Mr.Williams - You are one of the best - very admirable - So please with all that's going on on the world why a story on Charlie Sheen? Is there no mercy for he and his family? I just don't understand how it can possibly stand with all else thats going on in universe. Thanks for your time.

Brian, I agree that Khaddafy is delusional. He needs a reality check. Phyllis

Brian – Regarding the story this evening on “The Kings Speech” it kind of peaked my interest just a bit to see the movie since several of my mother’s sisters were stutterers. Although with family, you can share a laugh about it, I definitely know how it can be quite a hurtful experience to those afflicted by it.

I guess your late posting on the blog tonight is due to a busy day as always for you, plus the fact you taped Letterman this afternoon, looking forward to the show!

BTW, I totally agree with the poster above regarding Charlie Sheen, never understood why celebs on a downward spiral are given so much air time in media.

Hi Mr. Williams,

I've always been a big fan of yours ever since you took over NBC Nightly News. I'm a broadcast journalism major, and I've been given an assignment in my Intro to Convergent Journalism class to respond to a journalist's personal blog, so naturally, I picked your blog, The Daily Nightly.

I agree that it is interesting to see the differences and similarities among the various news networks when they cover a particular story. I suppose that depends on the style of the journalists who work at a news network. Sometimes a story that gets covered on one news network doesn't even get mentioned in another news network. Other times, the same story gets covered, but one network spends more time discussing it then another network. Because of that, some networks are accused of bias and what not, so I would think that it would be kind of difficult for the journalist or editor to determine how important a story should be or how much time should be spent on covering that story. And, of course, you have the Charlie Sheen-types who pose the journalist with the question of whether this kind of story should even be covered by a news network. In any case, it is pretty clear that journalists have tremendous power over what information gets out to the general public. I think that is pretty cool to have that responsibility, and it'll be great to have a chance to work with people who think the same.

Brian Williams just can't help himself. It seems that every time he goes on a talk show, he has to make some sort of reference to genitalia. A year ago (2/5/10) he told Jimmy Fallon that the luge uniform is "the most package-enhancing outfit". Last Jan. 3, on David Letterman's show, he made repeated references to his "shmegegge" and "Dave and the twins". And now he's at it again. On Letterman's show Monday night, Brian had this to say about his hybrid car: "...when it's not running it's fairly neutering 'cause it just turns off..." Again a genital reference. Howard Stern doesn't make as many genital references as Brian does. What's up with that? Is there something Brian wants to tell us? Actually, I'm not sure I even want to know.
But I have to give Brian some credit for honesty. After Brian evaded some of Letterman's questions (claiming neutrality for the sake of journalistic integrity) Letterman said he was going to continue to ask questions in the hope that he still might learn something. Brian responded, "I doubt it very highly--I'm just not terribly smart." Okay--if he says so. I think that's called a scoop.

Actually, Brian's appearance on Letterman's show seemed to be a promotional appearance on behalf of Chevy. He mentioned Chevy by name twice (including the Chevy Tahoe). He also said, "It reminds you why Detroit is great and why we drive American cars." Minutes earlier, Brian wouldn't answer Letterman's question about the importance of labor unions in Wisconsin, but now Brian is running off at the mouth about Chevy and the superiority of American cars. Excuse me, but Brian covers the auto industry on Nightly News. He reported frequently on the accusations of sudden acceleration in Toyotas. Are we supposed to believe that someone who is so partisan towards American cars would report this story neutrally? It seems obvious in retrospect that Brian and his producers intentionally made Toyotas appear dangerous in order to boost sales of American cars. He won't comment on labor unions, but it's okay to promote American cars over foreign cars? This is unbelievable bias. During the worst part of the economic crisis a few years ago, Brian often went out of his way to talk about what a great value American cars were. Nightly News was like an adjunct dealership for Ford, GM and Chrysler. Brian said everything except, "What do I have to do to put you in this car today?" And he has the nerve to go on Letterman's show and claim that he's neutral on important issues? That's absurd.

And Brian certainly isn't neutral when it comes to promoting his favorite films. This season, of course, it's "The King's Speech". Brian seems to have a personal stake in making sure that movie sells tickets. Nightly News has done four "news stories" on "The King's Speech" in the past three months. That's called promotion. On Monday's story about the Oscars, Lee Cowan did not even mention the name of a single movie other than "The King's Speech". The only movie clips that were shown were from--you guessed it--"The King's Speech". We saw a clip from Melissa Leo's R-rated acceptance speech, but Cowan didn't even tell us which film she won the Oscar for. We saw Charles Ferguson (winner of the Best Documentary Oscar for "Inside Job"), note that despite the economic meltdown, not one financial executive has gone to jail. But Cowan never mentioned Ferguson by name and didn't even tell us the name of his Oscar-winning film. More than half of Monday's Oscar story was devoted to just one film--"The King's Speech". And most of that was about the screenwriter, David Seidler. A day earlier, Nightly News had done a two-and-a-half minute story on Seidler. Monday's story was just a rehashing of what we had already seen on Sunday night. So instead of mentioning any of the other winning films, Cowan and his producers chose to rerun parts of Sunday's story on Seidler. It's obvious that Brian Williams's fingerprints were all over this story. Can you imagine any other network news broadcast doing a post-Oscar story and only mentioning ONE FILM by name? They didn't even show Natalie Portman! That story was ridiculous. But by far my favorite part of the story was Brian's introduction. The very first thing he said was that the Oscar ratings on ABC were down 9% from last year. I can guarantee you that if the Oscars had been on NBC, Brian never would have talked about the ratings decline. He only talks about a ratings decline when it happens to other networks. (But if an NBC show has a ratings increase, he can't stop talking about that.) The Grammy Awards on Feb. 13 had their best ratings in a decade, but of course Brian never mentioned that because the show aired on CBS. Again, if the Grammys had aired on NBC, Brian would not have shut up about the great ratings. Of the three network news anchors, Brian Williams is by far the most biased. He may be the most biased network news anchor ever. He relentlessly promotes the things he likes, and trashes (or remains silent about) things he doesn't like. But he has the nerve to tell David Letterman that he can't talk about certain topics because he has to maintain his neutrality ("I can't give opinions," he said). Does anyone else find this incredulous?

