Bloggers are putting the heat on MSNBC’s Brian Williams for his comments late last week where he appears to have compared the founding fathers of our country to terrorists. MSNBC video here (go to 2:52), WND summary here (via RPIT).

“What would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today the first several U.S. presidents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called ‘terrorists’ by the British crown, after all.”

Via Michelle we have this cartoon from IMAO.

Moonbattery says Brian Williams is not original. Michael Moore suggested the same thing.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not “insurgents” or “terrorists” or “The Enemy.” They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?

Brian Williams responds on his blog here.

Today, apparently, on some radio talk shows and blogs, my friends in the media have accused me of labeling George Washington a terrorist. They apparently missed my point: That the BRITISH CROWN might have viewed American revolutionaries that way.

My question — and specifically the line, “what would it all matter…” was meant to address the popular support within Iran for those who acted against the U.S. and are now in positions of power. Those of you who are regular readers of our blog know we spoke about this very issue yesterday in our afternoon editorial meeting.

All I ask is that people re-read what was said on the air. I’ve talked to several viewers today, and one conversation I actually enjoyed was with a woman from Virginia, who said, “These days, you just can’t use the word TERRORIST for anything but a TERRORIST.” And I take this nice woman’s point about the power of words in our current climate.

While I insist that a re-reading of my question will prove that in no way was I calling the framers “terrorists” (for starters, the word did not exist 229 years ago), I regret that anyone thought that after a life spent reading and loving American history, I had suddenly changed my mind about the founders of our nation.

Michelle’s take:

Translation: It’s your fault for misunderstanding him, and don’t you dare question his patriotism!

Mac is equally unimpressed.

Brian, Brian - why even make the comparison if the term didn’t exist 229 years ago? Surely one who has “spent a life reading and loving American history” and yet would even offer that comparison, would be considered in elite academic circles, “a doofus”.

Therefore, Brian, a simple, “I’m a Chowderhead, I’m sorry”, would have sufficed.

Hoodathunk:

So Williams is correct in that he didn’t call the Founders terrorists. He simply soiled their names by suggesting terrorists should be part of their group.

It seems various bloggers (including Hoodathunk) are pointing out that he’s taking the Turbin tactic of apologizing for how you felt or how you interpreted it, not for what he said.

Dr. Rusty makes a point similar:

The problem, Brian, is not that you equated our Founding Father’s with terrorists, it is that you equated terrorists with our Founding Fathers. The first is disgustingly stupid, the second is stupidly disgusting. The fact that you can’t see what the distinction is and think we’re just not getting your point reveals you have the intellect of a third grader.

Art Green asks:

What does it matter that the US Presidents were fighting for freedom for a people, instead of Ahmadinejad’s fight for tyranny and hopelessness for his people? What is the difference, after all?

Liberal Avenger thinks this is all about Michelle Malkin’s ad revenue. [UPDATE: For clarification, see comment by Ryan]

BoringMadeDull offers an alternative apology that he would have accepted.

Now I can believe that you can casually make a linguistic boo-boo like this. However, once it’s published on your (corporate, subject to edit by legal and others) website, and discussed on a news broadcast, you need to provide a better apology than “You rubes are too stupid to understand what I said”. Actually, we get what you said, that’s the problem.

A real apology would look like:

“I’m sorry that I inadvertently implied that America’s founders were the moral equivalents of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists. The words were poorly chosen, and I did not mean than anyone could rationally construe that George Washington or others of our founding fathers, could be construed as terrorists. Please forgive me for my clumsy formulation.”

That’s not a durbinized, weasel-worded apology. Notice the complete lack of blaming the readers / viewers for mis-interpretation.

Bluto:

If anyone needed another example of the insanity of the liberal doctrine of moral and cultural equivalence, which came into fashion during the Cold War, this is it.

Flopping Aces is outraged.

Did George Washington bomb innocent women and children? Did any of our founding fathers fight the British any other way other then honorable? Hell no. They fought the British army and only the British army. They never deliberately targeted civilians, they never strapped bombs to the chests of children.

Captain Ed also notes the Michael Moore comparison.

Williams indulges in the same, tired moral equivalency that led Michael Moore to declare Zarqawi as the Iraqi version of the Minutemen from our war of independence. This minimizes the cruelty and inhumanity of the enemies of freedom that use civilians as their targets while trying to impose tyrannies far worse than anything George III could ever have dreamed in his most feverish illusions. It also continues the generation-long effort to rewrite American history to eliminate the idea of American exceptionalism, where all forms of government are relatively equal and democracy is simply another choice with no special moral value over monarchies or autocracies.

Hard Starboard says “Michael Moore gets a major makeover.”

Obviously Right says this, and then links to background on Iran and the hostages.

Could there be more layers of stupidity in one simple sentence? It’s offensive, morally obtuse, and historically inaccurate.

That was the last straw for Media Lies.

That’s it. I’m done with NBC. The local affiliate is my channel for news, but the first time they show anything from the national news programs, that’s it.