At 5:38 p.m. ET, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer threw it to his colleague Susan Candiotti to ask her to describe the scene in Watertown, Mass. Her explanation was a bit on the nose.
Seriously, WTF?
You know this bombing at the Boston Marathon was a truly horrible event, but if anything could be described as a positive, it is that it REALLY helped to identify exactly which news outlets could be trusted and which ones could not.
While CNN was running around saying "We see brown people," and Fox News was desperately trying to drive home the point that the suspects were Muslim, and not, repeat NOT, Christians, MSNBC was carrying the banner of journalistic integrity.
It was Pete Williams who put the brakes on when everybody was reporting that the suspects were already in custody, and was the first to report that suspect number two was hiding in a boat.
In fact his consistently careful and accurate reporting led to Kelly O'Donnell tweeting the following:
Can we just make @petewilliamsnbc "employee of the month" now in our DC bureau at @nbcnews ??I think at one point EVERYTHING that NBC or MSNBC thought they knew about the situation was being run past Williams first for his seal of approval before being reported to the public.
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) April 19, 2013
A policy that I think might just serve them well in the future.
Especially since the Right Wing is absolutely convinced that the entire Boston police department, FBI, Homeland Security, and White House have conspired to fool the American people into believing that that these two people were the suspects.
In fact Glenn Beck is so convinced that he has the goods he is threatening the United States government with an expose on Monday.
All I can say is that I am VERY glad that I am an ardent viewer of MSNBC, and will continue to be a loyal viewer going forward.
And yes I certainly DO hope that Pete Williams gets employee of the year, as well as the many other accolades that he clearly deserves.
