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Brian Williams Apologizes for false Iraq War story
- Thread starter obeygiant
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I think his actions were a lot larger than just embellishing a story. He lied making up the story from whole cloth. He is a lying POS.
This is what a network gets for letting a news anchor be anything past a news reader.
They can always bench a reporter for awhile when he's gone all Walter Mitty on some story. They can let the news reader correct the story and tack on some scripted explanation of what the reporter will be looking at in the way of penance, etc.
But when one guy does some hot-topic reporting from the field, is managing editor and also sits at the front desk to be the face of the network evening news, look out. Whatever egg the guy gets on his face is egg on the network's reputation. Not so when a news reader flubs the pronunciation of the name of some head of state, or looks blank when the teleprompter seizes up for a second. The news reader is a human being, but the US networks have set their anchors up on pedestals as if they were gods. You'd think they'd be more hip to the potential for celebrity-scandal to overcome the anchors' iconic value.
They should bump Lester Holt to the slot permanently if he wants the job. His presentations always struck me as professional and that's all you need from a news anchor. Williams should figure out how to credibly retract parts of a reported story that are not true, and when he gets that smoothed out into a course syllabus, go teach it in Journalism Ethics 101.2, two credits, three if you don't bust his chops while you're taking the class.
Let me ask you all this. Do you remember some event EXACTLY how it happened 10+ years ago? Sure, something like that SHOULD be forefront in your mind and 100% unforgettable but when you consider how many OTHER tragic or memorable things that man has done, seen or reported on since then it could be VERY easy to jumble up events. The dude found out about, kept quiet about and then reported about one of his best friends and colleagues being TAKEN HOSTAGE by enemy combatants. I would certainly think THAT could cause a string of events that happened years prior to be jumbled a bit in his mind.
Let's be honest here, it's not like Williams was trying to come off sounding like a hero himself. He was acknowledging heroic acts toward him by a soldier, which may not have been AS heroic as he made them out to be initially, but should still be considered heroic just for the fact he is serving our country in places or situations many of us hope we never see.
Maybe I try too hard to see the good in people, but I really think it was a matter of misremembering the exact order of events. Yes, he SHOULD have done some due diligence to check with someone to make sure the facts were right, but maybe he wanted to surprise the soldier with his acknowledgement of his actions.
For his lack of due diligence on confirming he had the story right, he deserves some time off, but I don't think he deserves to lose his job over something that could happen to ANYONE (misremembering the order of events, not the actual event that happened to him).
Let's be honest here, it's not like Williams was trying to come off sounding like a hero himself. He was acknowledging heroic acts toward him by a soldier, which may not have been AS heroic as he made them out to be initially, but should still be considered heroic just for the fact he is serving our country in places or situations many of us hope we never see.
Maybe I try too hard to see the good in people, but I really think it was a matter of misremembering the exact order of events. Yes, he SHOULD have done some due diligence to check with someone to make sure the facts were right, but maybe he wanted to surprise the soldier with his acknowledgement of his actions.
For his lack of due diligence on confirming he had the story right, he deserves some time off, but I don't think he deserves to lose his job over something that could happen to ANYONE (misremembering the order of events, not the actual event that happened to him).
Brian Williams lost all credibility. The only reason he apologized is he got caught in a lie. His excuse is a joke. Nobody would ever forget being shot down no matter how brain dead they are.. He should resign or be fired..
I find it interesting that he is the ONLY one who seems to be getting punished for lying about Iraq.
When I was injured in Afghanistan in 2004 I remember exactly what happened the time of day, the sunlight, the village, who was with me, and what happened afterwards. When I had my "should have killed me car crash" in 1995 I remember all the same things traumatic events stick with you. Mr. Williams fabricated a story using bits a pieces or real life he made a mistake he needs to apologize and move on to a different career.
Excellent, thoughtful and well argued post.
