Ex-NBC News anchor Brian Williams called out his fellow journalists in a statement given to the Washington Post on Monday for failing to find the correct words to describe a “visibly struggling” President Biden throughout his term.
Williams told the Washington Post that journalistic language used in today’s media was “lazy, numbing and normalizing in a time of urgency and exigency.”
The Post published a report with quotes from ten journalists who spoke out about how the press should cover President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
“It’s actually insulting, and a gross disservice to those watching and listening — because it doesn’t match what they just saw or heard for themselves. It was crushing to watch so many working journalists attempt to generate the words to accurately describe a visibly struggling and diminished president, seemingly unable to complete a sentence or a thought in his disastrous and final debate,” Williams said.
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Brian Williams called out fellow journalists in a statement to the Washington Post. (Reuters)
“Say it with me: It is perhaps the ultimate irony that the electoral collapse of the Democratic Party in 2024 was triggered in large part by the man who ran to save the country and democracy — the same man who then tried to stay too long at the fair. There, I said it. Now someone please say it into a microphone. You can do it,” he said.
The Post also spoke to other members of the press, such as ex-CNN host Don Lemon, who encouraged the press to focus on what Trump does, rather than what he says.
“The media must also cover less of what Trump says and more of what he does. Too often journalists let Trump’s latest cruel or bigoted comment rule the news cycle. Too rarely do they dedicate the front page to the radical actions of the man,” Lemon said.
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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
During an appearance on late-night television after the election, Williams said the Democratic Party needed to be “rebuilt.”
The former anchor said Democrats pushed “insulting” campaign language.
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“Cover this second Trump administration without fear or favor,” Jill Abramson, a former executive New York Times editor, told the Washington Post.
Abramson said Elon Musk would be a beat for reporters and added, “When policies are working and the new administration deserves credit, do these stories.”