We’re pathetic. Brian Williams" class="company-link">Brian Williams is in Africa for NBC Nightly News to report on the AIDS crisis and the focus of his piece is Bono of U2, his visit. What a great man he is, what an investment he’s made in Africa. Act I. Bono in his black shirt and rockstar spectacles, thumbwrestling with an African child. Act II. Williams and British Treasury Minister Gordon Brown—whom Williams touts as the likely successor to Tony Blair—are standing around being lectured by the pierced and piercing Bono on the appeal of Islamic fundamentalism for starving Africans. Act III. Bono’s black shirt now sweated through, he collapses on the plane, with just, Williams informs, three hours sleep.
This isn’t about Bono. He’s a good guy. More power to him. It’s about Americans. Can we care about anything without a celebrity attached? Global Warming, brought to you by Al Gore. Literature, sponsored by Oprah. African Hunger, presented by Bono. And now George Clooney brings us—genocide.
