Brian Willams misremembers

[RB]

Now he is suspended without pay for six months.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/2015/02/10/nbcs-brian-williams-suspended-for-six-months-without-pay.html

A news journalist telling stories must be differentiated from the stories we tell around the dinner table. What I mean is there is something specific about being a journalist and relating news. He got "called out", is it the norn though. The various crew with him didn't bat the eye at all of what is embellished and it apparently happened on multiple occasions - reported as being investigated.

[TimG]

The various crew with him didn't bat the eye at all of what is embellished and it apparently happened on multiple occasions - reported as being investigated.

And you can bet they people involved only care that they were caught. News organizations care about a compelling narrative because that is what attracts viewers. If mixing fiction in with the facts improves the narrative they will and it will never change.

That is why it is a mistake to ever take media reports as a fair representation of the truth. They are spin. The only get something close to the truth is to read reports from different sources and look for facts with corroborating evidence that is not subject to spin. It is also important to look at the target market for each news organization and figure out what narratives that market wants to hear.

Edited February 11, 2015 by TimG

[August1991]

A news journalist telling stories must be differentiated from the stories we tell around the dinner table.

RB, the big story here is that the American Left frequently claims that the American Right (Faux News) tells stories (fibs). Well, with Brian Williams, the American Left has just been caught in a big fib. And the American Right is gleefully pointing a finger.

I'm not certain who lies more: the left or the right, whether in America or elsewhere. And admittedly, truth aside, people enjoy taking sides.

Taking sides aside, I do admire the American belief in truth. After all, 2+3=5 is true and to claim otherwise is a lie.

Edited February 11, 2015 by August1991

[WestCoastRunner]

RB, the big story here is that the American Left frequently claims that the American Right (Faux News) tells stories (fibs). Well, with Brian Williams, the American Left has just been caught in a big fib. And the American Right is gleefully pointing a finger.

I'm not certain who lies more: the left or the right, whether in America or elsewhere. And admittedly, truth aside, people enjoy taking sides.

Taking sides aside, I do admire the American belief in truth. After all, 2+3=5 is true and to claim otherwise is a lie.

Seriously, we are reducing this story to a left vs right? Come on. Let's great real. This is about a high profile journalist seeking stardom. Has nothing to do with politics and has everything to do with celebrity status.

Edited February 11, 2015 by WestCoastRunner

[August1991]

Seriously, we are reducing this story to a left vs right?

Yes. It's about taking sides, and people enjoy taking sides. In this case, the American Left scored a goal in its own net. The American Right with glee is putting the video on youtube.

Has nothing to do with politics and has everything to do with celebrity status.

To my knowledge, Brian Williams has yet to marry a Kardashian - or a Jenner. But gawd knows.

IOW, this has little to do with celebrity and everything to do with politics.

Edited February 11, 2015 by August1991

[WestCoastRunner]

Yes. It's about taking sides, and people enjoy taking sides. In this case, the American Left scored a goal in its own net. The American Right is putting the video on youtube.

To my knowledge, Brian Williams has yet to marry a Kardashian - or a Jenner.

No, it's about a journalist seeking stardom.

[bush_cheney2004]

Just to put this in perspective, Brian Williams and his competition have been lying to a smaller share of total U.S. audience.

Maybe NBC News and Williams are a bigger hit in Canada.

[RB]

Just to put this in perspective, Brian Williams and his competition have been lying to a smaller share of total U.S. audience.

Well if I read the graph correctly, even though the audience is decreased at NBC and ABC according to bush_cheney2004 , CBS is still having the lowest of audience in each year listed. This is based on the graph presented.

However, I did follow the impact of the viewership and previously NBC was drawing about 9.3 million http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/business/media/brian-williams-suspended-by-nbc-news-for-six-months.html

Now NBC is down to 8 million http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/brian-williams-nightly-news-suffers-ratings-drop-article-1.2108555 and CBS is over 8 million

Maybe thats what you mean...

[RB]

And you can bet they people involved only care that they were caught.

And CNN could spend the entire day exploring conditions for lying e.g. false memories

This is a major mess up for the chap, it is who is caught today.

[bush_cheney2004]

...Maybe thats what you mean...

