Peacock guy is ruffled
One, two, three - Awwwwwww...
Preening? Egocentric?
What is 'Yes and yes', Alex?
Tom Brokaw?
NBC News' 63-year-old alpha male - already annoyed that nobody from NBC was picked last Friday to moderate this fall's presidential and vice presidential debates - is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.
YEEEEEAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!
He blew a gasket this week after debate honcho Janet Brown told The New York Times that star network anchormen are unsuitable. "For fear that there's not enough room on the stage for the candidates and their Hindenburg sized egos they would overshadow the events," The Times explained. "It's important for the moderators to focus attention on the candidates," said Brown, executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Sorry, Tom - it's NOT all about you.
Brokaw took it personally. Brown's remark "leaves the undeniable impression that you believe if we were moderators, we'd be preening, egocentric performers," the anchor wrote in a scorching letter to Brown. "I deeply resent that implication." (Brokaw sent copies of his screed to various and sundry, and predictably the letter quickly reached me.)
Kinda proving the critics point, aren't ya, Tommy?
Brokaw - who's giving up his anchor perch for another blow-dried hairshirt Brian Williams right after the revolution election - went on to recount, at considerable length, his experience moderating political debates and conducting interviews with candidates and actual Presidents. "Not once did candidates, campaigns or press critics suggest I was more concerned with my role than with the role of the candidates," Brokaw claimed.
Well, not in public...
"I am particularly outraged that the commission failed to choose anyone from NBC News personnel for a moderator's role."
"It's OUTRAGEOUS, I tell you! SCANDALOUS!!"
Brokaw's parting shot from a cap gun: "For a commission that has assumed primary power in the exercise of the democratic process, you have a peculiarly autocratic style."
Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier! Look, Ma, I'm goosesteppin'!
Brown - who instead picked ABC's resident leftist Charlie Gibson, CBS' resident bootlick Bob Schieffer and PBS' dead man walkin' Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill to moderate the debates - declined to comment on Brokaw's letter. A spokeswoman for NBC News - whose president, Neal Shapiro, complained to the commission from NBC Olympics headquarters in Athens - said Brokaw was on vacation and unreachable.
But Brokaw wasn't too busy to fire off a letter expressing his outrage? How convenient!
The spokeswoman referred me to a previous NBC News press release expressing "surprise" and "deep disappointment."
Janet Brown, Debate Nazi = "No broadcast for you!"