Brian Williams on Blogging in your underwear

NBC’s Brian Williams on bloggers:

“You’re going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe. All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I’m up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn’t left the efficiency apartment in two years.”

UPDATE: More Williams: “If we’re all watching cats flushing toilets, what aren’t we reading? What great writer are we missing? What great story are we ignoring? This is societal, it’s cultural, I can’t change it. We should maybe pause to think about it. Because like everybody else, I can burn an hour on YouTube or Perez Hilton without breaking a sweat. And what have I just not paid attention to that 10 years ago I would’ve just consumed?”

He just doesn't get it. Aside from the personal insult, Williams is just dead wrong (although I sit here now in a t-shirt and sweats). Business suit and tie a journalist does not make. Breaking stories and publishing news via multi-million dollar media empires is not the end all and be all in this industry, which is rapidly changing before Mr. Williams' eyes. Look at how much the Mainstream Media has missed:

- The AP/Jamil Hussein Controversy
- The Israel-Lebanon war photo doctoring scandal
- The Edwards Bloggers debacle
- Real, in depth coverage of the John Kerry Swift-Boat analysis
- Exposing the Washington Posts William Arkin's hateful comments about the troops

And let's not forget that Edwards, Obama and Clinton pulled out of their FOX News debate because of Blogger discontent.

Furthermore, every major newspaper today has a "Blog" section. The New Times has one, The Washington Post has one, abc News has one, heck, Brian Williams' NBC has one!

So before Brian Williams rushes to judgement to defend his profession from an onslaught of vigilante writers and [sometimes] amateur journalists, he should check his sources, rather than speaking so flippantly.