Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Brian Williams Gets Six Month Suspension
Page Six reports that NBC has suspended Brian Williams for six months without pay. His suspension is both for his duties as an anchor and as managing editor of NBC Nightly News. An internal investigation by NBC brought up concerns about Williams' comments in interviews. Lester Holt will continue to anchor the NBC Nightly News in Williams' absence. In case you haven't been following the story, the suspension is due to Williams misrepresenting what happened to him in Iraq in 2003 when telling a story about his helicopter being shot down.
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Wow, 6 months. That alot, but needed to check his reporting in the past, i guess. I like williams, and dont really know how to feel about this whole mess.
ReplyDeleteMe, neither. Nobody says shit about Fox "News" lying all the time.
DeleteCheese, u r right. And fox has been caught hundreds of times and had to mea culpa. But Williams is supposed to be better than a slanted news organization that bends facts to fit their core message.
DeleteMin- been thinking. Why dont we call fox out on their lying? Why are they allowed to get away with that? Everytime we, and i include me, just say oh, thats fox for ya! We are allowing them to continue their lying and distorting the facts. At the very least, fox shldnt be allowed to call themselves a news organization. And we shld have zero tolorance policy for fox lying.
DeleteOh people call FOX News out for lying all the time, but for whatever reason nobody seems to care. It's like why doesn't Rush Limbaugh get (seriously) called out for his crazy bullshit lying too? I think it's because everyone knows they're crazy republicans and nothing they say is gonna change that.
DeleteWhy didn't Bush & his lackies get called out and thrown in jail for the lies they perpetrated that got us dragged into this fucking war in the first place? God only knows the extent of the lies right there but there were some whoppers. The connected 1% skate on everything.
I guess it goes to show just how much folks really did looked up to Brian Williams and how much credibility he once had, for this to be the huge scandal that it is. It is too bad we don't hold all of our news and politicians up to a higher standard. I've got no answer for you auntliddy.
Well, this should make the commenter who shall not be named happy...
ReplyDeleteLol, Meanie!!!!
DeleteI think he's getting off easy, really. I think he should have been fired outright. Williams' job centered around his credibility (both as anchor and managing editor). By lying to make himself seem important, he put the entire news division in jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteI think they are buying time and will wait to see how the ratings are under Lester Holt. I don't think Williams is coming back.
DeleteI think they've already found other things that he lied about or exaggerated and they're going to use that six months to decide whether the public will forgive him and keep watching when he returns.
ReplyDeleteHow do people lie like that? Don't they think that anyone will catch it? I mean for Gods sake someone would know if a helicopter was shot down! Crazy shit there. He's only out $5 million as he makes $10!
ReplyDeleteIt's like when Anderson Cooper got jumped when he was reporting in the Middle East (it was last year I think). They were actually filming Anderson when that shit broke out and they got roughed up but escaped. I don't know if Brian Williams felt like he had to compete with that kind of thing or what?
DeleteI don't know the time line on both of those situations, but Anderson does put himself in harms way occasionally with his reporting. It makes me wonder if reporting is that competitive? It's really a shame when all is said and done to ruin your career with stupid lies.
Unfortunately it had to be done, as it should have been. There is no doubt his time has come and gone - he will not be getting his job back. Sad because I do really like him- but he messed up. I really wish other news organizations did the same and held their anchors to the same level. It's unfortunate that his name is tarnished yet others who continuously lie continue to represent "their" news without any repercussions and dumb ass folks continue to listen and believe their lies. Ah simple minds.
ReplyDelete@Jessi, I agree. Hate it because I like him so much, but yeah it had to be done.
DeleteI really like him, but at this point he needs to either resign or NBC will have to fire him. He's lost his mojo.
ReplyDeleteTalk radio was talking to one of Canadian's most distinquished anchor men Lloyd Robertson and he has worked with Brian Williams and liked him a lot but said when people are mocking your anchor person you have to do something and he suspects NBC will be telling Brian to prepare himself because that is what will happened at the end of the six months.
ReplyDeleteNow what I don't understand is was this a tall story he was telling to impress people outside of work or in his position as an anchor or as a news reporter or in interviews?
Lloyd said that anchor men are human and they do things like tell tall tales outside of the work environment but because you are anchor person or any journalist is held to a higher standard so that is why I though oh where was he repeating this story and did the soldiers on that trip only now decided to call him out?
The reality is however I don't think most anchor people write the news anyway - they may have some input but there are people who write this stuff for the anchors but most people don;t know or care about that the anchor is the person they trust like Walter Conkrite.
Tina, i dont get the fuss over cronkite, i never did. He reported the news, thats all. I didnt trust him or anyone else on tv.
Deleteauntliddy - Cronkite was broadcasting in the "golden" era of the white guy newscaster. Back then I think most folks believed anything and everything the big name newscasters said. They didn't have email, camera phones or Twitter so scandals and cover ups were much easier to manage.
DeleteJust imagine how hard Barbara Walters had to work and scrape to make a name for herself in the hey day of the good old white boy news club.
Back in 2003, he reported this helicopter story on the air as a news report. And that's not the only exaggerated reporting he's done. There was Katrina and another news event where he exaggerated the circumstances and bold face lied . He's got a problem of making himself look better than he is.
DeleteAs for ACooper, his incident happened I think 2 years ago during the Arab Spring in Egypt.
It is sad because he is very good at covering events like the Olympics. He has a nice easy style.
ReplyDeleteOh I think that maybe NBC is not officially finished the investigation. The talk radio hostess said NBC did the fair thing which is you stand by your people first, and you conduct an investigation but enough has come out they had to do something to protect the brand but they may not be finished and they will fire him after the investigation is fully concluded.
I trust nothing on TV news or newspapers or blogs. I like to read different sources and come up with my own conclusion based on the many different outlets I read or watch. Everybody has a slant. Everybody. Not just Fox News. At the end of the day, all of these news outlets are big corporations and they all have their own interests at heart.
ReplyDeleteI think Brian Williams got caught up in being a celebrity. The big man on campus. He's that type of blowhard who just likes to talk a big game, and well now that big game has bit him in the ass. People like this drive me nuts. It's so comical and tragic that he truly did bring it all on himself. If he just let well enough alone rather than bringing up the "anniversary" of his fake story, he would still be in the anchor chair.
I agree that in six months time, NBC is probably going to can their ass. I'm sure there are many people chomping at the bit for that job.
Here's my problem with the NBC investigation. I think NBC execs knew about his embellishments. If NBC hired an outside investigator I would be more likely to believe the findings. I wonder what else he has lied about. His Katrina stories sound off-the-wall. When a journalist starts making the story about himself, credibility is shot, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteAgree with both your comments. On a superficial level, after seeing his face plastered all over the place I realized his lower face/chin curve off weirdly to the left. Wonder if he fought Ali and it was dislocated?
DeleteHow did this all get disclosed? Why not sooner?
ReplyDeleteI saw a very disturbing picture after Katrina. A woman was cooking on a makeshift BBQ next to a canal & there was a body floating near her. Most shocking thing was that she didn't seem bothered. Very very sad :(