Brian Williams calls images of US missile launch 'beautiful'

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Apr 7, 12:59 PM EDT

BRIAN WILLIAMS CALLS IMAGES OF US MISSILE LAUNCH 'BEAUTIFUL'

NEW YORK (AP) -- Brian Williams is facing online criticism for waxing poetic about what he called "beautiful pictures" of U.S. missiles launching during an attack on a Syrian air base.

Video released by the military shows Tomahawk missiles targeted for a Syrian airfield launching from the decks of U.S. warships in the Mediterranean Sea on Thursday.

During his MSNBC program, "The 11th Hour," late Thursday night, Williams said the "beautiful pictures at night" tempted him to quote a line from a Leonard Cohen song: "I am guided by the beauty of our weapons." He went on to call the images "beautiful pictures of fearsome armaments."

Williams was quickly mocked and criticized on Twitter for the remarks, with some users suggesting they were insensitive to the realities of war.

MSNBC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PEOPLE_BRIAN_WILLIAMS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-07-10-17-31

[get the red out]

1. I saw that on twitter

That is seriously messed up!

[Jonny Appleseed]

2. Propaganda usually is

[LisaM]

3. This bothers me, but it's not unusual, sadly. I remember Aaron Brown doing it too....

it was during one of W's invasions, and they showed military parachuting out of a plane at night. The look on his face was like that of a child who'd been to Disneyland.

What do you expect from a country that's been fed a steady diet of war movies for decades?

[Mike Nelson]

4. I hear...

...Brian Williams was on board one of the planes in the area, ordering them into Syria.

[brush]

5. He'll be on Jimmy Kimmel telling the story.

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Did we get Rolled by Trump and Friends?

Did the CEO of Comcast/NBC/MSNBC get a heads up? Or were they part of the Propaganda show? Sure as hell smelled that way last night. Rachel Maddow starts her Bit,and bam,her comes this sucker Brian Williams who has the credibility of a dead rat. Noticed he had a script print out on the desk as he read his Teleprompter. Breaking News my ass.

[dogman]

9. I saw a hint while Chris Hayes was still on.

They had a brief feed cross-over while he was finishing his segment. There were female correspondents at the White House getting set to report. It came back to his show without mention. I assumed then that it was a done deal. They were not shown again until after Williams. Takes a village to stroke a narcissist.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Thanks for the

verification. So much copy in such a short time frame. Nichols was another Tell.

[No Vested Interest]

7. It seems that Williams was quoting from a poem.

The words work in poetry, but not so well on news-type broadcast, while the horror of missiles has just jarred the national conscience.
Seems like Brian Williams was trying to show-off his broad erudition, but the real-life situation made his remarks inappropriate.

One has to wonder what his guest, Malcolm Nance, really thought of Williams comments.

[magicarpet]

8. War is so fab-u-lastic ...... Right Brian. (NT)

[ladym55]

11. I heard him

He sounded positively ecstatic. It was obscene. That was followed by Michael Beschloss (sp?) gushing about the similarities to a "young John Kennedy" and "Reagan's first year in office."

I then spent a sleepless night wondering what in HELL was going on with our media.

Today I hear that the airfield is so damaged that Syrian planes are already taking off on new bombing missions.