Brian Williams Suspended for 6 months
Without pay – Feel sorry for him yet?
Brian Williams has been suspended by NBC News for 6 months without pay, pending further investigation of his tall tales and untruths. That’s about $5 million dollars of salary lost, and obviously more if it becomes permanent.
NBC Statement via Mediaite:
We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately. We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News.
Our review, which is being led by Richard Esposito working closely with NBCUniversal General Counsel Kim Harris, is ongoing, but I think it is important to take you through our thought process in coming to this decision.
While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position.
In addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field.
As Managing Editor and Anchor of Nightly News, Brian has a responsibility to be truthful and to uphold the high standards of the news division at all times.
Steve Burke, Pat Fili and I came to this decision together. We felt it would have been wrong to disregard the good work Brian has done and the special relationship he has forged with our viewers over 22 years. Millions of Americans have turned to him every day, and he has been an important and well-respected part of our organization.
As I’m sure you understand, this was a very hard decision. Certainly there will be those who disagree. But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and proportionate action.
This has been a difficult time. But NBC News is bigger than this moment. You work so hard and dedicate yourselves each and every day to the important work of bringing trusted, credible news to our audience. Because of you, your loyalty, your dedication, NBC News is an organization we can – and should – all be proud of. We will get through this together.Steve Burke asked me to share the following message.
“This has been a painful period for all concerned and we appreciate your patience while we gathered the available facts. By his actions, Brian has jeopardized the trust millions of Americans place in NBC News. His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate. Brian’s life’s work is delivering the news. I know Brian loves his country, NBC News and his colleagues. He deserves a second chance and we are rooting for him. Brian has shared his deep remorse with me and he is committed to winning back everyone’s trust.”
I don't get any satisfaction from seeing #BrianWilliams suspended. Like the vets I spoke with, I just wanted to set the record straight.
— Travis J. Tritten (@Travis_Tritten) February 11, 2015
You know who knew about Brian Williams suspension before anyone? http://t.co/fEZmr98TbB http://t.co/Xb1TzVGuBr pic.twitter.com/pPPBVVAhcq
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) February 11, 2015
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Comments
6 months only?
He should never again work as a journalist.
I agree with Rush’s comments today about Williams. Because, who can prove Williams is really an independently thinking journalist?
Williams just delivers opinions disguised as journalism.
Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera are still on air, getting paid for it, having also told inaccurate wartime stories.
O’Reilly told his radio audience he’d ‘been in combat’– had ‘seen it and been close to it.’ And during a book tour of Kuwait in 2006 he led soldiers to believe he was on a tour of duty there during Desert Storm. But he never served in the military. So both statements were invented.
And in 2001 Geraldo claimed to be at the scene of a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan, but it turned out he was actually 300 miles away from it.
Democrat, Republican, Liberal, Conservative — all tell tall tales at one time or another. One group not more or less likely to puff up events then another.
Geraldo is about the same liar as Williams. I think you are wrong about o’reilly. I believe he was referring to having been close to the battle as a reporter. Site please if you have it.
— This is what Bill said on air:
“I tell you what, I’ve been in combat. I’ve seen it. I’ve been close to it. And if my unit is in danger and I got a captured guy and the guy knows where the enemy is and I’m looking him in the eye, the guy better tell me. That’s all I’m gonna tell you. If it’s life or death, he’s going first.”
It wasn’t until later, when a caller phoned it to say O’Reilly had never been in the military, that Bill defensively said, no he was in the ‘middle of a couple of firefights in South and Central America… a media guy.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_O%27Reilly_%28commentator%29
Intentional or not, from the initial quote it’s obvious O’Reilly was giving the impression he was a soldier, in a military unit. Stories tend to become inflated over time (that 28-lb tuna I caught off Catalina Island fought for an hour and a half before I landed it!!). It’s human nature to exaggerate. O’Reilly obviouslly did, and knows he did.
That might explain why he came to Brian William’s defense last night on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, slamming the ‘sewer’ of Internet critics who ‘delight in seeing famous people being taken apart… “There’s a lot of people that seem to be real happy that his career has gone down the drain, and that disturbs me.”
Humm… I wonder which ‘sewer’ denizens he means? Who could they be???? Let me think…..
Am I supposed to care about Geraldo or anyone else?
Fire them all!
If they lie, they should be fired too.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
I strongly disagree. Brian Williams is the perfect face for NBC and MSNBC. He is a liar and so are they. They only pretend to tell the true and that is why their pretending to punish Williams.
I think that this lying is not really his fault. All he does at NBC is lying and he got use to lying. The only problem for NBC is that people found out that he lied.
