Tom foolery

There came a time when we had to take my grandfather's car keys away, and it was sad, but he was a danger to himself and to others on the road, so we ran errands and took him and my grandmother where they needed to go and it all worked out for the better.

That scenario, which has been played out in millions of families over the years, comes to mind when I see Tom Brokaw and his latest televised fiasco.

He is known now as "NBC News special correspondent and former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw," a nod to his anchorman emeritus status, and he appeared on "Meet The Press" this Sunday and made remarks about Hispanic assimilation, and those comments set off a backlash.

The panel was talking about all the hassling about building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Brokaw chose to say this, rather than remaining silent and letting people think he still had all his marbles: "On the Republican side, a lot of people see the rise of an extraordinary, important new constituent in American politics, Hispanics, who will come here and all be Democrats. Also, I hear, when I push people a little harder, 'Well, I don’t know whether I want brown grandbabies.' I mean, that’s also a part of it. It’s the intermarriage that is going on and the cultures that are conflicting with each other."

He did not give the name of any people who had spoken in such hateful terms to him.

AND THEN, as if he hadn't already stuck both Weejuns in his mouth, he persisted: "I also happen to believe that the Hispanics should work harder at assimilation. That’s one of the things I’ve been saying for a long time. You know, they ought not to be just codified in their communities but make sure that all their kids are learning to speak English, and that they feel comfortable in the communities. And that’s going to take outreach on both sides, frankly."

PBS correspondent Yamiche Alcindor was on the panel and she answered this way: "I grew up in Miami, where people speak Spanish, but their kids speak English. And the idea that we think America can only speak English, as if Spanish and other languages wasn’t always part of America, is, in some ways, troubling.

I'm not going to pretty this up in any way. Right away, as soon as Brokaw got home and put his slippers on, here came the tweeted apologia: "i feel terrible a part of my comments on Hispanics offended some members of that proud culture."

And then he tweeted over and over again, culminating with this attempt at speaking in street patois:


As of this time (Monday morning) there has been no comment from NBC as to whether they still think it's a good idea to allow Brokaw to make appearances on news discussion shows. 

I don't have a nickel in the matter, but I think it's time to take his keys.