Wanker, Not Anchor

I just got the breaking-news email from the New York Times: Lyin' Brian Williams is being kicked downstairs to MSNBC from his coveted anchor spot at the network. He will reportedly only be allowed to read breaking-news items at relatively rare intervals on the supposition that it would be exceedingly hard to insert a lie or a joke into only one or two telepromptered paragraphs. But never say never.

No word whether he will endure a salary cut from his reported $10 million-a-year contract. No word either on how many low-level reporters and crew will have be fired to make room for the Great One's return. But leave it to the Times to commiserate with a plutocratic wanker:

The new role is a humbling comedown for Mr. Williams, who before the controversy was one of the country’s most prominent and respected broadcast journalists.

They got that one-fourth right. Williams is a broadcaster, but whether he is also respected or a journalist or humble is very much a matter of opinion. Then again, he and the Times honchos are all members of an elite club where nobody fails even when mistakes are made. Like the mistake of blaming a group of Irish students for falling to their own deaths because of their failure to notice the shoddy construction they were standing on.