Yes....thanks for clarifying. Williams is not Walter Cronkite and it is not 1965, with most U.S. households glued to the evening news. Walter Cronkite refers to his successor Dan Rather in his last CBS Evening News broadcast. Mr. Rather would go on to make a fool of himself trying to bag George W. Bush.

[GostHacked]

So does anyone trust the news anymore? How many other people in the war lied about certain events?

Can anyone believe American Sniper now??

[Black Dog]

The first guy to face any consequences for lying about the Iraq war.

[Wilber]

No one ever lies or says anything really stupid that they did mean, they "missremember", "misspeak" or "missword".

[On Guard for Thee]

Just to put this in perspective, Brian Williams and his competition have been lying to a smaller share of total U.S. audience.

Maybe NBC News and Williams are a bigger hit in Canada.

Nope, dont need either. We have actual news reporting up here.

[WIP]

Now he is suspended without pay for six months.

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/2015/02/10/nbcs-brian-williams-suspended-for-six-months-without-pay.html

A news journalist telling stories must be differentiated from the stories we tell around the dinner table. What I mean is there is something specific about being a journalist and relating news. He got "called out", is it the norn though. The various crew with him didn't bat the eye at all of what is embellished and it apparently happened on multiple occasions - reported as being investigated.

I think there is a lot more to the story than Brian Williams "misremembering!" His original version of the story 10 years ago was a fabrication, according to testimony of some soldiers who claim his chopper came in an hour later and what he learned about the incident was from interviewing them. Then he places himself right on the chopper that got shot down, and a whole lot of people...other military staff and NBC staffers had to be in collusion with this fabrication of the facts.

It wouldn't be the first and last time they fabricated a lie to tell a war story. Recall Pat Tillman, being a hero who sacrificed his life to save his fellow soldiers.....until we learned that he was actually killed by friendly fire. Or Jessica Lynch who deflated the hero or heroine story that was being framed around her after she was wounded and taken to an Iraqi hospital before the war ended. She decided the truth was more important than being a phony hero, and a bunch of generals and media wags had egg on their face for deliberately fabricating their war story.

Since teleprompter reader - Brian Williams is one of the most gung-ho pro war propagandists in news media, I'm inclined to believe that it fits the pattern over recent years and he just wanted to insert himself into the story a little more than he deserved. And a whole lot of people were willing to go along with it, until some soldiers let some air out of the tire!

[RB]

Thanks for the reply WIP
Initially it was doubful he was saying about being in the situation with the soldiers and could swing many ways. He really got shot down by the the media Jihad, the NY times took a shot @ frontpage, the soldiers only want to correct the emblishment as the years grew and the story became a really big fish tale

Hopfully it gets sorted out with the NBC folks in 6 months. Somehow I think it won't as there is something about trust.

Maybe he become a successful comedian - it would be interesting to see what kind of funny

[bush_cheney2004]

...Hopfully it gets sorted out with the NBC folks in 6 months. Somehow I think it won't as there is something about trust.

I don't think it really matters any more in a news market that values "promotable content" over trusted journalism for even hard news. These are just talking heads with feet of clay, and a good, purposeful hoax is as entertaining as a poorly executed lie. Frankly, these "journalists" take themselves and their craft far too seriously.

[Derek 2.0]

Yes....thanks for clarifying. Williams is not Walter Cronkite and it is not 1965, with most U.S. households glued to the evening news. Walter Cronkite refers to his successor Dan Rather in his last CBS Evening News broadcast. Mr. Rather would go on to make a fool of himself trying to bag George W. Bush.

Though not of the same generation as Cronkite, another cut of similar cloth (in my opinion), has also left us.........leaving the stage to Williams generation of entertainment journalism.

Edited February 12, 2015 by Derek 2.0

[GostHacked]

WIP, how many other stories are like this? How many others have reported things that they never experienced? All that was used by the MSM to promote the agenda. Its a problem when stories are not vetted, its even worse when the 'vetted story' is from a liying news reporter.

But no matter how many lies we are told it seems like the majority still think that this war on terror needs to continue.

[eyeball]

I don't think it really matters any more in a news market that values "promotable content" over trusted journalism for even hard news. These are just talking heads with feet of clay, and a good, purposeful hoax is as entertaining as a poorly executed lie. Frankly, these "journalists" take themselves and their craft far too seriously.

