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Brian Williams "misremembers" Iraq helicopter shooting

IrishSlim said:
Of course jhmd cares way too much about this. Because of course he does.
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I mean, maybe they're weren't actually bodies floating in dry streets or gangs taking over his hotel, but just because it doesn't happen doesn't mean that you shouldn't go on over the air mainstream news and report it anyway. I mean, if you don't, how can you score the needed political points about how much the then-sitting administration hates minorities? You don't get your desired omelet without breaking a few factual eggs now and then. Being #undefeated is an ugly business, and besides, Faux News, or something.
 
Deaconblue said:
Given the length of the suspension, I wonder if NBC did some more detailed fact checking and found that some other Brian Williams stories didn't add up as well. The long, immediate suspension means that NBC can do that research without the continuing issue of B-W being the face and leader of NBC news. The possibility of other "mis-remembered" or embellished incidents and events is too much for NBC to handle with Brian Williams remaining as news anchor.

This is the downside of having a news anchor go on various late night talk shows (that deal mostly in comedy and entertainment) as a guest and "star." His stardom was based on his news reporting, from an "I went there, saw things with my own eyes" vantage point. Thus his stories contained both the perspective of the reporter on the ground "in harm's way" seeing things up close and personal, and the "behind the anchor desk" reader of news collected by others, bringing the big picture perspective to the news. Those things are what made Brian Williams the number one news anchor and why his name was part of the title of the NBC nightly news broadcast. With the questions about his on the ground experiences, his whole career and presence becomes tainted until the details become more clear. Thus the lengthy suspension.
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According to a couple of news articles, his numerous late night appearances had become a thorn in the side of many of his higher ups. They were none too pleased with the direction that he was going and wanted to put the brakes on it.
 
CHillDeac said:
According to a couple of news articles, his numerous late night appearances had become a thorn in the side of many of his higher ups. They were none too pleased with the direction that he was going and wanted to put the brakes on it.
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hm, really? links?
 
CHillDeac said:
According to a couple of news articles, his numerous late night appearances had become a thorn in the side of many of his higher ups. They were none too pleased with the direction that he was going and wanted to put the brakes on it.
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In that case, they can close up shop on Nightly News. The nightly news portion of America is old and getting older. If anything, the late night stuff made him more likeable to a younger audience (read: people they should be targeting).
 
deacondamo said:
In that case, they can close up shop on Nightly News. The nightly news portion of America is old and getting older. If anything, the late night stuff made him more likeable to a younger audience (read: people they should be targeting).
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Millennial says NBC should suck up to millennials.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
hm, really? links?
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It was mentioned in a couple of articles when the scandal first hit, articles that I'll never be able to find again. But here's one from today.


One can only imagine that Williams was wishing his anchor escape plan had worked out and that he was the host of The Tonight Show right now. According to two NBC insiders, when the network decided to move on from Jay Leno a few years ago, Williams lobbied NBC executives to give him the host’s chair. “Brian wants to be a late-night comedian,” one former colleague explained. “He traded on being Nightly News anchorman-war-reporter to ingratiate himself with Jimmy, Lorne Michaels, and Jon Stewart.” Now, of course, he’s become the subject of jokes rather than the one telling them.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2015/02/11/new-york-mag-nbc-has-dossier-williams-apparent-lies


Some colleagues said Williams seems to have changed in recent years as his fame grew. “You can't escape Brian Williams. He's showing up in prime time,” another former colleague says. “He's hosting SNL, his daughter is Peter Pan, she's on HBO.”

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/02/williams-wishes-he-were-tonight-show-host.html
 
""I hope that as part of his new focus, Brian and NBC will no longer do comedy routines on programs like 'Saturday Night Live' and 'The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon,' " Bill Wheatley told me via email last night. Bill is the former executive vice president of NBC News, a close Tom Brokaw associate over many years, and -- like many NBC veterans and employees -- thought Williams got just a little too cozy with late night comedians."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/brian-williams-do-news-and-comedy-mix-1.9926543
 
Could maybe see BW telling the fuselage story to his buddies after several late night beers, but he told it on Letterman 18 months after the raid had become part of American lore. Nobody was waiting around for souvenirs of an American helicopter and certainly not to send one to BW. You gotta wonder why he didn't have a mechanism in his head that told him not to tell that story on TV and if and when he realizes/ed there are more stories like that out there that haven't come to light yet.
 
FuckmouthedRube said:
Could maybe see BW telling the fuselage story to his buddies after several late night beers, but he told it on Letterman 18 months after the raid had become part of American lore. Nobody was waiting around for souvenirs of an American helicopter and certainly not to send one to BW. You gotta wonder why he didn't have a mechanism in his head that told him not to tell that story on TV and if and when he realizes/ed there are more stories like that out there that haven't come to light yet.
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Which actually makes this a tragic story. Despite his politics, I liked his sense of humor and his delivery style. Ironically enough, a seemingly genuine guy (the Elon speech kicks up a little dust) meets an Icaran ending when he started to chase the spotlight.
 
jhmd2000 said:
Which actually makes this a tragic story. Despite his politics, I liked his sense of humor and his delivery style. Ironically enough, a seemingly genuine guy (the Elon speech kicks up a little dust) meets an Icaran ending when he started to chase the spotlight.
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you-are-not-so-smart-man.jpg
 
Coming after Bill O'Reilly next.
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/19/8072755/report-bill-oreilly-fabricated-war-stories-on-air
O'Reilly has claimed that he saw combat around the Falklands war. In a 2013 Fox News segment, for example, he said, "I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, where my photographer got run down and then hit his head and was bleeding from the ear on the concrete."
Corn and Schulman document a number of similar claims from O'Reilly — and then argue that these claims appear likely to be false.
 
PhDeac said:
Coming after Bill O'Reilly next.
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/19/8072755/report-bill-oreilly-fabricated-war-stories-on-air
O'Reilly has claimed that he saw combat around the Falklands war. In a 2013 Fox News segment, for example, he said, "I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, where my photographer got run down and then hit his head and was bleeding from the ear on the concrete."
Corn and Schulman document a number of similar claims from O'Reilly — and then argue that these claims appear likely to be false.
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...

jhmd2000 said:
I'm sorry, I believe that you believe that, but I'm not willing to believe that he "forgot" he "wasn't" shot down in combat. "Memory problems" quite reasonably explain a good faith failure to recall picayune details (from your example, the time a basketball game tipped off 20 years ago), but going on national television and claiming to remember something hugely significant (a near-death experience) that never even happened to you (and fluently recounting the harrowing details of something you never experienced at all) is a plausibility bridge too far for this reporter.
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