jonri,
If people in the industry, and presumably some at his own station, were aware that he was being disingenuous and embellishing stuff, wouldn’t someone have talked to him and told him he was engaging in professional suicide?
For all we know, somebody DID talk to him and tell him to knock it off or his career might end up in tatters.
I don’t think it’s an accident that the story in this case was broken by Stars and Stripes, a newspaper targeted to military members. They got the story from a facebook page on which people on helicopter with him said the story was false. This wasn’t “Mr. Anonymous” claiming the story false. It was military people posting under their real names, including people who were there at the time.
Apparently–at least the way Stars and Stripes tells it–this has been building for a decade.
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/in-his-words-brian-williams-interview-with-stars-and-stripes-1.328590
Don’t just read the article; listen to the videos.
I have difficulty defining this as a mistake since we now know it was a deliberate lie repeated many times over the course of years, then compounded by a very feeble explanation.
It may or may not be forgiven, but I have a hard time with the word mistake used here.
He is not just a news anchor, he is managing editor of a network news division. Basically, he is the boss. And, even back in 2003 he was the heir apparent to the anchor chair. Some newbie camera operator who notices inaccuracies that move him closer to the center of the story is not going to tell him to knock it off but there likely would be some internal eye-rolling. And, reports are that has been happening for some time and more “look at me” stories are expected. I agree, mistake is an inaccurate characterization of what seems to have occurred here and am leaning strongly toward he is cooked.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/08/brian-williams-mugging-story_n_6642368.html
I think it depends on what the inaccuracies were, and about what. We’ve already seen evidence in the recent past that news people will leave things out if they get in the way of the story, so its not at all surprising to see people “put things in” if they help the story. My guess is that there is a level of malleable ethics in the entertainment news business that isn’t well understood.
Add to that the issue that its likely only subordinates who have any direct knowledge of this happening. Who exactly would his “peer” be, that he might listen to their advice? Probably no one but the executives, who likely don’t know, and who actually might not care as long as they think he has plausible deniability and good future ratings. Both of those are now in serious question.
That’s a good point. The reality is that much of what is reported in the media/press isn’t entirely factual.
Well…Maureen Dowd has now said that NBC was warned a year ago that Williams was constantly embellishing his autobiography.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/opinion/sunday/maureen-dowd-anchors-aweigh.html
See also
http://www.businessinsider.com/nbc-execs-knew-that-brian-williams-was-inflating-his-biography-2015-2
My local NBC affiliate just did a story on labor inducing drugs and whether or not they could have a long term, adverse effect on the baby (primarily they discussed ADHD).
Every time they discussed the drug, they said “oxycontin,” which is a powerful opioid pain reliever, when they should have said “oxytocin,” aka pitocin.
They made this mistake over and over in the news story. What ever happened to editors and fact checkers?
I hadn’t caught the “hair apparent” reference in Dowd’s column when I first saw it. Very clever.
She obviously has a skeptical view of tv news anchors.
Well, I can tell you that when I worked for a local NBC affiliate in the 1990’s there was no such thing as an editor or a fact-checker anywhere in the building. This is a reporter mixing up her drug pronunciations and no-one catching it and correcting her probably because the rest of the folks running around there are busy with their own projects and don’t know either and aren’t paying much attention. Eventually, if someone calls her on it she will make a correction but the reality is finding flaws in stories that you are intimately familiar with is a pretty common in any form of media.
But, it’s a far cry from saying she was hit by an RPG when she wasn’t to make herself appear more fascinating.
Those of you with longer memories than mine: who was the newsman who was injured when embedded and had to take time off? I thought he was badly injured.
Bob Woodruff. He had a massive head injury.
Bob Woodruff. Who demonstrated that with top-of the line rehab, recovery can be excellent. Sadly few get that level of care.
NBC affiliate just said they got a lot of calls and emails about the oxycontin mistake. They did correct it and apologized for the error.
I don’t know what to believe. I do know that USA Today ran a piece quoting Psychologists who pointed out that memory is very strange and malleable. It came up with either me or my wife just last night.
She told a story of driving up to our house and finding the Fire Department out front. I said “we drove up”. She said “you weren’t there. You must have heard the story so often that you mis-remembered”. I would have bet a lot of money that I was there. She says I wasn’t. One of us is wrong 
We finally decided that we think I got home about half an hour after her when the firemen were still there and that that is affecting my memory of actually thinking I was there initially.
The point is: lots of people inadvertently mess up memories. I wish I knew if this was one of those cases.
Just asked DH, who ran an event for 400+ people at Ft. Benning yesterday what the reaction was to the Brian Williams scandal. He said they didn’t talk about it at all- they were grousing abouts some other political incident that would be better left unsaid so this thread doesn’t get too close to a political discussion. Not supporting what BW has said/done. Just relaying that it was not a topic of discussion on the base that he heard yesterday.
It certainly can be unintentional, or subconscious, which is the point I tried to make originally. Its also not what you’re looking for in a news anchor.
Watched NBC news tonight, with Lester Holt “filling in” for BW. He read a quote from BW letter to colleagues saying he was “taking a few days off” until the “issue was resolved,” or similar wording. So as of now he expects to return.
I have to say though–my son was in a plane flying over Iraq that was fired at a few years ago (plane was NOT hit), and it made a big impression on him. I can’t imagine what he’d think about BW claiming to actually have been hit, when it wasn’t true at all.
I wish I had $1 every time they said “virus” when they were talking about bacteria.
H and I have noticed how faulty our memories have become with each passing decade. A little embellishment here, a little fabrication there, eventually getting rolled into the original story … It isn’t intentional, but we agree, it is happening. Our parents have hit the decade of ridiculousness (80s). Soooo many of their stories now are completely untrue!
At first, I thought it was possible BW had misremembered, but now it seems like embellishment that expanded beyond the accepted level for storytelling. I’m sorry he did this - I like him better than the other evening news anchors.