Brian Williams First News Reader to Host Sketch Comedy
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007The mainstream media spent its Sunday morning discussing the issue of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams appearing on Saturday Night Live. Williams is a regular guest on NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien and offers a hilarious presence on every show outside of NBC Nightly News where he is appropriately serious. I was watching Reliable Sources on CNN on Sunday morning and I was surprised that Williams’ hosting gig was even an issue. I don’t take news readers, the more appropriate name for anchors, seriously and I think that they are at least one part actor or actress.
My argument can be best made with the case of Katie Couric joining CBS in 2006. Couric replaced venerable newsman Dan Rather and brought a media circus to a position and network viewed largely by an older audience. If Couric were a serious journalist that spoke about the issues, no one would have worried about her shift from NBC to CBS. The problem is that Couric was a news reader and fluff reporter on The Today Show which requires playing to the camera instead of maintaining journalistic integrity. Brian Williams is more serious than Katie Couric but he is certainly a talking head with perfectly coifed hair and a professionalism that Edward Murrow would have appreciated.
The reason why no news anchors have hosted shows like SNL or Mad TV in the past is that there have been few characters as engaging as Brian Williams out of his environment. If Wolf Blitzer, Keith Olbermann or Bill O’Reilly hosted one of these shows, there is no chance I could watch. We need to redefine journalism to appreciate the comedic value of what Brian Williams did on Saturday night. I consider journalism the investigation of events for public dissemination. Once I see Brian Williams and others out in the field, I will begin to question their journalistic integrity.
