BuzzFlash's Media Putz Of The Week

The folks at BuzzFlash check in today with their Media Putz of the week, "for reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America."

This week, the award goes to Tom Brokaw who, in his duties as interim host of NBC's Meet The Press, decided on Sunday to shill for the McCain campaign by citing poll numbers favoring McCain that were simply false.

"In fairness to everybody here, I’m just going to end on one note," said Brokaw in ending one segment. "And that is that we continue to poll on who’s best equipped to be Commander in Chief, and John McCain continues to lead in that category despite the criticism from Barack Obama by a factor of 53 to 42 percent in our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll."

But as Crooks and Liars reported, those numbers didn’t exist and, at best, Brokaw was bringing up polling from at least a month ago and presenting it as McCain remaining on top.

Here's BuzzFlash:

MoveOn.org demands an apology from Brokaw for citing the false polling from Meet the Press. And now there is growing concern over whether Brokaw will be a fair and impartial choice to moderate the town hall style presidential debate next week.

Not that Brokaw could have been Russert, but his work on Meet the Press shows a startling lack of follow-up and aggression, which is a clear contrast to the style Russert, and Meet the Press, were famous for doing.

Brokaw was the milquetoast anchor of the Big Three in the 1980s and 1990s. Never the great reporter such as Dan Rather nor did he have the curiosity and worldliness of Peter Jennings, Brokaw was always the favorite son of the corporate media. He liked The Greatest Generation and wrote about them. He never stirred the pot, but never did anything great either.

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