Doesn’t almost always seem like things have to be dramatic and self-centered for Brian Williams? The disgraced former NBC Nightly News anchor and serial liar has a new promo out for his weekday MSNBC show The 11th Hour that’s quite the doozy with quiet orchestral music and promises to provide the best recap of the day’s news.
It should be noted that this show was conceived on September 6, 2016 with Williams’s promise to cancel himself following the election. That, of course, was likely made under the assumption that Hillary Clinton would win the election and journalists could continue being lap dogs for the executive branch.
The promo itself began with Williams asserting to someone just off-camera that “[w]hat we’re witnessing every day is the story of our time” followed by a producer making notes on a news article or script and asking a question before circling back to Williams asserting: “We couldn’t do this without the best reporters.”
After two more soundbites from producers with more hushed orchestral music, papers printing out, and producers pressing buttons in the control room, Williams promised that “[w]e’re going to try to give you the best review of this day in the life of this presidency.”
The 30-second spot concluded with Williams’s open to the June 4 program and hours after the Mueller team filed new court papers alleging that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort engaged in witness tampering ahead of the trial: “As we come on the air tonight, we have breaking news on Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.”
To put it mildly, Williams has repeatedly uttered lines on his show about blaming conservatives for the lack of trust in the media, falsehoods, and the necessity of truth without a hint of irony considering his own indiscretions (see examples here, here, here, here, here, and here).
Putting those aside still leaves plenty of bias from what he argued in the promo was a reporters-based program. If one was a media cheerleader or knew nothing about how biased establishment media types are, one would think it’d be a down-the-middle show to cap off the day. Instead, it’s no better or worse than any of their comrades earlier in the day.
For a sampling, here’s some NewsBusters headlines from crazy utterances on The 11th Hour:
- September 14, 2016 — Williams: Obama Is ‘A Communicator Who Can Deliver That Unlike Anything We Have Ever Seen’
- October 13, 2016 — Maraniss: GOP Always ‘Overplay Their Hand,’ Aftermath of Bill Affairs ‘Served to Hillary’s Benefit’
- December 20, 2016 — Brian Williams Oozes: Michelle Obama Is ‘Hugely Popular’ Whose ‘Future Appears Limitless’
- March 9, 2017 — Irony! Brian Williams Blasts Trump’s ‘Reckless Smear’ of Obama, Demands He Find ‘Moral Authority’
- April 14, 2017 — Brian Williams, Rick Stengel Blast ‘Novice’ Trump Behaving Like an Autocrat; It’s ‘A Little Bit Disturbing’
- April 21, 2017 — Hilarious: Brian Williams Pretends to Be Concerned About the Future of Conservatism
- June 23, 2017 — MSNBC: 'Mean' GOP Sees Health Care as 'Privilege,' 'Concierge Service' to 'Starve'
- August 9, 2017 — Brian Williams: ‘Our Job’ ‘Is to Scare People to Death’ With Trump and N.K.
- August 11, 2017 — Kooky Late-Night MSNBC: Trump Is Like Kim-Jong-un, Journalism Is Having a ‘Renaissance’
- October 12, 2017 — Despicable: Lyin’ Brian Condemns U.S. Using Nukes ‘In Anger,’ Being ‘Arbiter’ of Who Has Them
- November 28, 2017 — MSNBC Guest Rules Trump Using ‘Pocahontas’ Line Was a ‘Sad Day’ for America; ‘It Really Stung’
- April 10, 2018 — MSNBC Republican Proclaims Founding Fathers Applauding Cohen Raid from Heaven
Here’s the transcript of the wacky MSNBC promo for The 11th Hour with Brian Williams.
MSNBC Promo
30 secondsBRIAN WILLIAMS: What we’re witnessing every day is the story of our time.
[PRODUCER CHECKS SCRIPT]
PRODUCER #1: What’s going on behind the scenes at the White House today?
WILLIAMS: We couldn’t do this without the best reporters.
[PAPERS PRINT OUT]
PRODUCER #1: Hey, Laura, could you find out who’s writing on this?
PRODUCER #2: And this one, to me, is just a whole other level.
[PRODUCERS PRESSING BUTTONS IN CONTROL ROOM]
WILLIAMS: We’re going to try to give you the best review of this day in the life of this presidency. [ON THE SHOW] As we come on the air tonight, we have breaking news on Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: The 11th Hour with Brian Williams; Weeknights; 11 PM ET; MSNBC]