“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
-Alinsky
All of those Tweets and photoshops of Lyin’ Brian were more than they could overcome. I laughed myself to tears over some of them.
Do I have pity for Brian Williams?
No. No, I Don’t.
“As I’m sure you understand, this was a very hard decision.”
Shouldn’t have been. Easiest executive decision I can imagine.
Well, ABC is already miles ahead of where CBS ended up after first trying to defend Dan Rather’s abuse of his position by using fake documents to try to end GW Bush’s political career.
ABC is being forthright and up front about Brian Williams’ abuse of viewer trust. That’s far superior to CBS’s dodging and weaving when their anchor’s dishonest attempt to gain a victory for the network over its hated enemy – Bush – was exposed by first one insignificant blogger, then amplified by a swarm of them. And their supposedly impartial Thornburgh investigation never did admit that those fake documents were fakes, and CBS didn’t can Rather as it should have. Thus, no one has any cause to believe that CBS isn’t as crooked now as it was then.
*NBC – FIFY. 😉
CBS is lying just like NBC and ABC. They all work for Tyrant Obama the Liar and the progressive fascist cause. That’s why they have pretty much ignored Obama and Hillary’s betray of our people in Benghazi and ignored Obama’s ObamaCare lies.
It’s NBC , not ABC
I can’t believe you folks are buying this. Obviously, the truth is that Brian Williams has been tasked by our military special forces to direct covert military operations against ISIS under the auspices of the upcoming new authorization for use of force.
Six months to defeat ISIS? How? Brian-damn-Williams, THAT’S how.
There is a FIRE SALE ON INTEGRITY at NBC News. Cheap. Real cheap.
They have no integrity … for sale, and the $10 million a year they paid Williams wasn’t enough to buy it.
Ah come on, tad harsh, eh! Besides, it was just little white lies!
Nope. Truthfulness is a core requirement of his profession. They should trade him for one of the reporters being held by ISIS.
Do you know what sarcasm is?
WHAT difference is there betwixt a liar and a thief? Not much, if any…they both take what’s not theirs to take. Just because he was caught doesn’t place any obligation upon my emotions to feel sorry for him. Life is real, and the decisions we make are real decisions with real consequences.
Why should I feel sorry for his circumstances? If anything I pity him for his childish behavior and how it’s destroyed his credibility. As an adult he should have known better…but that’s the liberal mindset for you. They’re still living in the mother’s basement.
Do I want to rub salt in his wounds? No… No, that forces me to belittle myself.
Nobody in the show/news business can show much but remorse over Williams’ suspension, because of course they all kinda hang together, a little too much probably. And just professional courtesy demands some sobriety I suppose, though he had a long career and money is no issue, except perhaps constant greed for more.
But they mostly seemed to discount the significance of his lies, and were surprised or disappointed it might cost his job for good.
The biggest issues with the MSM are the lies of omission, not covering the frauds and lies of the left. Combined with the mischaracterization of the tea party activities and purposes.
The viewership of the nation shouldn’t waste an ounce of concern on whether Williams can redeem himself. The DC/NY elites may believe the world revolves around their celebrities, but the citizenry should be reading blogs, dumping the networks and their soap operas.
First five paragraphs of the NBC statement are OK. Everything after that is weaseling.
He’s a fake. He was caught. There’s no legit place for him at anything claiming to be a news bureau, now or in the future.
They should be looking at his boss, too, à la Jayson Blair & Howell Raines.
“While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position.”
“Misrepresented” facts? No. He lied. He didn’t misremember or get confused, he LIED. He is no longer trustworthy and has no place talking to the American public on any subject except contrition.
(more…)
“
NBC has been an arm of the democrat party for as long as i can remember. What they are trying to do is salvage their credibility by making him a sacrificial goat. They will continue to misrepresent the facts at every opportunity and present a leftist biased view to attempt to sway the electorate by deceit and deception. it is not only the lies they promote but the facts that they suppress.
Brian Williams is the least of their problems at NBC / Comcast. The powers at the top will drag this out with the expectation of short term memories of their viewing public. How else can you explain why they give Al Sharpton the endorsement and a platform to do what he does with knowing knowledge of his dealings with the mob and turning FBI informant, T. Brawley libel case, IRS tax evasion, misappropriated funds, etc. Any open corridor to the W.H. is kept clear of obstacles no matter what ethical barrier they need to dismantle. And aren’t these the same ethical standards NBC CEO’s promote in their ‘star’ personalities who in turn embrace the ethos of the Obama/Democrat Administration?
I have written about this over at my blog thediplomad.blogspot.com. The problem is that progressives need to lie. It’s all they have. The facts on the ground do not support their vision of the world.
How is what Williams did any different than the lapdog scribes passing off what they do as journalism?
