NBC Promotes Brian Williams Gushing Over Obama During 2008 Election Night Coverage
Hawking a new NBC Publishing ebook on Wednesday's NBC Today about the network's election night television coverage dating back to 1948, author and TV Guide business editor Steve Battaglio touted a moment featured in the book of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams during election night in 2008: "Brian knew that it was going to be a very special night....having a pretty good idea that Barack Obama was going to win, and how do you tell this story of the first African-American president? It was such a monumental event." [Listen to the audio]
Only six days before voters decide if Obama remains in office, Battaglio waxed nostalgic about how Williams fawned over Obama's 2008 victory: "What Brian did was he got a poster, the type of poster that you would see in classrooms across America, with 43 white – 43 ovals on the poster of 43 past presidents, all of them white men, and Brian's message that night was, 'Tonight the oval is going to change,' and it was really a way to connect with the viewer and almost a personal expression of how really monumental this was, that night was."
Watch the video below of Williams during live NBC election night coverage in 2008 [Audio here]:
Here is a transcript of the October 31 exchange:
9:45AM ET
WILLIE GEIST: Election night broadcasts have been a national tradition
since 1948, and we're now just six days away from another one. The
thrills, the disappointments, all captured in a new enhanced e-book from
NBC Publishing called Election Night: A Television History, 1948 to
2012. The author is Steve Battaglio, he's the business editor at TV
Guide.
(...)
9:48AM ET
GEIST: In our most recent presidential election, 2008, Brian Williams did something pretty unique on election night.
STEVE
BATTAGLIO: Well, Brian knew that it was going to be a very special
night. We – they went into the night having a pretty good idea that
Barack Obama was going to win, and how do you tell this story of the
first African-American president? It was such a monumental event. What
Brian did was he got a poster, the type of poster that you would see in
classrooms across America, with 43 white – 43 ovals on the poster of 43
past presidents, all of them white men, and Brian's message that night
was, "Tonight the oval is going to change," and it was really a way to
connect with the viewer and almost a personal expression of how really
monumental this was, that night was.
(...)
