNBC's State of the Union coverage
1/30/185:59pm ET
ARI MELBER: As for our special coverage it, well, it continues with MSNBC all night. The very special coverage starts at 8:00 P.M. I will also be a part of that, fact checking the speech afterwards. More importantly right now it's Hardball with Chris Matthews.
8:01pm ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: And good evening. On what was day 376 of the Trump administration, tonight president Donald Trump after shattering so many of the norms of the modern presidency tonight gets to enjoy perhaps the most presidential backdrop of them all: A joint session of Congress.
8:02pm ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We will forego introductions and just say good evening. Great to have you here with us. We're in for several hours of coverage here with our immediate family, extended family, all of our correspondents. We have gathered family members that you know, Chris Matthews is here. Host of Hardball. Nicolle Wallace is here it, host of Deadline: White House and former White House communications director under George W. Bush. Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Washington Post Eugene Robinson is here. We’ll be joined by other friends here tonight. As I said, our entire team of correspondents will analyze what we see and hear. We'll fact check it on the fly, as well. And before we get too far down the road, it occurs to me everything we see tonight is against a backdrop that we can't see, a possible government shutdown in nine days time.
