Presidential Funeral Affords Three Sightings of Wandering Sage, Brokaw

by on January 3, 2007 1

NBC Nightly News last night offered three separate soundbites of Tom Brokaw, first in its opening coverage of the Ford funeral, then in an interview by Brian Williams, then in a special section of excerpts of eulogies. The royal placement, which gave even Henry Kissinger lower billing, continues the NBC pattern, of wheeling Brokaw in to hold forth (usually predictably) on major events, and would seem to reflect Brokaw’s reluctance to let go and Brian Williams’ filial feelings; his manner when Brokaw appears is somewhat servile. I wonder what the servility masks, but no matter, it’s a misuse of precious airtime.

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Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
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  1. Ben says:
    January 4, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    "I wonder what the servility masks, but no matter, it's a misuse of precious airtime."

    Servility acts sometimes as a mask for the one acting in that manner? I always assumed it was a behavior chosen to avoid threatening the ego of the other person — the person who demands to be treated more senior or authoritative, etc. I find these types of relationships common in areas were one person eventually takes over after another leaves. Because anyone who presented a threat to the ego of the previous person would have been fought and thus would not have progressed as far as Brian Williams did — for Williams to succeed, it is likely that he needed to get Brokaw tacit support and to avoid losing this servility can sometimes be a good strategy.

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