Labor Advocate

The Swift Boating of Brian Williams

by Bill Onasch

Just, as a union officer, I defended many workers facing unjust or overly harsh employer discipline over the years at Litton Microwave and the Kansas City ATA , I now rise in defense of Brian Williams.

I should make clear from the outset that my sympathy for a victim of hypocritical character assassination as well as a brutal employer is in no way an endorsement of the mediocre blend of entertainment, feel good tales, weather stories and ruling class propaganda that is marketed by all American owned networks as news. None are in the same league as Aljazeera America, who give a superior imitation of the way the BBC once was. To acknowledge Williams is the best of the domestic lot is faint praise indeed.

Williams is no more responsible for this corruption of journalism than the workers at the Kansas City nuclear weapons plant are to blame for the arms race. He has been very well paid to follow the marching orders of those who shape our knowledge and opinions about world events. Occasionally he has taken some relatively bold initiatives such as interviewing Edward Snowden and doing a live broadcast from Havana. But mostly he has been a loyal company man.