I was curious about how much self-awareness Brian Williams, NBC news anchor, possessed. He did an hour-long interview with Alex Baldwin on a WNYC radio show called “Here’s the Thing.”
The answer: He’s pretty much, as I suspected, clueless. Television news only requires perceived gravitas. The radio interview was two actors who made the big time.
Williams hopped around colleges, Sarah Palin-style, finally amassing 18 credits before jumping ship to intern in the Carter Administration. His real talent is projection of sincerity as he reads a TelePrompTer. When something really important happens, a demanding part of his job is to stand near where it happened. He likes the camera, the camera likes him.
Williams regards himself as serious news guy because he decides the order of presentation of stories and writes much of his own script (often during commercial breaks!). He reads both the New York Times and Post.
Piece of Mindful 
Just because he is acting doesnt mean he isnt ‘self aware’, if by self aware you mean that he would share your particular outlook. He very well could share your understanding or many of your views of world affairs but just doesnt care enough to state them for public consumption because to do so would screw up the high paying job he has. Obviously he is not a hard hitting journalist asking the tough questions, but then again thats not his job. If he started to do so they would just send him out to pasture and replace him with the next blow dried star of the network. I dont know the guy obviously but i would bet he is actually a lot more perceptive than you give him credit for. I dont know how the hell you could listen to an entire hour of him interviewing anybody though let alone Alec Baldwin, good God you have too much free time on your hands if thats the case!
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One, we’re traveling, and so listen to podcasts.
Two, before “news” ever reaches him, it has been filtered. What goes on the air is determined not by him, but by gatekeepers that he does not seem to be aware of. So he’s clueless.
Three, he has no rigor in his background, not even a stint at American journalism, such as it is, but seems to believe that he is performing a useful public service by reading that TelePrompTer. He takes himself and his work very seriously, not realizing that it is his persona, and not his intelligence, that gives him credibility. So he is not self-aware.
You should listen to the interview if you imagine there is real substance there.
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I will not listen to the interview and concede you may be right, but there have got to be some better podcasts out there.
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I’m all ears if you have any. Baldwin is not a good interviewer but has had good guests on occasion. Mostly I listen to podcasts as I fall asleep – I’ve heard the first ten minutes of more than I can count.
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I’ve never actually listened to a podcast, commenting on blogs is actually pushing the envelope for me when it comes to Internet/ technology saviness.
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I had that problem too, just like with everything else there’s an initial barrier where you are dealing with the unknown and then you quickly learn and it’s routine. Podcasts are just radio and TV shows that you can queue up when you want to hear them. They are stored automatically on Apple products if you select them or you can go directly to the sponsoring website and listen. It’s how I listen to Car Talk now, instead of tuning in the radio every Saturday.
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