Did Brian Williams Really Quote Leonard Cohen To Praise Syria Strike?
The United States’s strike on a Syrian airfield has generated confusion across the political spectrum, from President Trump’s far-right supporters’ anger at the move to the guarded approbation of usual Trump skeptics like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Perhaps the most confusing response, though, came from MSNBC’s Brian Williams, who, discussing the strike on his program “The 11th Hour,” first referred to images of Tomahawk missiles launching as “beautiful” — and then used a Leonard Cohen lyric to emphasize the point.
“I am guided by the beauty of our weapons,” Williams said, quoting Cohen’s song “First We Take Manhattan.”.
It was an odd choice for several reasons, not least of which was that Cohen described the song as an attempt to occupy the mindset of a terrorist.
Williams faced an immediate backlash for the comment. He has yet to respond to the criticism.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO