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FredLeonard
Guest
Woody Allen said:
The other 20 per cent is being Michelle's BFF.
Or maybe it's because Oprah helped the economy with all the stuff she gave away.
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Tom Brokaw Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Thread starter mvcg66b3r
- Start date
The other 20 per cent is being Michelle's BFF.
Or maybe it's because Oprah helped the economy with all the stuff she gave away.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal, bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award of the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors".
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FredLeonard
Guest
Right! That's what the press releases always say.
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Avid Listener
Guest
Then how did Brokaw qualify for one?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mario500, the Sheldon Cooper of radiodiscussions.com.
The same way all the other journalists did.
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Avid Listener
Guest
Brokaw wasn't a journalist, he was an anchorman. Maybe he started out as a journalist, actually digging up information for stories, but once he reached the point where he was sitting behind the desk reading a teleprompter, he stopped being a journalist and became merely "talent". From 1973 to 1976 he read White House press releases on the air. In 1976 he started reading the teleprompter on The Today Show, and in 1982 began reading the teleprompter for the Nightly News.
Regardless, same could be said of the other news people who've won this award.
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Avid Listener
Guest
I don't give a damn who else won the award. This thread is about Tom Brokaw. He is to journalists what a disc jockey is to musicians. The fact that other, equally undeserving people won the award doesn't make the award more significant. It makes the award less significant.
It's also about the PRESIDENTIAL Medal of Freedom. Awarded by the President. The President doesn't give a damn what you or anyone else thinks of his choices.
The award isn't given to journalists, newsmen, anchors or any other specific occupations.
When you get to be President, you can give awards to anyone you want. This is not a voted award, so it doesn't matter what you think.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Damn right! The more anyone calls himself a "journalist," the less likely he is actually to be one. Somebody reads wire copy and he claims to be a "journalist" and says he "covered" something (thousands of miles away) he just read about. Real journalists call themselves newspapermen, reporters, writers, editors, columnists - anything but "journalists."
Ben Bradlee got the award. Woodstein have not gotten it. A bunch of editors, publishers and columnists have gotten the award but hardly any working reporters.
This award is administration (1) PR and (2) sucking up. Maybe they should call it "The Presidents Choice Awards."
It's sort of pathetic the way broadcasters are addicted to awards. They give them to themselves. And they frame and post ridiculous awards from outside: A station tells the time and it gets an award from the watch industry. Tells the temperature and gets one from the weather service. All sorts of awards: The Buckeye News Hawk Award. The covered Silver Sow Award. And, of course, The Copper Cobb Award.
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Avid Listener
Guest
And considering who the current president is, that makes it even less meaningful.
Fred is right, it's more like the President's Choice award, about as meaningful as the People's Choice award given to whatever celebrity will agree to show up for People Magazine's little awards show.
Yes, it was. But he didn't get an award for writing one book.
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Just to butt in on this little haters' huzzlecoo with a few inconvenient facts...
People magazine has zilch to do with the People's Choice Awards. The Awards are entirely owned by Procter & Gamble, which have sponsored them on TV since 1975. Until 2005, the surveys were conducted by Gallup, probably as an adjunct to P & G's own marketing research. Since then, online voting and other survey companies have been used.
The award doesn't have the President's name on it. Just the fact that he is the President. It might be less meaningful to you, but you're not the person who won it.
It's too bad that everything with the word "President" in it has to end up being an Obama trash-fest, with Michelle thrown in. I have a lot of respect for Brokaw. Over his career, he has not been just a "telepromter reader," but a commentator, an interviewer, and an author of multiple books.
I was watching KNBC 11:00 "News Service" (I believe it was called then) - the day President Nixon began the bombing of Cambodia. Tom Brokaw was the anchor. He broke format to make a very serious and thoughtful commentary about the disturbing widening of the Vietnam War. It was not directly political - or from a left-wing perspective, but it was really thought provoking. In those days, that just wasn't done on local Los Angeles TV, unless you were the right-wing George Putnam on KTLA/KTTV, who could spew conservative commentary as much as he wanted.
I don't know if Brokaw went against station policy to do what he did - maybe the News Director agreed to it before hand. But I found it courageous, never the less.
I was watching KNBC 11:00 "News Service" (I believe it was called then) - the day President Nixon began the bombing of Cambodia. Tom Brokaw was the anchor. He broke format to make a very serious and thoughtful commentary about the disturbing widening of the Vietnam War. It was not directly political - or from a left-wing perspective, but it was really thought provoking. In those days, that just wasn't done on local Los Angeles TV, unless you were the right-wing George Putnam on KTLA/KTTV, who could spew conservative commentary as much as he wanted.
I don't know if Brokaw went against station policy to do what he did - maybe the News Director agreed to it before hand. But I found it courageous, never the less.
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FredLeonard
Guest
Ronnie gave the award to Frank Sinatra, the guy who used to show up at the White House to "visit" Nancy when Ronnie was out of town. Of course, maybe Ronnie was worried he'd wake up with a horse's head in his bed if he didn't give Frank the award.
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Avid Listener
Guest
BFD. People Magazine used to promote it heavily. Whether it was created by Proctor & Gamble, People Magazine, or Hallmark Cards doesn't change the fact that it's a bogus prize, created as an excuse to have an awards show. Much like the Presidential Medal of Freedom has degenerated into.
So the Presidential Medal of Freedom was worth more when it was given by Jimmy Carter? How can something "degenerate" if it never was worth anything to begin with?
BFD, just like your endless, pointless kvetching.
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