For Politico star reporter Mike Allen, it seems that news coverage of embattled NBC News anchor Brian Williams has ventured into over-saturation territory.
On Sunday, Allen mocked the Washington Post for publishing a story on Williams misrepresentation of his Iraq war coverage in 2003, which led to his current six-month suspension from work and perhaps irreparable damage to his credibility.
The Post story came nearly two weeks after initial news broke that Williams had claimed falsely he was aboard a U.S. military helicopter that was downed by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003. The Post story featured a triple byline of reporters, plus contributions from an additional seven reporters.
“[Brian Williams] PILE-ON CONTINUES,” Allen wrote in his widely read Playbook tip sheet on Sunday. “In case ya hadn’t heard that Brian Williams has an embellishment issue, the WashPost has 10 reporters on the case.”
Allen is close to the NBC News family. At MSNBC, NBC’s cable news arm, Allen has a recurring “Playbook” segment on the morning show “Morning Joe,” wherein he discusses politics from an insider perspective.
After the Post story’s publication, a correction was added noting that the reporters had “overcounted” the number of entertainment TV shows Williams had appeared on between 2006 and 2011. It was 80 appearances, rather than the initially stated 146.
Allen noted the correction with glee in Monday’s edition of Playbook. “WASHPOST CORRECTS its Sunday [front page] Brian Williams article, which had three bylines and seven credit lines.”
In Tuesday’s Playbook, there was no mention of Williams, though Allen had covered the affair extensively in previous editions of the tip sheet. Also, Allen’s colleague, Politico senior media writer Jack Shafer, wrote three columns dedicated to Williams over the span of six days. (“Even I got two columns out of the Williams affair,” Shafer wrote in his third column, “and, at the urging my editors, here I am on my third!”)
Allen did not return a request from comment on whether he thinks the Williams coverage has been overdone as of this weekend.
