I have a friend whose father was one of the Iran embassy hostages in 1979-81. I can’t even imagine what his reaction will be when he sees this bit on Brian Williams’ MSNBC blog:
Many Americans woke up to a curious story this morning: several of the former Iran Hostages have decided there is a strong resemblance between Iran’s new president and one of their captors more than 25 years ago. The White House and most official branches of government are ducking any substantive comment on this story, and photo analysis is going on at this and other news organizations. It is a story that will be at or near the top of our broadcast and certainly made for a robust debate in our afternoon editorial meeting, when several of us raised the point (I’ll leave it to others to decide germaneness) that several U.S. presidents were at minimum revolutionaries, and probably were considered terrorists of their time by the Crown in England.
Williams repeated the comparison on NBC Nightly News yesterday (I just heard the clip on Laura Ingraham’s radio show). He didn’t include the little caveat about “leave others to decide germaneness” on the air.
The last time I checked, the Founders didn’t seize hostages, or parade them before the press, or hold show trials with bound and gagged blindfolded diplomats as “defendants,” much less institute a brutal police state after winning their Revolution.
And the network news yahoos still wonder why their ratings are in free-fall.
UPDATE: Williams has posted a rather pompous non-apology apology.
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