Everybody wants a piece of Brian Williams (Reader poll: Stay or Go?)
A threat to his peers.
In the past day, things seem to have changed in the Brian Williams story.
The investigation of possible lies about being in a helicopter taking fire crossed two rubicons.
First, the scope expanded to reports about his claims during Hurricane Katrina.
Second, and more important, the mainstream media took up the call, with the NY Times and other outlets doing investigations, including NBC itself.
From Twitter to Facebook to blogs to The Grey Lady, everybody seems to want a piece of Brian Williams.
It has become internet sport at this point, a piñata onto which everyone is letting go their unrelated frustrations.
Under other circumstances, I’d say he’d weather the storm. But this time it’s different.
Williams now is hurting his peers in the mainstream media, calling into question the honesty and integrity of the mainstream news industry.
Brian Williams now is a liability to those who still manage to control so much of the narrative.
Will he stay or will he go?
UPDATE 2-7-2015 4:20 p.m. Eastern — Williams announced he is removing himself from the daily broadcast for a few days. Not sure this changes our poll question. He hasn’t resigned or been fired. Could just be strategic, hoping a week from now this has all blown over, like the vapor trails from the rocket fired, er, at his helicopter.
(Poll open until Midnight Pacific Time, Saturday, February 7)
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“… calling into question the honesty and integrity of the mainstream news industry.”
Are you serious, Professor? I am pretty sure that ship sailed a few decades ago. (IOW – MSM has no integrity and they all lie, some more than others)
You missed one choice in your poll – the ‘I don’t care’ choice.
Absolutely! During the Clinton years, it became obvious to the most casual observer that much of what was aired on the nightly “news” was misinformation or outright lies. I quit watching ABCNBCCBSCNN back in 1995, but apparently there are people who choose to be misinformed because it makes them feel good.
Instapundit has been retweeting a bunch of tweets from James Woods, covering a bunch of the marriage links between big network brass and the Obama White House. Of course as we blogger types listen to the MSM, we know they lie and obstruct, but the level of coordination is stunning, and the nepotism revealing.
I woke up at 3 am a couple nights ago and listened to two young women on CBS covering Lynch’s testimony. To them it all went swell, Lynch was smooth as silk, except when those stupid Republicans tried to score political points. They mocked the question “Are you Eric Holder?” for a minute, nothing about illegals having the right to take American jobs, or that if they are here, Loretta would rather have them working (illegally). Zero substance, they saw zero problems, and one of them was supposedly the expert.
The Williams stories show the dishonest self aggrandizement on rather unimportant matters. But the real problem is that the media hides big issues like Benghazi, and vaunts small issues like Rush joking about Fluke. A majority never hear more, but feel informed.
The media sets the tone of love for the left, and they scold and mock conservatives. MSM’s propagandist nature must be revealed, so Williams exposed and mocked is helpful, but it’s just one bulge in the enemy lines.
“Williams now is hurting his peers in the mainstream media, calling into question the illusion of honesty and integrity in the mainstream news industry.”
That’s better.
It would be nice to see him go but conservatives will be better served if he stays – his ZERO credibility will affect on all of NBC News
Since I don’t watch NBC news, nor CBS, nor ABC, nor MSNBC, I do not care whether Williams stays or goes. Williams is, after all, simply a reader, a presenter of news, with little real effect on anything of substance.
Williams is a commodity, bought and paid for to be a well heeled spokesman for the left. He allowed his ego to start wanting top billing in his own “story” by lines. If cut lose, perhaps he and Dan Rather can form a club and commiserate.
because when I think of a Networks’ News Integrity™ I think of NBC. After all, Dateline truck explosions, Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, George Zimmerman, Cink whateverhisnamewas…..
The latest revelation is that NBC and Williams conspired to create the false narrative by using reporting from another helicopter crew and patching it into Williams report.
This is another in a long line of false narratives from NBC, and lest we forget…….they are not alone in their manipulation of the so called news.
Leave him up there. Let the public see what’s most important to 4th Estate. Let all his colleague “journalists” realize how phony they are every time they look at him. Bring back The Dan, too. Fake but accurate! What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
Additionally…for our permanent satisfaction and enjoyment of seeing the ‘Faux News’ taunt boomerang on the Left Media Complex who invented it. Can you say KARMA, MSNBC?
I agree. Let him remain at this job.
He’ll be a continual flashing neon > Lying Bastard < sign.
Of course, this means the National Bullshit Corporation will fire him…if only to save face.
He didn’t have to lie. End of statement. But,then…. we have seen this time and again even from the famous within the networks. “Trust” is earned, but so easily lost… Cronkite and even Morrow when truth is sacrificed. Still he is now JUST a reader. A stick figure set in front of cameras. Gone are the days of Ernie Pyle.
Moves to MSNBC. He’ll fit right in there.
