Brian Williams is angry at “freaky” Fox News, deriding the network for thinking we’re all “stupid.” The MSNBC late night host, a man who lost his NBC job for lying, on Thursday night attacked Fox for not being honest in its past coverage of the Coronavirus. Talking to Michael Steele, Williams ranted, “The other attempt to tell us what we ourselves saw and heard or did not see and hear really has, at its core assumption, that we must be stupid.”
After playing six words from the March 9 Hannity, in which Sean Hannity used the phrase “bludgeon Trump with this new hoax,” Williams marveled at “the speed with which the entire [Fox] crowd turned around just days ago.” The ex-Nightly News anchor, who falsely claimed his helicopter was shot down over Iraq, added, “And awoke with new seriousness, Fox coverage changed along with the President's verbiage. It was freaky to watch.”
If one actually viewed the March 9 Hannity, one would also see these statements from the Fox host:
SEAN HANNITY: Now the coronavirus is a serious disease. Now, should you and your family be concerned? Of course… Do we all need to take necessary precautionary steps? Yes. All of us.
….
HANNITY: According to the surgeon general of the United States, people over 60, they are most at risk for Corona-related complications or hospitalization.
It seems more likely that what really angered Williams is that Hannity used the March 9 show to call out MSNBC’s rabid attempts to politicize the virus.
Earlier in Thursday’s 11th Hour, Williams talked to Peter Baker and warned that Trump and Fox News just need an “enemy.”
Peter Baker, a little history that you already know. The Spanish Flu, 1918, wasn't Spanish at all. It likely originated in Kansas, right smack dab in the middle of our country. But on that same theme, it is clear the President, the White House staff, their friends at Fox News have decided they need to make China an enemy in this story.
The New York Times's Baker acknowledged the misdeeds of China in responding to the Coronavirus, but then put the blame on Trump for needing an “enemy.”
[Trump] works better in a political sense when he has an enemy, and in this case he's decided that China is the enemy. This is a foreign threat. That fits into of course the pattern we've seen throughout his presidency. His presidency has been built in large part on the theory that the outside world is a threat to the United States, whether it be rapists and gang members or trade or security threats, now disease.
A partial transcript is below. Click “expand” to read more.
The 11th Hour With Brian Williams
3/19/2020
11:12 PM ET
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Peter Baker, a little history that you already know. The Spanish Flu, 1918, wasn't Spanish at all. It likely originated in Kansas, right smack dab in the middle of our country. But on that same theme, it is clear the President, the White House staff, their friends at Fox News have decided they need to make China an enemy in this story.
…
WILLIAMS: Peter, this is part of a larger effort to tell us what we saw and heard for ourselves in the past. Indeed, the second thing I'm going to play for you is the president eight weeks ago.
REPORTER: Do you trust that we're going to know everything we need to know from China?
DONALD TRUMP: I do, I do. I have a great relationship with president XI.
WILLIAMS: So, Peter Baker, among those two guys who happen to be the same President, who's right?
PETER BAKER (New York Times Chief White House correspondent): Yeah, look, there's plenty of room for criticism of the way the Chinese government has handled this. Remember, of course, the doctor who was the early whistle-blower who tried to bring more attention to what was happening in Wuhan Province was of course suppressed by the Chinese government. It's one reason why my colleagues in The New York Times and our compatriots in The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have just been told they have to leave the country because in fact their reporting from western news media, I think, has probably embarrassed the Chinese government.
But that's not what the President is only talking about. That's not the only thing going on with the President here. He works better in a political sense when he has an enemy, and in this case he's decided that China is the enemy. This is a foreign threat. That fits into of course the pattern we've seen throughout his presidency. His presidency has been built in large part on the theory that the outside world is a threat to the United States, whether it be rapists and gang members or trade or security threats, now disease, it's all coming from the outside, which justifies tougher measures at the border. It may be right that these measures are taken at various points along the way. But to frame this as the China virus is meant to play a political, you know, role in the President's policymaking and to deflect attention away from the things that he and his own administration didn't do early on.
11:46 PM ET
WILLIAMS: The other attempts to tell us what we ourselves saw and heard or did not see and hear really has, at its core assumption, that we must be stupid. And the latest example I'll play for you. Here is Mr. Hannity.
SEAN HANNITY: [From March 9 Hannity.] Bludgeon Trump with this new hoax. [From March 18 Hannity.] By the way, this program has always taken the coronavirus seriously, and we've never called the virus a hoax.
WILLIAMS: Michael, the speed with which the entire crowd turned around just days ago.
MICHAEL STEELE: Yes.
WILLIAMS: And awoke with new seriousness, Fox coverage changed along with the president's verbiage. It was freaky to watch.
STEELE: Yeah. And the reason for that was a lot of what was happening in the country was happening to their audience. They were -- they were talking to their own folks who were telling them, “I think we have a problem here.”
