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September 14, 2005
Brian Williams - An Anchor Maturing Before Our Eyes
Isn't it hard to think back to the time when Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw were just starting out as the evening news anchors on ABC and NBC? It's particularly difficult for me considering the fact that I was still well entrenched in the single digit years and spent my time being far more concerned over matters such as whether King Friday was going to order the beheading of one of the puppets in Mr. Rogers' "Neighborhood of Make Believe" than I was in watching the evening news programs. (For the record, no puppets were ever beheaded to the best of my knowledge). In fact, I distinctly remember turning on PBS during the evenings and being quite displeased with its programming (not much has changed). (Don't you think it would be an awesome April Fools joke on children if one day all of their favorite television characters went postal on the other characters? Needless to say, the children's television programmers are knocking at my door on a very frequent basis. And by "frequent," I mean there has been no contact whatsoever.)
Even though I can't recall the time when Jennings and Brokaw were anything but veteran anchors, I have no doubt that the two were quite green when they permanently took over the anchor chairs on ABC and NBC. That leads me to wonder if there was a defining moment in the two men's careers when they experienced a metamorphosis, transitioning from the new kids on the block - trying to live up to the standards of Huntley, Brinkley, and Cronkite - into the respected anchors that we all knew towards the end of their tenures on the evening news programs.
If there are defining moments for network anchors, Brian Williams had his a few days into the Hurricane Katrina coverage. Williams has been the anchor of the NBC Nightly News for less than a year (and with Dan Rather's overdue ouster and Jennings' unexpected death, Williams is actually the dean of nightly news anchors at this point in time). Williams is a genuinely likeable human being with a wickedly wonderful (how's that for alliteration) sense of humor (anybody who has seen or heard him interviewed will undoubtedly share my view). However, despite being incredibly talented, he's still quite young (at least by television standards). With that stated, Brian Williams has done a remarkable job covering Hurricane Katrina, especially in the days following the storm's fury. Like Ted Koppel, Williams has asked tough questions at the right times. He has also expressed outrage when outrage has needed to be expressed. He has just done one heck of a job. He truly is an anchor maturing before our very eyes. It's an interesting process to watch.
There's no doubt that I'd still like to have the option of watching Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw cover a breaking news story. However, if Brian Williams continues to turn in Katrina-esque performances, we've got another legend on our hands.
Comments
isn't brian williams the new supreme court justice?
Posted by: ----- at September 14, 2005 01:23 PM
Yes, he started yesterday.
Posted by: Fool at September 14, 2005 03:48 PM
Brian Williams doesn't seem like a bad anchor, and he was more candid on The Daily Show than I expected, but... I don't know. He looks like the result of a casting call for a network anchorman type. Sort of Peter Jennings lite.
I don't really watch that much news -- I prefer to read it -- but if I did I'd veer toward the regular guy, Aaron Brown type. I'm not very high on anchors anyway; most of them, at least at the local level, appear to be glorified news readers. (Paging Kent Brockman...) It takes something like 9/11 to really see what an anchor is made of, when there's all that (pardon the expression) dead air to fill and a viewership to guide rather than just inform.
Posted by: Neel Mehta at September 15, 2005 03:01 AM