Of course you do - and you'll probably find that the memory will not have altered, or been embellished much in the intervening years, either. The stories you tell will pretty closely resemble the stories you told (or recalled) when these events originally happened.
Perhaps.
However, I suspect that the current cult - and culture - of celebrity, the deference and utter obsequiousness with which a guy like that was surrounded may have given rise to a set of circumstances whereby his ego was endlessly fed, and his behaviour and conduct were not challenged or called out, until now.
Ratings matter, and who among his colleagues, or employers, - or, least of all - his subordinates - was going to say that this chap was a faker and a fantasist? Who was going to call into question his ego, or his grasp of the facts, when ratings (and advertising) seemed secure and solid? Who would elevate the need to tell what really happened over the temptation to tell a more desirable version which is what ought to have happened?
This is the logical outcome to the development of a sort of media where the reporter, or journalist, has become the story, or is the story, - is The Hero - rather than being the means by which the story is told to the public. The story is subordinated to the needs of the Big Name, and his emotions and reactions are the story rather than the real events in the country being reported on.
Indeed, this is what happens when you have news as entertainment, not as something which intelligently informs the public of what is happening. And it is what happens when you elevate news anchors to cult or celebrity status, and cut back on spending proper money on serious reporting.
Unfortunately, it is not at all surprising, but is, instead, rather depressingly predictable.
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No he would have to up his game by a lot before he would quality. I mean just this week I head that Christians ended slavery and Jonah really got swallowed by whale.
Incomprehensible why he lied. Was he so insecure he had to distort the facts to make him appear more macho? No idea, and it's really too bad. I like Williams. His was the only NBC news show I watched. Glad that Lester Holt will continue to anchor that slot.
Now, why aren't politicians held to the same standard as Williams, given their blatant lies?
Now, why aren't politicians held to the same standard as Williams, given their blatant lies?
Because we would never have any politicians. I is like rich people shop lifting maybe something is wrong and no real was to deal with it.
Do you hold your political party of preference to the same standard? Which party would that be?
A good journalist, (or reporter) should always be able 'to provide' interesting stories. This is a part of that they do, - or, what they are supposed to do - after all, as part of their job. After all, their job is to report on, and relay, the stories, including the 'interesting stories' that they see so that the wider public is intelligently informed of what goes on.
And this is why journalists, or reporters, (as long as they are good story tellers, too) have always been welcome guests on TV and radio programmes. They are witnesses and they have stories to tell, and - at their best - they could do so fairly objectively, unencumbered by say, security, or political, or economic, baggage from more vested elites or interest groups.
This used to be its own reward - the idea that journalists or reporters - had a privileged ringside seat at historical events, or legendary sporting contests, or notorious deeds, or famous trials. It used to be considered enough to be there, to be able to say that you saw (and heard and witnessed) what happened and were able to bear witness to that.
But, for some, that was no longer enough.
Somehow, with the growth of the reporter as sensitive soul, and Larger Than Life Action Hero, it was no longer enough to bear witness, or to be the person who could 'provide interesting stories to tell'. Rather, the task became one of 'providing the sort of interesting stories' where he, himself, was the story, and came play the starring role, where his actions (inactions, or imagined actions) became the story, rather than what actually happened in the country in question.
In his own mind, he became both objective witness and subjective active participant in these 'interesting stories'. Needless to say, this becomes an impossible act to sustain, especially where known facts collided with imagined and invented fantasy, and the inherent contradictions of being both objective witness and active participant in the same story become exposed and stressed beyond all credibility.
Brian is so gone, for good.
There's just no way to save face from this.
Once the integrity of a journalist is compromised, no one has ever come back from that.
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Agreed. Sure, we believe you just got the two helicopters mixed up Brian.
If you can't tell the difference between a normal helicopter, and one thats on fire with men screaming in it, then you need to be worried imho
Not sure what politics has to do with a lying Brian. By your question I would assume you to be one of those Democrat thingies. Is that why you defend a lying member of the lame stream media?