Why Did Brian Williams “Couch” His Report on August 28 re Urgent Weather?

[kerrygoddess]

Why Did Brian Williams “Couch” His Report on Sunday August 28, Regarding Urgent Weather Message from the National Weather Service?

I just finished reading in disbelief this report from Brian Williams on MSNBC - Now it can be told: Notes on the eve of destruction, and I have question…

Why, if you received this text by email from the National Weather Service, and it was so “incendiary”… It contained such a strong warning… Why did you very “cautiously couch the information” in your “live report by phone for Nightly News”?

I get the part Mr. Williams, where you say that “our folks were concerned that it wasn’t real…”, but my goodness, if there was even the smallest doubt that it could be true, would it not have been better to flash this TEXT all over every news station in the area?

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

…DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED…

HURRICANE KATRINA…A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED STRENGTH…RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=446

[starmaker]

1. warning was on du

[kerrygoddess]

4. It was on a few blogs...

Unfrigginbelievable that he admitted to this. like it was no biggie that they were not forthcoming.

[autorank]

2. Brian Williams is the worst kind of MediaWhore...he's a true Repub.

:puke:

[Usrename]

3. I saw him on a panel once with dan rather and mike wallace and

a whole bunch of other anchors. peter jennings and tom whatever his name is (the greatest generation, I can't stand him because he pre-emted the last half of the Giants-Bears game the night Reagan met in Iceland with Gorbachev, but I digress) were there also. The only thing I remember was at the end of the discussion he said (paraphrasing):

I don't have any media bias and you can tell by my hate mail. They're about 50-50 so that proves I'm right in the middle.

A light went on all of the sudden. He think that the truth is determined by polls. If he has to bury a story because it's unpopular, well then, who cares. As long as both sides like ME, I'm doing my job.