Will Jon Stewart be taking over……..since he turned down Meet the Press, and this plum spot just happened to open up….??
Was Rush right?! 😉
NBC is fucked… a 6 month suspension is going to gain them any favor by americans or give them any credible integrity.
…Brian williams is the classic example of why no one really trusts liberals/progressives …they push agenda, over truth…
if the truth does fit their agenda… then they have to miscue the facts and make exaggerate portions that do… so they can either look like heroes, or gain some kind of sympathy off of the usual idiot or total fool.
they know that most people are fools, most of which is their base… but they are perfectly fine with miscuing the facts, or milking them for sympathy, and using such for their own personal agenda or gain.
Bwahahahaha… this is most of the reason MSNBC is dead last and will be forever… most normal americans can see through MSNBC and know that they push agenda on viewers… and then don’t show any of the stuff that would Democrats stance.
and the rest of the time they are just hating on Fox news, or eating 0bama’s ass.
One liar will just replace another. It’s all they do, every night on the “news”.
Cue up “Dirty Laundry.”
This is not a serious attempt to do anything but make Williams pay for the network’s sins.
He’s finished. If he comes back after the suspension expires, if the jokes have died down, they will start up again. Wherever he goes, whatever he does, there’s going to be a background hum of people like me yukking it up and plenty of internet writers who will gladly climb on. It will be a gift that keeps on giving until he is permanently removed.
I am a huge Megyn Kelly fan. I honestly think that if she does not resign because she’s already made a fortune, she will be THE TOP gun in TV news that everyone else aspires to. She is that good.
But her show last night was appalling. The tone was like a Brian Williams eulogy. Her first couple of guests, Brit Hume among them, talked about how much they like Williams and what a terrific guy he is, etc. I understand that part of Fox’s hook is that they not only cover different stories from the MSM but they like to come at stories that appear in the MSM from a different angle, but there is nothing about the Williams story that makes him a sympathetic figure even if you believe the social media mob has gone overboard. There are additional embellishments/lies being investigated almost daily and there are probably going to be more shoes to drop.
I was really disappointed with Megyn’s coverage last night.
yeah, there is way too much camaraderie among the news people, where they go to banquets together and rub elite elbows. They see themselves as the esteemed fourth estate, almost as important as the military or congress.
They could be that important, but not if they won’t take a strong stand against news people that become propagandists for the mendacious Clinton/Obama/Clinton administrations. Communists really did infiltrate Hollywood, and the Alinskyites in office are tearing down law and order, skirting the law is their MO.
It is maybe not global warming, radical Islam, or our national debt that is our greatest threat … it is that our MSM has become Pravda for the Obama/Clinton regimes. Goebbels was probably very pleasant at dinner parties too … and Brit/Megyn/Kurtz may have said “I really liked the guy” if transported to 1934.
Kurtz published a book with a bunch of Katrina quotes from Williams that seem to all be a load of crap, yet he is weepy over the guy being knocked down. We need more of a Yankees vs Red Sox angry rivalry, not this orgee of concern when Williams is caught with a corked bat, and on steroids, gambling on thrown games.
Are MSMers “good professional journalists” when they use their skill to cover up the left’s atrocities in lying to Congress, or bury the Lois Lerner and Benghazi crimes? For the fourth estate as a whole this should be criminal neglect or treason, yet they all want to be so chummy and compare evening gowns at the high society events.
They shouldn’t come out and rejoice in his personal destruction, but these pitiful feelings are more like they lost one of their own, and we in fly over country should just accept being lied to, and not be too hard on their adored saints. (I’m exaggerating a little, not much)
I saw that segment too and was really disappointed. Britt Hume does not surprise me at all – he is just a RINO. There are very few “journalists” left. The rest are just actors. I watch Brett Baier at 6 pm and then switch to NCIS reruns where the actors are better at their jobs and much more believable.
CHOPPERWHOPPER
Nope. It’s not like he’s living paycheck to paycheck.
Best commentary yet!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fu6uBHl0hE
Buu-Byeeeeee, Bri-Bri!! Time wounds all heels.
I am dubious about this “suspended without pay” line. I think that it would be unusual for high-level media personality’s employment agreement to have a provision permitting an employer to unilaterally withhold compensation and “suspend” him. This is not an athlete with a standard players’ union-approved employment agreement that contemplates the possibility of bad behavior (e.g., on-field antics, off-field drugs, alcohol, domestic and other problems, etc.). Either Lying Williams agreed to this (via an amendment to his agreement as a lesser alternative to NBC declaring an outright breach/termination) or he is quietly going to get paid anyway later. Any NYC media employment lawyers out there???