Once again, a Nightly News anchor has intentionally misled the viewers about the exclusivity of a "Today Show" interview. On Feb 8, Brian Williams told us that Michelle Obama would be appearing "exclusively" on the following day's "Today Show". In fact, Mrs. Obama also appeared on that day's "Live With Regis and Kelly". Then, last Sunday night, Lester Holt ended the broadcast with a 20-second plug for Charlie Sheen's "exclusive" appearance on Monday's "Today Show". However, Sheen was also interviewed on Monday's "Good Morning America" (on ABC). In fact, Sheen seemed to be all over the airwaves on Monday. So his "Today Show" appearance was hardly an exclusive. It's shameful that Brian and Lester (and their Nightly News producers) would intentionally mislead the viewers just so they can boost the "Today Show" ratings by a few micropoints. And if they would mislead the viewers about the exclusivity of an interview, doesn't it follow that they would mislead the viewers about other things? Clearly, the answer is "yes".

How about that Christiane Amanpour? First, she scores an interview with Hosni Mubarak. Then she gets an interview with Muammar Khaddafy. So who will be her next mega-awesome interview? Osama bin Laden? Jimmy Hoffa? Why can't Richard Engel or any of the other NBC correspondents get the same access that Amanpour has to the superstar dictators? She's the rock star of foreign correspondents. Meanwhile, it's obvious that Brian must have been fuming. (I thought I saw smoke coming out of his nostrils during the broadcast.) I'm sure that everyone at Nightly News was green with envy over Amanpour's scoop. When Nightly News showed a clip from the Khaddafy interview on Monday, they used the BBC feed, not the ABC feed. That way, the on-screen credit was attributed to the BBC, not ABC. Brian and his producers were so angry and jealous of ABC's scoop that they refused to even acknowledge the network's involvement (except for Andrea Mitchell, who briefly mentioned ABC). That's like refusing to talk to someone because their score on the math test was higher than yours. Talk about petty.

Let me make sure I understand this. On Monday's Nightly News, Jane Russell got a 30-second obit. Frank Buckles, the last surviving American WW I veteran, got a 40-second obit. On August 9, Ann Curry read a 45-second obit for Brian Williams's father. But Duke Snider, one of the greatest baseball players of the post-war era, only got a 25-second obit. During the 1950's, Snider had more home runs (326) and more RBIs (1031) than any other player in baseball, but he only gets a 25-second obit. Where's the justice?

Thank God, Hilliary Clinton is Secretary of State and not Madeline Albright who said, What good is the

world's greatest military force if you don't use it, no doubt still trying to impress her high school friends

(taken from her bio). The protesters want a no-fly zone but no troops on their soil. Sorry Brian

I missed your appearance on David Letterman but I fell asleep on you......again.

All this talk about Hillary and the great job she's doing. What a difference 2 years make when the same people said why did Obama pick her as Secretary of State. Well things could always be worse, when you think Powell or Rice could be in charge at this time with the fall of the Middle East Dictators. Mubarak/Gaddafi and the Saudi King were close personal friends of the Bush Administration and all had Dick Cheney on speed dial. Things might have turned out differently for the citizens of Egypt if Bush/Cheney were in office. Invading a country illegally based on lies to remove a Dictator has shown to be a dumb move, allowing the citizens of that country to remove the Dictator is a smart thing. Countries together should only get involved when the Dictator starts massive murder of those who protest.

The US has it's own problems with corporations trying to take over the US government, Corrupt Law Makers, Judges/Justices violating the Constitution, Banks over charging customers/ foreclosures/banks no longer hold deeds on homes their foreclosing on/fraud documents accepted by the court/get out of jail card for all the crimes committed. Americans better stand up and take the US back like Egypt citizens did.

Good news for Law Makers and crooks, the Governors meeting was held and many felt the Social Security age should go up high enough that one American will live to collect. Yes the GOP couldn't get the Social Security Act repealed so now it's another way of just pulling a Ponzi scam instead. Rep. Paul Ryan is working to at lease change the benefits of Social Security so children/wives don't get benefits in case of death of the Father/Mother. Yes Ryan got his benefits from SS benefits when his Dad suddenly died but doesn't see that need for others. Bernie Madoff a man who knows alot about Ponzi scams is looking how Law Makers with the help of Lobbyist are doing the same thing with Social Security Act. Few people bothered to read they can op out of social security and wont get it when they decide to retire.

Well, we all know about experts, but a Gadhafi expert warns Libyan leaders that Gadhafi will fight to the end.

That said, a Libyan volunteer said and I quote, "Gadhafi says he will use all the force he has, so we have

to be prepared. He's crazy." Phyllis Kunz

Watching Great Britian watch North Africa. I was researching the new book about Henrietta and her immortal

DNA, and came across Henrietta of Great Britan fame and she insisted that the Monarch labor to find the

truth always for ignorance of it destroys thrones and empires. And hearing the song Henrietta by Little

Richard I thought of a boy called affectionately Henrietta by his friends. A better song than "A boy called

Sue" by Johnny Cash though I am a big fan of Johnny Cash as was my father whom I worshiped.

Have a nice evening Brian and hope to catch you tonight, but as former Pres. Bill Clinton says, "You never know."

Phyllis