On behalf of war correspondents over the last 150 years ...

... may I say that NBC's Brian Williams is an embarassment to his profession and to his country.

From MediaBistro:

In a email Q&A with the Huffington Post from Afghanistan, NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams discusses his recent experience there and his experience covering the war. Writing from a "dimly-lit room inside a barricaded, heavily-protected compound in Kabul," Williams responds:

To be in my job for the past 5 years and NOT have a ground-level familiarity with both of our nation's ongoing wars would be reckless, I think. Getting to know the military -- sleeping where they sleep, eating what they eat, going on patrol with them, learning about their lives here and at home -- has been one of the great blessings of my life...and anybody who knows me knows I feel that way. Its one thing to post an opinion on the web about what the U.S. is doing here, from the comfort and safety of home...and its quite another to be here and experience it...and come back and do it again and again. For all the pejoratives attached to the MSM label, it also means we have the money and means to get over here and report what we see and experience. Our viewers can make their own judgments. That's the way its supposed to work.

No, Brian, you tenderfoot douchenozzle, that's not the way it works. Go into the history of your craft and study the work of the real men and women who covered conflict, starting with Matthew Harrison Brady who photographed the US Civil War and then those brave souls who covered WW2, Korea and Vietnam.

Not a one of them wore a well laundered and starched oxford shirt and $350 woolen pants with a designer belt and buckle. Not one of them sported a well-coiffed hairstyle or a $10k watch. All of them wore battle dress (many carried weapons and used them when necessary) and all of them reported from the front, not from some "dimly-lit room inside a barricaded, heavily-protected compound" as you do.

Look to the real embeds, civilian non-MSM-ers who are paying their own way into the Zone and taking the same chances as the troops.

My God, Brian Williams, I was just a simple soldier with a camera and a mission forty years ago and even I, in my saddest memory, outclass you and your overblown ego. May God forgive you for your unrelenting, untrue and useless bullshit.

By the way, that macho-looking "body armor" you're wearing wouldn't stop a .380 shot, let alone a combat round.  Get thee back to your compound and see if you can get a refund from WalMart.

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