by Chuck Stanley
Here is an update to Mike’s earlier post, “Brian Williams Should Be Fired…”
A few minutes ago, NBC News President Deborah Turness gave a press release. It begins by saying,
“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.
[snip]
“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.”
The full statement can be found at Politico.
This press release is important for what it does not say as much as what it does say. The investigative team for NBC is headed by Richard Esposito and NBC Universal General Counsel Kim Harris. Ms. Turness mentions, almost in passing, that NBC News is concerned about things which, “occurred outside NBC News….” This makes me wonder what else they turned up that has not been made public.
Given that Williams just signed a new contract for $10 million per year, a five million dollar penalty is more than a slap on the wrist. Lester Holt will continue in the anchor chair while Williams is off somewhere….perhaps contemplating his navel.
Since this is still a breaking story, consider this an open thread.
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
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Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
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Terry Welshans
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Flowers For Socrates 
“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli
Short of exoneration, I don’t see how they bring him back.
I think they could have worked this a little differently so that if the embellishments were not too great or the public not too interested Williams could have been brought back.
But this is seems to imply a pretty high standard. I don’t see any alternatives beyond exoneration – not likely, resignation, or termination.
I think Williams is gone – its is just a matter of setting terms.
Can you imagine Edward R. Murrow embellishing a buzz bomb landing near by and narrowly escaping being crushed by a collapsing wall? I can not.
I think a high standard is reasonable. Even if Williams did nothing more than read the news, we can either count on his observations or not. If we cannot count on the direct, personal observation of a news reporter then why are we listening to them?
“I wish they’d hurry up and invent Preparation H. This itching is driving me crazy.”
–— Niccolo Machiavelli
http://www.cjr.org/resources/
“Dammit Jim, There’s Klingons on Uranus”.
–Dr. Leonard H “Bones” McCoy
“Given that Williams just signed a new contract for $10 million per year, a five million dollar penalty is more than a slap on the wrist.”
My heart bleeds for such an onerous price of misinterpretation.
Maybe Williams should have been in Clint’s latest movie, as a spotter.
buckaroo,
“One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli
Self-reference through others long dead must be a burden.
“Given that Williams just signed a new contract for $10 million per year, a five million dollar penalty is more than a slap on the wrist.”
============================================
I wonder how much they’re going to pay Lester?
It just goes to show that not only are corporations people,in this case a person seems to be a corporation.isn’t this what they do to banks for example when the deal shoddy mortgages ?Slap them on the wrist with a fine and suspend them from doing business for a few months ?
Can you imagine Edward R. Murrow embellishing a buzz bomb landing near by and narrowly escaping being crushed by a collapsing wall?
he didnt have to.
“I came, I saw, I kicked some ass and made a fortune. No one will remember me in 2,000 years since Ray Bradbury burned all the books.”
Why Jon Stewart and Brian Williams should just switch jobs
Mr. Williams, who succeeded Mr. Brokaw in 2004, transcended the news division, and had ambitions beyond the anchor chair. About five years ago, as NBC was contemplating who would eventually replace Jay Leno as host of “The Tonight Show,” he told top NBC executives that he was interested in becoming a late-night host, possibly succeeding Mr. Leno. They called the idea ridiculous, telling him that he was a journalist, not a comedian, and to stick to the news department, according to two industry executives with knowledge of the discussions.
That did not suppress his enthusiasm for the late-night circuit. It was an appearance on David Letterman’s show in 2013 — during which he exaggerated the account of being on a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq — that helped put him at the precipice of losing his job.
Maybe Williams should have gone the Geraldo Rivera route and blame it on rats at the other networks for spreading “lies” as was the case when Harold gave details of the position and plans of United States troops in Iraq?
A good deal of the problem with Williams was that he was “Editor in Chief” of NBC Nightly News. This title implies editorial control over the show and the material presented. It also connotes someone with background and training as a journalist. As his Wiki bio shows :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Williams Williams dropped out of College after amassing a total of 18 credits, certainly not enough to get him journalistic training. He left college to take an unspecified intern job with the Carter Administration. From there he landed a job, presumably reading news at a TV station in Pittsburg, Kansas. His career certainly doesn’t evince any journalistic credibility. Williams was basically a handsome News Reader, with an easy manner and an ability to be humorous. Now one doesn’t have to go to journalism school to be a great journalist, however, the path for those without “J” School is usually one of demonstrating writing ability and an aptitude for serious research. Williams career progressed though because of his appearance and his pleasant voice/manner. I think it is not a big stretch to say that Williams, not a stupid man, recognized that he lacked journalistic credibility and set out to gain some by “reporting in the field”. This was how he would up in Iraq and in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
So the reason Williams’ lies become a big deal is because he had a career based on false premises that were advanced by himself and by NBC. Unlike Walter Cronkite, or Edward R. Murrow, who were writers/journalists tested under harrowing conditions and thus qualified to be called editors, Williams was someone who basically went to the “field” for photo ops designed to show him as credible. I would guess that much of his “field reporting” was scripted with the aid of a behind the scenes production team, no doubt assisted by military PR personnel.
