Tom Brokaw Thinks We Suck
By L. Russell Allen - Nov 17th, 2008 at 11:24 amInterim Meet the Press host and former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw loves generations. The World War II generation? They’re the greatest. The boomers? They’re not bad either. How about us Generation-Y millennial types?
We suck.
Wait, what?
Brokaw was being interviewed by Peter Sagal, the host of the National Public Radio game show Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! Sagal was preparing to quiz Brokaw on collectible card games when the conversation took a mean-spirited turn.
Check it out here at about the seven minute mark.
Sagal: Tom Brokaw we have asked you here to play a game we’re calling “The Dorkiest Generation.” So, you’ve written a book about the World War II generation, you’ve written a new book about the generation of the sixties — the boomers. We don’t think you’re going to be writing one about kids today. They won’t even clean up their bedroom for goodness sake. But we also think that because they have been wasting their time…
Brokaw: I’m waiting for a member of this generation to write one that’s simply titled “My Generation Sucks.”
Sagal: The problem is we think these kids these days, these kids in their twenties and thirties — are they kids? I don’t know — they’re wasting their time playing collectable card games these are the games in which you buy decks of custom cards and play them against their friends. It’s like Cribbage for kids who can’t get dates.
Brokaw: Right.
Cribbage for people who can’t get dates? What? Is cribbage a game reserved for couples?
Anyways, Tom Brokaw thinks we suck. I’d love to pick his brain and figure out exactly what it is that we’re doing wrong. It’s pretty easy to make fun of us because some of us play Magic. Is that geekier than killing Nazis or smoking a bunch of dope and rolling around in mud? Maybe. Hell, probably. But I don’t think it’s a fair standard of suckiness. How about mastering new technologies that have opened lines of communication throughout the world? Or how about establishing a level of diversity and acceptance that’s unprecedented in American history? Is that small potatoes?
Brokaw may have the gravitas and the journalism chops, but it’s been made very clear that he isn’t interested in dealing with issues that affect younger audiences. If he isn’t careful, he will doom himself to total irrelevance as we–the suckiest sucks that ever sucked–find voices that sympathize with our goals and concerns.
Brokaw’s just mad because he got old. And the price of Viagra is going up, up, UP!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:07 pmthis whole segment is really just dumb…i don’t know if there’s a better word to describe it. i mean, “magic” the gathering? really?
that being said, i think it was all in fun. it’s not like he said this on “morning edition” or something.
November 18th, 2008 at 9:48 am