Rich, whatever one may think about the Romney campaign’s use of that old newscast, the NBC response is a little odd:
Via POLITICO’s Reid Epstein, NBC News and Tom Brokaw are loudly objecting to the Mitt Romney campaign’s use of footage from the 1990s in an ad blasting Newt Gingrich over his House ethics charges.
Brokaw, whose statement noted he was speaking on his behalf, said, “I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad. I do not want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign.”
“The NBC Legal Department has written a letter to the campaign asking for the removal of all NBC News material from their campaign ads,” NBC News said in a statement, which added, “Similar requests have gone out to other campaigns that have inappropriately used Nightly News, Meet the Press, Today and MSNBC material.”
I would have thought that footage of the type that Romney is deploying was part of the historical record. If, of course, Tom Brokaw and NBC believe that the way it is now being used distorts what Brokaw was saying back then, they should explain why.