Thus, even though Williams was merely a “news reader” the false patina of journalism painted upon him made his being caught in a lie a terminal offense. As Elaine’s NY Times link pointed out the man was such a “serious” journalist that he longed to take over the “Tonight Show” from Jy Leno. Call it what you will, Hubris, self-deception, or an overweening ego, Williams fall is the stuff of which tragedy is made. However, he will live a very comfortable life from here on out and knowing our media will at some point in the future possibly be re-accepted into the corporate club.
GBK,
This is a fabulous link http://www.cjr.org/resources/ for showing who owns our media. Thanks.
Anybody remember Chung and Rather? I wonder if Williams will try to hang on the way those two did.
The only reason FFS’s Editor-in-chief hasn’t been given a national network spot is because of his color.
:green:
That and my famous aversion to being on television in the first place.
They’d probably end up “Howard Beale-ing” me anyway.
I’m not sure what look you should go for. Pretty boy, rugged and intrepid, sophisticated wisdom, burned out rock star … let’s consult with pete.
Note I purposely failed to mention pseudo-scholar FOX NEWS pundit
“Note I purposely failed to mention pseudo-scholar FOX NEWS pundit”
Now wait a minute. A ‘psuedo-scholar FOX NEWS pundit’ image coupled with someone who actually knows something might have real appeal.
What an innovation. Image and substance together in one package. Why didn’t somebody think of this before?
I think something along the lines of Hunter Thompson’s Lazlo meets Nikola Tesla with a dash of Grover, John Belushi and Raylan Givens or perhaps Foghorn Leghorn. And Godzilla when I’m feeling particularly green. But I could be wrong. I’m sure pete will have some outstanding suggestions.
Since Williams really isn’t a journalist and he has ambitions of hosting a talk show, I expect he will land on his feet doing a talk show and his exaggerations as a news reader will not be a problem.
Well, whatever look is chosen let’s make sure your program falls into one of the Golden Globe categories so we can all come and sit at the same table and yell insults at you when you win.
I look forward to your list of thank you’s during your acceptance speech. If you put pete ahead of me there’s going to be trouble.
bettykath,
How much you wanna bet that’s exactly what his lawyers are negotiating.
” make sure your program falls into one of the Golden Globe categories so we can all come and sit at the same table and yell insults at you when you win.”
Well, yeah. That’s the best part.
I hear The Onion is looking for talent.
The job description requirement is to LOOK like a serious on-air reporter and simultaneously be able to lie with a straight face.
Carl Hiaasen’s “Skink”. If we can find a good eyeball.
Then I’ma pull a Kanye.
Skink’s got the smile. Gotta have the smile.
“Skink is (according to Double Whammy) six foot six inches tall, and proportionately broad. His skin is tanned dark brown from years spent outdoors. His eyes were originally green, but he lost one in a beating from a trio of teenage thugs. He replaced the lost eye with a glass eye taken from a stuffed barn owl. The fake eye is crimson, and much larger than his normal one. Skink’s hair is silver (though by the time of Sick Puppy he has gone bald on the top of his head), and he wears it long, along with an equally long beard, which he sometimes braids and accentuates with buzzards’ beaks or other trinkets.
Tyree’s clothes are a peculiar mix of the practical and the bizarre. At various times he wears a bright orange rain poncho (to keep from being hit on the highway while scooping up roadkills) a bright flowered shower cap, dungarees, military boots, a Rolling Stones t-shirt, and at one time a kilt made from a checkered racing flag.
His teeth are startlingly perfect, straight and white, and his smile is a trademark he retains from his election days (which often contrasts jarringly with the rest of his appearance).
Despite his age, lifestyle, and wild appearance, many of the female characters who run across him are strongly attracted to him.”
pete, I have to say other than being a tad shy of six foot and kinda Scots-Irish pasty, this is a pretty good description of me. 😀
NBC Reportedly Has ‘Dossier’ of Brian Williams Lies; Investigating His Expense Accounts
by Tina Nguyen | 12:15 pm, February 11th, 2015
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/nbc-reportedly-has-dossier-of-brian-williams-lies-investigating-his-expense-accounts/
Excerpt:
If this report is to be believed, there are a lot of Brian Williams fabrications. Like, a lot. And yesterday’s suspension of the anchor over revelations that he exaggerated stories from the Iraq War allegedly stemmed from a larger internal investigation at NBC, with enough findings to compile a full dossier and enough allegations to prompt an overview of his expense accounts.
