Assorted Afflatuses

I have never understood why Brian Williams bothers to read viewer mail on-air. Especially since the usual feedback consists of some overly treacly comment about a special report or a scathing criticism of some very unimportant detail. Tonight, however, a viewer comment opened my eyes to the latest method that the lovely folks over at Fox News have begun to employ to further calumniate their least favorite politician, former President Bill Clinton.

The viewer wrote to the NBC News program complaining that, in his recent interview with the former president, Brian Williams erroneously addressed former President Clinton as, "Mister President." Said viewer continued by saying that said title was reserved for our current president, the illustrious W, and also that he or she would go back to the real journalists at the Fox News Channel. Fortunately, Mr. Williams corrected the disrespectful viewer by informing the viewer that the title of "President" is, to use Mr. Williams' phrase, "for life." *

But the latter part of the viewer's comment disturbed me. He or she, with the help of the Fox News Channel, genuinely believed that it was disrespectful to President Bush to call a former president, "Mr. President." That kind of thinking is far more dangerous than a conscious choice to demean someone through impoliteness.

The viewer's blind adherence to the ideas set forth by Fox News also underlines the fact that Americans do not think for themselves. Rather, many of them rely on the tainted information spoon-fed to them by politicians and the left- and right-wing news media. That too, seems very dangerous.

Though, in this case, the viewer would only have needed to consult Miss Manners to see the error in his or her ways.