Forget Williams. NBC has to go. And ABC. And CBS. And CNN and MSNBC and the rest of the Goebbels wannabes.
I am staying out of this one. I kinda liked the lies that Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone, genuine heroes, used to tell. Of course, they would say it with a smile, and readily admit that they wouldn’t let the facts get in the way of a good story.
You can’t have it both ways. As far as I am concerned, a few admissions that the story really did just get better with the telling would be — dare I say it? — honest and refreshing? I am not talking about just Mr. Williams, here.
When folks are gathered round swapping tales of derring do or fabulous flops, it’s understood that exaggeration will be in the mix.
This man goes on stage every evening to proclaim what’s worthy of talking about and how it should be talked about and what we should do about it (if that’s an option).
People watching have no expectation of being lied to or false information conveyed either by word, deed, implication or inference. Sometimes incorrect information is presented and should and usually is immediately retracted and corrected.
He has been lying for years about all sorts of incidents and details. It seems that most of his bona fides may be suspect due to the lies building his foundation of reputation.
A reporter of fact has only his reputation for veracity to sell. Williams has shown his to be worthless.
Comparing Brian Williams with Davy Crocket and Daniel Boone is no different than what obama did at the prayer breakfast – going back hundreds of years to grasp at some inequivalent historical situation in order to present today’s muslims in a good light.
I think he’s a sociopath. I don’t how else to interpret it.
He’s causing a very bright light to be shined on all his peers. Most definitely to the MSNBC and NBC line up.
This is not good given NBC’s known proclivity to lie and rig videos to demonstrate their narrative.
Williams is not an outlier in NBC.
And even the LIV’s are smelling something rotten.
I hope he stays so people will continue to see what a bunch of maggots the slimestream media consists of. People seem to have already forgotten what NBC did or tried to do to George Zimmerman. I guess they need a reminder every year or so about what slime NBC is, so please leave Williams on there to provide a constant reminder.
That said, NBC will no doubt cut Williams loose and are probably negotiating his severance package right now. His replacement will be just as bad.
He’s not going to resign. He’s a lying valor stealer and without any morals. Firing him would be hypocritical (but they are hypocrites) as most in the MSM Drive Bys are as bad as he is. Many at NBC knew of this from the git go and did nothing. The only thing that will make them act is if their ratings tank as they do not care at all about the truth. Keeping him around may cause some to wake up to what we’ve know about the MSM Drive Bys for a longtime. It would continue even with him gone and the replacements may not be as stupid. With him there a few you still watch him make up the “news” may say, is he telling the truth this time and actually check sources other than the MSM Drive Bys until Net Neutrality gets rid of the others.
Professor– You should really embed the video of “Dirty Laundry” by Don Henly into this thread. It would be the perfect music to listen to while reading the comments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNC4FHR4XLA
If credibility is an issue they could replace him with Al Sharpton.
Travis Tritten, the Stars and Stripes reporter who broke the story( Pulitzer on the way for him? )said on the Kelly File last night that Williams ‘ helicopter was not only not in the formation that had the helicopter that got hit, but that his helicopter was travelling in a different direction.
And yet in 2007 Williams told Fairleigh Dickinson students that he had “stared down the tube” of the RPG that hit the helicopter.
Video here:,https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U6DhlpOo8Es
WOW! Starting around the 2:10 mark not only did the RPG hit the helicopter in front of him, he was riding in another helicopter during the war in Israel against Hezbollah and had rockets passing right underneath him.
Why, he even admits he sometimes forgets these incidents. What a modest guy!
Should read ” Fairfield University” , not Fairleigh Dickinson
http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2015/02/06/williams-wiener-wankers/
(choke) Brian is having trouble.
(sniffle) It’s his money, you see.
(sob) He can’t bring himself to spend it, you see.
(blows nose) He has SO much empathy…!!!
The man is a prince.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/02/brians-big-fog.php
Megan in leopard print (rawwah)…
oh, and a good bit of reporting, too…
Brit Hume did an online interview with Bill Kristol recently talking about the success of Fox News. (If you are not watching the “Conversations with Bill Kristol” you are missing out.)
Anyway, Hume has been with Fox from the beginning and before that he was with ABC for over 20 years. So he knows how the networks run their news operations. He said the formula is very simple: they take the stories that appear on the front page of the New York Times and present them in a visual format. Obviously, because of time constraints they only spend a very, very brief amount of time on each story.
So Williams only job is to read what someone else has condensed and edited down to barely more than a soundbite.
He gets paid millions to shower, wear a nice suit, have his hair combed neatly and pronounce words perfectly.
I suspect that when he periodically assesses his life, no matter how much money he’s made he probably figures he’s lived a pretty meaningless existence (unless he does a lot of charity work which could give his life some meaning). So he becomes a real world Walter Mitty, fantasizing about what it must be like to be fired upon during a dangerous military mission. And then he convinces himself his fantasies are real.