New York Magazine wrote last night about that day’s meeting between the embattled anchor, his agent, and NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke, which resulted in Williams’s six-month suspension without pay. During that meeting, Williams was presented with a document detailing his “apparent lies” — which, considering that his reporting was called into question over one story about being hit by an RPG, hints at a lot of embellishments.
Though the document hasn’t been released yet, sources at NBC say that Williams’ history of stretching the truth was well-known, and NBC execs had tried to curb his habits for the past decade:
As word of Williams’s habit of embellishing spread through the network over the last decade, powerful voices tried to stop him. According to sources, former NBC News president Steve Capus and Tom Brokaw implored Williams to stick to the facts. “A lot of people, including Tom Brokaw, all said, ‘Let’s be careful here,’” one person with knowledge of the conversations told me. Capus left NBC in February 2013. One month later, Williams made his pivotal appearance on David Letterman‘s show, where he revived the now-discredited Iraq story. “This is similar to Dan Rather in the ’80s,” one former NBC executive told me. “There’s no checks and balances. Brian has so much power.” Williams’s embattled boss, Deborah Turness, has struggled to gain control of the news division.
who is skink? and tyree? they sound like the coonasses i used to know.
If Networks Cared About Honesty And Integrity, They’d Have To Fire Almost Everyone
By Susie Madrak
2/11/15
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/02/if-networks-cared-about-honesty-and
Excerpt:
First of all, let me reach back into my management-training days to point out that you can have all the rules and mission statements and ethics guidelines in the world, but it’s not really up to the employees to enforce them.
It’s up to management.
And something we’ve seen grow exponentially since the Reagan era is a tactic where, when a company is caught doing something unethical or illegal, management tells shareholders and critics it’s not the fault of management: “Look at our ethics code! Look at our mission statement! It wasn’t us!”
But here’s the point: If your company doesn’t supply you with the staffing and resources necessary to complete your job in a quality manner, your mission statement doesn’t mean squat.
If the company has an ethics code, but never enforces it, it is sending a very clear message that the ethics code has no actual meaning. Which brings us back to the broadcast news.
Here at Crooks and Liars, we’ve documented numerous instances of unethical behavior by news yakkers — especially their unethical habit of collecting enormous checks for speaking to organizations they are allegedly covering as watchdogs.
Has anything happened as a result? Nope. Nothing will change as long as broadcast news is a profit center meant to serve the ends of ownership and their corporate sponsors. Which is fine, but that doesn’t mean we have to keep watching it. Fewer people watch it all the time.
Mike,
GBK,
“This is a fabulous link http://www.cjr.org/resources/ for showing who owns our media. Thanks.”
You’re welcome. Sorry I forgot to “introduce” the link in my original post; bad form on my part. I wish the site would allow reverse searching, but it’s much better than nothing.
Cheers!
Real Time with Bill Maher: The News is Broken (HBO)
Big Lies, Little Lies and the Punishment of Brian Williams
By Joe Conason
Posted on Feb 13, 2015
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/big_lies_little_lies_and_the_punishment_of_brian_williams_20150213
Excerpt:
It is ironic, to put it very mildly, that more than a decade after the Iraq invasion, which resulted from official and journalistic deceptions on a vast scale, the only individual deemed worthy of punishment is a TV newsman who inflated a war story on a talk show. And it is irritating, too, that so many of the NBC anchor’s harshest critics are heard on Fox News Channel, where lying is a way of life, as Leonard Pitts Jr., noted recently.
To recall just one especially pertinent example: Fox host Sean Hannity, who now demands Williams’ head on a stick, repeatedly told TV and radio audiences that “every penny” from his Freedom Alliance concerts would benefit the children of deceased veterans. It was a lie, because huge amounts of the proceeds were squandered on “conferences” and other dubious expenses. But Hannity got away with it because he evidently hadn’t violated any laws.
All the wing nuts ceaselessly barking about how Williams betrayed the vets could not have cared less.
Indeed, it is puzzling that Williams has excited so much frothing anger on the right, where lying and deception are routinely excused, especially about military service. (George W. Bush prevaricated blatantly about his brief stint in the Texas Air National Guard, and Ronald Reagan lied about “liberating” a Nazi death camp—but nobody on the right cared much about that, either.) If anything, Williams is resolutely nonpartisan, and when I profiled him in 2008, he seemed slightly more enthusiastic about John McCain than Barack Obama. The son of a World War II Army captain, he idolized his father and has always venerated Americans in uniform—which may help to explain, along with a muddled memory and an apparent urge to embellish, how he fell into this current difficulty.