“My Biggest Worry Is for My Country”

Veteran American journalist and news anchor Brian Williams ended his MSNBC show The 11th Hour – and his 40-year career as a broadcaster – with a warning of what is happening to democracy, telling viewers in his final sign-off, “My biggest worry is for my country.”

Following is part of what Williams said as he signed-off earlier this evening.

The truth is I am not a liberal or a conservative. I’m an institutionalist. I believe in this place and in my love of country I yield to no one. But the darkness of the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It’s now at the local bar, and the bowling alley, at the school board and the grocery store. And it must be acknowledged and answered for. Grown men and women who swore an oath to our Constitution, elected by their constituents, and possessing the kinds of college degrees I could only dream of, have decided to join the mob and become something they are not while hoping we somehow forget who they were. They’ve decided to burn it all down – with us inside. That should scare you to no end as much as it scares an aging volunteer fireman. . . . [In 2021 our] nation is unrecognizable to those who came before us and who fought to protect it, which is what you must do now.

– Brian Williams
December 9, 2021

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Related Off-site Links:
Brian Williams Signs Off From MSNBC With Thanks to Viewers and a Warning: “My Biggest Worry Is for My Country” – Ted Johnson (Deadline, December 9, 2021).
Brian Williams Uses Final 11th Hour to End Era and Sound Alarm – Brian Steinberg (Variety, December 9, 2021).
“I Think We Need to Rethink Entirely How We Do Things,” Says Dana Milbank of the Washington Post – Dan Froomkin (Press Watcher, December 7, 2021).
Big Panic For a Democracy That Never Was – Hamilton Nolan (In These Times, December 7, 2021).
The Most Important Choice Ahead – Robert Reich (RobertReich.substack.com, December 3, 2021).
Twilight of Democracy Author Says the Autocrats Are Winning – Terry Gross (Fresh Air, November 18, 2021).

UPDATE: Revolution of One: What Is the Relationship Between Democracy and Authoritarianism? – Tyler Stovall (The Nation, December 11, 2021).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy
• Peter Certo: “We Can Have the Filibuster or Democracy – But We Can’t Have Both”
• Sen. Tina Smith: The Filibuster Rule Is “Fundamentally Undemocratic”
• Rep. Ilhan Omar: Quote of the Day – May 29, 2021
• Heather Cox Richardson on Combating the Republican Party’s “Rigging of the System”
• Insurrection at the United States Capitol
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• The Big Switch