The Brian Williams Debacle

[TerranceL]

No, it's not Ok to lie, but since it was a decade after the event it could have been an honest mistake. I think this a way over blown.

Honest mistake really?

Unless he's developing Alzheimers it's inconceivable that he did anything else but lie.

A honest lie would be, "the car involved in the crash I drove by wasn't really white after all", instead of, "I was in a car crash, I pulled everyone from the crash, then moments before the other car went up in flames I pulled their pet gold fish out too and gave it mouth to mouth until a trauma team from sea world showed up to take over, I'm happy to report that the gold fish made it."

One is a mistake, the other is just making stuff up to make yourself seem a lot more interesting than you really are.







The goldfish is doing just fine btw.

 

[Viren]

Honest mistake really?

Unless he's developing Alzheimers it's inconceivable that he did anything else but lie.

A honest lie would be, "the car involved in the crash I drove by wasn't really white after all", instead of, "I was in a car crash, I pulled everyone from the crash, then moments before the other car went up in flames I pulled their pet gold fish out too and gave it mouth to mouth until a trauma team from sea world showed up to take over, I'm happy to report that the gold fish made it."

One is a mistake, the other is just making stuff up to make yourself seem a lot more interesting than you really are.







The goldfish is doing just fine btw.

Yeah, he could have lied. I just think it's a huge waste of time. It's kind of like going after a fox news anchor. There are more productive things to do.

 

[TerranceL]

Yeah, he could have lied. I just think it's a huge waste of time. It's kind of like going after a fox news anchor. There are more productive things to do.

I respect your opinion but I have to disagree.

These are the people we get our news from. If we can't trust them to tell us the truth then they might as well get themselves new jobs.

 

[Viren]

I respect your opinion but I have to disagree.

These are the people we get our news from. If we can't trust them to tell us the truth then they might as well get themselves new jobs.

He's more of an entertainer anyway. I don't really trust most of the news anyway.

 

[TerranceL]

He's more of an entertainer anyway. I don't really trust most of the news anyway.

Which is depressing. We've gone from someone like Cronkite who was often labeled as the "most trusted man in america" to what I would probably say is a majority of people not even trusting the news anymore.

 

[cow451]

Brian Williams admits that his story of coming under fire while in Iraq was false - The Washington Post

Yes, you've all likely heard of the story by now. It's totally despicable and clearly transparent what his motives were. There was no "misremembering". It's obvious he has no credibility at this point since he's willing to lie about something like this.

Should he be fired? How would this same story be viewed if the person involved was say, Sean Hannity of Fox News?

Nobody ever accused Sean Hannity of being a journalist, so it is apples and oranges.

As to Williams, it looks like an example of letting ego have a head start on brains. The story (of the helicopter incident) was plenty interesting without the added touches by Williams.

 

[cow451]

He's more of an entertainer anyway. I don't really trust most of the news anyway.

Broadcast and cable news is as much entertainment as news. But we viewers have ourselves to blame. We watch the big 4 and they live on advertising, which is dependent on viewership.

The only true newscast on the tube is PBS Newshour. They have these long, boring discussions by people that have faces made for radio.

The Internet is going into this canyon as well (Blaze, HuffPo, etc.). But, at least the net has so many sources, one can look deeply into any subject.

 

[HonestTruth]

Glad to see Williams being held accountable for lack of proper journalistic professionalism. Too bad the pro war WaPo and NY Times where not held equally accountable when they lied by claiming they had concrete proof of WMD in Bush's lead up to his criminal war on Iraq. As always, a uniform standard should be applied at all times.

 

[SummerMadness]

Which is depressing. We've gone from someone like Cronkite who was often labeled as the "most trusted man in america" to what I would probably say is a majority of people not even trusting the news anymore.

I think you can blame that on turning news into entertainment. When someone exclaims, "Look at the ratings for this program or news network," one shouldn't be surprised that the quality of news has degraded. TLC used to actually be educational when it was called The Learning Channel.

 

[abysmul]

Brian Williams perhaps ‘misremembered’ dangers of Katrina, hotel manager says - The Washington Post

Brian Williams perhaps ‘misremembered’ dangers of Katrina, hotel manager says

 

[bhsmte]

Broadcast and cable news is as much entertainment as news. But we viewers have ourselves to blame. We watch the big 4 and they live on advertising, which is dependent on viewership.

The only true newscast on the tube is PBS Newshour. They have these long, boring discussions by people that have faces made for radio.

The Internet is going into this canyon as well (Blaze, HuffPo, etc.). But, at least the net has so many sources, one can look deeply into any subject.

I would agree with this.

These folks are as much entertainers in today's age as they are journalists and it applies to all of the networks.

What is going on right now is NBC is assessing the damage and likely told Williams, you need to step away on your own, or we will need to force you to step away, to show they are responding to what he did and to give them time to assess.

NBC will do their own work and likely engage a professional group to gauge their viewership, to determine whether a brief stint of time away from the network (2, 3 or 4 weeks) will allow this to somewhat die down and then Williams can continue without ratings being negatively impacted. If they happen to find that their viewership will drop off to any considerable degree with allow Williams to continue, they will have no choice but to send him on his way.

Ratings drive everything.

 

[TerranceL]

I think you can blame that on turning news into entertainment. When someone exclaims, "Look at the ratings for this program or news network," one shouldn't be surprised that the quality of news has degraded. TLC used to actually be educational when it was called The Learning Channel.

I very very rarely watch tv, a decade or so ago I'd watch a lot, tv apparently took a dislike to me and stopped working so I just read a lot more and found my news online.

I was at my parents house a week ago and they were watching some silly reality show, I noticed the TLC symbol. My how far they have fallen, don't get me started on the horror that is History channel.

 

[TerranceL]

Broadcast and cable news is as much entertainment as news. But we viewers have ourselves to blame. We watch the big 4 and they live on advertising, which is dependent on viewership.

The only true newscast on the tube is PBS Newshour. They have these long, boring discussions by people that have faces made for radio.

The Internet is going into this canyon as well (Blaze, HuffPo, etc.). But, at least the net has so many sources, one can look deeply into any subject.

Is the BBC still a good news source?

 

[NightHawkeye]

Is the BBC still a good news source?

Some folks claim it's the best in the world.

 

[bhsmte]

Is the BBC still a good news source?

By good, do you mean "objective"?

 

[cow451]

Is the BBC still a good news source?

I haven't watched enough to make a fair judgement. It is good, nonetheless to see news from a non-America-centric view. I enjoyed a few times watching a Russian newscast.

 

[bhsmte]

I haven't watched enough to make a fair judgement. It is good, nonetheless to see news from a non-America-centric view. I enjoyed a few times watching a Russian newscast.

Was it in English?

 

[Veritas]

By good, do you mean "objective"?

Considering that there's an entire website devoted to the bias in reporting, I would guess not.

Biased BBC

Actually quite revealing.

 

[bhsmte]

Considering that there's an entire website devoted to the bias in reporting, I would guess not.

Biased BBC

Actually quite revealing.

And how bias is this source claiming the BBC is bias?

 

[cow451]

Was it in English?

Yes, Comrade. So, I suppose one could say it might lose something in translation.