I actually feel sorta sorry for the guy. I think he’s got self esteem/mental issues.
So the Katrina fabrications are now mostly confirmed. BW stayed at the Ritz Carlton, with lots of security, since the mayor was also there. Gangs may have looted vacant stores, not the Ritz.
The Ritz did eventually get a foot or two of water, but there were no floating bodies in that part of town. The waters slowly encroached toward this edge of downtown from broken levees to the north, well after the storm passed. The ninth ward and Chalmette, where ~1000 died mostly from drowning, were quickly submerged in 10+ feet of water from the storm surge. They begin a couple miles away, across a large canal.
http://soopermexican.com/2015/02/06/breaking-pictures-show-ritz-carlton-where-brian-williams-stayed-during-katrina-surrounded-by-flooding/
That link links to video of Williams claiming he and others observed a man commit suicide, a story he later recounted as a second hand observation.
The chopper story has media attention, but the Katrina fabrications establish Brian’s habit of lying to put himself in the action, generally as the brave but humble reporter. When he saved the puppy from the fire, he was with the bravest men, and he misses fighting fires. The cop that saved him from the gangs was awesome and they are still friends. Too bad he didn’t save the guy from committing suicide … or did he? Stay tuned.
The dysentery from storm water is a nice touch. Was he swimming to save a puppy from a rooftop, on that swift boat with John Kerry, that took a hit from a Vietnamese shrimp boat firing an RPG at them?
As confirmation, this is a 5 minute animation, plus actual pictures, of Katrina flooding. At the end it shows it was 6+ hours before waters reached toward the higher ground of downtown. Hotels closer to the river than the Ritz, and most of the French Quarter, never got flooding at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtHdvtShPBI
The national media spread wild stories about massive killings in the Superdome, and gang rapes. They claimed 200 were dead in the Superdome … turned out there were six dead, four from natural causes, one overdose, one suicide.
They also claimed New Orleans was damaged but had dodged a bullet, apparently thinking the whole of New Orleans looked like downtown, till much later in the day. Communications were limited and authorities were busy, so they ran with gossip.
I’d like to call in a request for my friend Brian Williams, who’s feeling down and in bunker mode.
Could you please play a couple of Don Ho songs for him?
“I’ll Misremember You” and “Tiny Blunders.”
That a news anchor reports falsehoods is hardly news anymore, and each episode of it and each revelation merely confirms the known. No, Brian Williams’ crime is not against the viewing public – it’s against his family. Lying to unseen peasants is one thing, but lying to your own family? Making them worry he’ll get killed every time he goes on location?
That’s cold. Ice cold.
But besides the goofy seemingly innocent embellishments, Williams was portrayed as the man on the street in Katrina. And much of that was about … “I’m here to tell you Mr. Bush, your help has not arrived”.
It became a successful national assault on Bush and “Heckuva job Brownie”, that endures to this day. BW reveals how the MSM methodically builds their political narratives, which “we” know, but the NPR crowd does not.
I had to use Google cache to get this Popular Mechanics article that debunked much of the thrashing of Bush, and other Katrina myths.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eyrHdotMCSUJ:www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/natural-disasters/2315076+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Another book about networks and Katrina has BW saying he saw the floating body outside his window, “… the very same view out the window where a day later I would see a body floating face down, almost lapping against the shoreline.” WTF, he was several blocks from the river or any other shore.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Media-Hurricanes-Katrina-Rita/dp/0230600840#reader_0230600840
Howard Kurtz has a book quoting Williams on the story saying BW spent the first night in the Superdome without power, and he slipped and fell on the Astroturf and saw that the roof was leaking, but his timeline is all off.
https://books.google.com/books?id=i0TpPYAZFS0C&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=matt+pincus+brian+williams&source=bl&ots=RxM77RIrD0&sig=VIL5vZQDPzAooAPpVIa5rDZYISQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hXTWVPjWAsyxggTQuIGwBA&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCg#v=onepage&q=matt%20pincus%20brian%20williams&f=false
Williams has enough money that I can’t feel sorry for him, especially considering the zeal guys like him have about destroying conservatives and telling any lie to promote the “commie” state.
NPR has “shared” a post on Facebook about Williams, and most of the comments are about how FOX lies all the time. It seems like most voters have their brains saturated with these larger than life characters, making Williams a perfect fit to anchor a network propaganda machine. And manipulation of the audio in the second chopper shows the networks are part of the fabricating, it was not just some lone wolf anchor in Cincinnati.
But…but he saved a puppy when he was teenager when he crawled into a burning house. He’s a hero…..or was it two puppies?
He apparently misremembers that story also as he’s told both versions of saving puppies.
Sadly he’s making Jerry (Geraldo) Rivera seem like a legit “journalist”.
Breaking: Brian Williams has been cast in the title role in the remake of The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen.