Starting Five

1. Mid-Life of Brian

Six months. Six months? Six months!

And then what?

I like Brian Williams. Met him once or twice and was genuinely humble, deflected praise (so did he) (!). You’ve seen him on TV: self-deprecating, funny, well-informed. The paragon of what a person in his position should be.

But then he decided to star in his own film, “Terms of Embellishment.”

The “tragedy” of his fall from grace, it seems, is that there was no reason to exaggerate the tale. You rode in a Chinook helicopter in Iraq in a time and place where U.S. aircraft were taking enemy fire. That was enough. It’s like running a 2:59 marathon but telling people you ran a sub-2:45. We were already impressed. No need to take it further.

Long-term prognosis? Williams never sits in the NBC Nightly News chair again. Deborah Turness, the head of NBC News, seems like a boss who doesn’t Goodell much. She’s decisive and she doesn’t equivocate. Ask Jamie Horowitz.

By the way, here’s the text from Williams’ speech when receiving the Walter Cronkite Award in 2009. There are a few facetious comments he probably wishes now that he had not made, for instance, “You’re going to talk to producers from New Jersey, watch out; none of us are trustworthy. I’m just telling you.”

2. Rachel Mad Now

Kudos to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow for not worrying or caring about what shoes she steps on. The enlightened evening host took her own employer to task last night for failing to supply any NBC employees to appear on her show and discuss the Williams suspension.

While I understand why NBC News might be loathe to assist Maddow, I credit her for being transparent with her audience.

The underlying issue here is one that I see crop up over and over and over and over again. In fact, for me it is one of the biggest issues people ever will face in their careers (and other aspects of their lives): at some point in your life or your career you will probably be forced to choose between truth and loyalty. Myself, I respect people who choose the former. You’ll find the former mostly writing blogs or starting their own businesses or selling what they can on the eBay. You’ll find the latter occupying corner offices.

It’s not a very strategic move, choosing truth. But you do sleep better (in lower thread-count sheets). Maddow chose truth last night. I have no idea what the long-term ramifications for her will be at 30 Rock. I do think she’d be as good as any possible replacement NBC could find for Williams. I also think she’d rather remain doing the show that she does, and that NBC’s suits would worry about her appeal in states that do not border an ocean.

3. On Deck

The headline here “Brian Williams’ 6-Month Suspension Feeling More Like a Career Obituary,” seems, sadly, on target. And this entire strange tale seems more bizarre than when Liz Lemon accompanied Jack Donaghy to his high school reunion (or was it the other way around? I forget).

Anyway, it that hed proves true, with whom does NBC replace Williams? I’ll rank five people in order of how I’d hire them. And, yes, I wanted to include Jon Stewart on this list if NBC let him be himself, but we are not yet evolved enough for that to happen and I doubt he’d be interested in playing it straight.

1. Anderson Cooper… Legitimate field-reporting red; credible; trustworthy; a seamless professional; reminds us of Siberian huskies and we love Siberian huskies; used to and occasionally still does share same gym locker room as Sam Champion, Neil Patrick Harris and your author (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Yes, he’s at CNN, but he might consider a move up to the networks (if it is even a vertical move any more).

2. Matt Lauer…Would he want the gig? He’s bored with Today and certainly the workload seems as if it would be less demanding. Granted, in summer time he wouldn’t be able to get to Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton as early on Fridays.

3. Richard Engel…An out-of-Left-Bank choice, but Engel has more field danger zoner reporting cred than anyone currently in the news business; very smart and well-liked; a New York City native who might not might coming in from the cold.

4. Josh Elliott… I tweeted that “Josh Elliott wants this job” and that is unfair of me. I have no idea what he wants. But he’d be great in the role if he chose to pursue this path. He’s NBC’s David Muir, and I happen to think that Muir is the best in the business.

5. Tamron Hall... I know, you don’t think of her that way, but she’s smart, she’s gorgeous, and as an African-American woman she’s as far away from Muir and Scott Pelley as you can get. Why not? Let’s face it. This job is no longer the job Walter Cronkite once did. You’re reading a teleprompter and throwing to packages, mostly. She can do this and I’d wattch.

Wild Card: Seth Meyers…. I still miss him on “Weekend Update.” And maybe he misses doing the news.

4. Jon Is Gone

And now Jon Stewart surprises all with the announcement that he will be stepping down from The Daily Show later this year. Stewart is so self-aware that he announced to the camera, i.e., the viewing audience, i.e. us, that he knew that WE already knew (because the show is taped) what was coming, but that the people in the studio audience did not know. Is there a more signature 21st-century media moment than that?

Who should replace Stewart? I like Aasif Mandvi, Chris Hardwick, Joel McHale and (again) Seth Meyers as suggestions. I like Seth best, getting back to his cheerfully mischievous WU persona. I know it’ll never happen, but he’d be (except for the $$) happier.

5. What’s Love Got to do With Fit?

Honestly, I have no idea what LeBron James was thinking…

As you know, I earnestly avoid giving the Cavs (and LeBron) attention for attention’s sake (tempting the wrath of my most loyal reader that does not share my surname), but this one I cannot ignore.

Why does the best or at least most famous basketball player on the planet call undue attention to himself and his team by chiding the squad’s next-highest profile player, Kevin Love, on Twitter?

In case you missed it, on February 7 LeBron tweeted, “Stop trying a way to FIT-OUT and just FIT-IN. Be apart of something special. Just my thoughts.”

Now, first, by typing “apart” as opposed to “a part,” LeBron contradicts himself. To “be apart” means you are advocating not fitting in.

Second, in an ESPN story back in mid-October, Love specifically used the terms “fit out” and “fit in.” So LeBron had this bullet in his chamber for, what, four months? Really?

You know me: From the day LeBron and Lee Jenkins hooked up, I advocated the Cavs keeping the No. 1 overall draft pick and letting Andrew Wiggins develop. Always thought trading for Love (Chris Bosh 2.0 in LeBron’s eyes) was dumb. Always.

But they went ahead and did it. And now they’re stuck with a Love that’ll never be the Kevin Love in terms of stats that was in Minneapolis. And they can still win without Love  being a superstar, or a superstat. But tweets such as that alienate him even more. Strange move from King James.

Remote Patrol

All The King’s Men

TCM 8 p.m.

And now I realize what I should have titled the last item (Damn, Walters, you are SO stupid!). I’ve never seen this film that won Best Picture in 1950, but I have read Robert Penn Warren’s novel that is loosely based on Louisiana guvnah Huey Long, and it is definitely one of the top ten novels on my list. So if I’m not out playing pickle ball, I’ll tune in. Really, do you want to watch Heat at Cavs when everyone’s minds are on the approaching All-Star break?