A Fond Farewell to an NBC News Long-Timer. Watters is Too Much For Even His Co-hosts. A Special Message from Babydog. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
MEDIA WINNER: Kevin Tibbles
NBC News correspondent Kevin Tibbles is retiring, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt sent him off into the sunset with a special tribute to honor his decades-long career with the network — and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) before that — as his reporting has placed him in a front-row seat to history countless times in all corners of the world.
Tibbles’ time as a national correspondent for CBC had him in Germany following the fall of the Berlin Wall and doing on-the-ground coverage of the first Gulf War.
Since joining NBC in 1995, the award-winning journalist has appeared on a wide variety of NBC News and MSNBC programs, including NBC Nightly News, TODAY, and several of their online offerings.
He’s covered war zones and Olympic games around the globe and has conducted interviews that ranged from world leaders like Mikhail Gorbachev and Tony Blair to everyday people like the Londoners who crowded the streets to mourn during the funeral of Princess Diana and the residents of New Orleans’ flood-ravaged wards after Hurricane Katrina.
In the farewell segment with Holt that aired Thursday evening, Tibbles looked back on his career with his trademark cheery disposition and expressed his gratitude for the “honor” of “so many experiences, so many people” he had seen during his travels. “I only have friends, and it has been great bringing stories of ordinary, regular people to the rest of the nation,” said Tibbles.
MEDIA LOSER: Jesse Watters
They say all publicity is good publicity, but your friendly neighborhood Mediaite newsletter correspondent still thinks Uncle Ben had the far superior philosophy: With great power comes great responsibility.
Sigh. If only Fox News’ Jesse Watters took more inspiration from Spider-Man’s kindly uncle than his top-rated colleague Tucker Carlson.
Watters’ latest headline-grabbing move was a bizarrely misogynistic critique of Vice President Kamala Harris that got so awkward and bad, even his fellow co-hosts of The Five frantically attempted to shut him up multiple times.
Watters complained that Harris was “acting like a tourist” in her complaints about the “D.C. bubble,” and then went right off the rails, saying that he wasn’t saying it “but many people are saying that this sounds like a typical female problem. She’s talking–”
“Jesse,” groaned Geraldo Rivera.
“I’m not saying that!” he protested, while totally saying that. “I’m saying this is what people are telling me. They say the first female vice president comes in there and every single–every single article is about her feelings. She feels this way. She feels sad. She feels–”
“Stop it, Jesse!” said Jeanine Pirro, trying to save Watters from himself.
Watters has a new prime time hosting gig and the support of his network. He shouldn’t need to resort to these silly stunts for attention.
Links We Like:
A Police Officer Died By Suicide After Jan. 6. Here’s What He Went Through At The Capitol.
– Ryan J. Reilly, HuffPost
Florida’s waters choke on fertilizer, dead fish and red tides — while Big Ag floats above it all
– Lizette Alvares, Washington Post
About Those Empty Grocery Shelves
– Jim Swift, The Bulwark
Art Should Be a Habit, Not a Luxury
– Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic
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