In selecting which excerpts, from his sit-down with former President Jimmy
Carter, to showcase on Monday's NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams began
with the not so humble boast from Carter that "I feel that my role as a
former President is probably superior to that of other Presidents,
primarily because of the activism and the injection of the Carter Center
into international affairs," but also decided to highlight Carter's blast at Fox News for "totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts" and having "no regard for the truth."
Williams cued up Carter, who is making the rounds of friendly media
to promote his new book, White House Diary: "How do you think it came to
be that such high numbers of people believe that this American-born
Christian President is either foreign born or a Muslim or both?" Carter
answered:
I think the number one factor is Fox News. It's totally distorting everything possible concerning the facts. And I think their constant hammering away at these false premises about our incumbent President has a major impact on the consciousness of America. A lot of well-meaning people, including many of those in the Tea Party movement, believe what is said in this constant hammering away by Glenn Beck and by others who have no regards for the truth.
Video of full 31-minute interview on MSNBC.com [1].
Earlier:
From Sunday night [2]: "CBS Begins Media's Rehabilitation of 'Fantastic' Jimmy Carter, 'Cursed' Presidency Actually More Successful Than Reagan's"
From Monday morning [3]: "On Today: Jimmy Carter Defends Record, Hopes Tea Party Fades in 2012"
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow him on Twitter.