As seriously as the naysayers that peach disavowing them? I don't know, that takes a special kind of seriousness.

[WIP]

Thanks for the reply WIP

Initially it was doubful he was saying about being in the situation with the soldiers and could swing many ways. He really got shot down by the the media Jihad, the NY times took a shot @ frontpage, the soldiers only want to correct the emblishment as the years grew and the story became a really big fish tale

Hopfully it gets sorted out with the NBC folks in 6 months. Somehow I think it won't as there is something about trust.

Maybe he become a successful comedian - it would be interesting to see what kind of funny

Thanks! On that last point, I don't know if he's cut out to be a real comedian...he would have to do more than learn the lines of routines scripted for him. All he's demonstrated so far is that he showed a greater willingness to risk being mocked or making a fool of himself by trying to do comedy.....I think there is a celebrity graveyard outside the studio where they make SNL in New York.

Even though I'm closer to 60, I'm with the younger generation who doesn't trust mainstream news and never watches the nightly newscasts. I for one, am not shocked that a newsreader (that is actually 99% of what he does) is not presenting an accurate or worthwhile account of the day's news. I've come across too many interviews with journalists who retired early because they were being forced towards infotainment and becoming shills for the industries that their corporate parents operate: weapons contractors, oil companies etc. So, my expectations for Brian Williams were not that high to begin with.

But, he has set himself apart from the crowd, by showing himself to be a pathological liar! He began with an embellished story, and kept inserting himself further and further into the narrative as the years went by. When he starts using words like "We" and "Our" helicopter, you would almost think he was part of the mission, by the time he told the story to David Lettermen! So, he may be a little more narcissistic and delusional than the average teleprompter reader on television. I guess some of the soldiers decided it was time to pull the plug on this h******it. One pundit who's name I forget, made the point that the soldier who came forward to Stars & Stripes and blew up the story, is out of the service. That is important, because if this whole drama was another one of these war stories that is a collusion between the military and the news industry, it's likely that they were not willing to come forward while they were still active duty.

yesterday and today, I've come across two separate stories about psychologists doing interviews and informing the public about the faultiness of our memory systems.....i.e. that every time we tell a story of a past event, a variety of brain systems that contain different elements of memory needed to be accessed, are used to create a new narrative each and every time. So, even for those of us who are trying to be factual and accurate, a story is likely to drift and keep adding more and more extraneous elements over time. I've read this stuff before, but the rise of psychologists in the news informing the public about it, seems to me like it could be damage control from NBC and even other media who might be concerned that their newsreaders will also be suspect.

For me, if this story makes people more skeptical about the news presented to them by MSM, that's a good thing!

Edited February 12, 2015 by WIP

[WIP]

WIP, how many other stories are like this? How many others have reported things that they never experienced? All that was used by the MSM to promote the agenda. Its a problem when stories are not vetted, its even worse when the 'vetted story' is from a liying news reporter.

But no matter how many lies we are told it seems like the majority still think that this war on terror needs to continue.

Good question! With Brian Williams alone, some of the grumblings that went on outside of MSM, such as his reports from Hurricane Katrina and even some of his other war stories, are also suspect! We do know that they have been accomplices to propaganda before...as I mentioned both the Tillman and Jessica Lynch hero stories required media complicity to keep a lid on the coverup afterwards. Same goes with the "babies being pulled out of incubators by invading Iraqi troops" that was the main story for "liberating Kuwait" back in 1990. Whether the invasion was justified or not, the U.S. Government seemed to really have a strong desire to have lots of propaganda stories as icing on the cake!

Every time now that I hear or read about a new object of American regime change, I'm more inclined to take out my crap meter to get a reading, than to accept the story at face value!

[bush_cheney2004]

Good question! With Brian Williams alone, some of the grumblings that went on outside of MSM, such as his reports from Hurricane Katrina and even some of his other war stories, are also suspect! We do know that they have been accomplices to propaganda before...

Frankly, I am amazed that Brian Williams or any American network news organization has such an impact in Canada. Like...why ?

[On Guard for Thee]

Good question! With Brian Williams alone, some of the grumblings that went on outside of MSM, such as his reports from Hurricane Katrina and even some of his other war stories, are also suspect! We do know that they have been accomplices to propaganda before...as I mentioned both the Tillman and Jessica Lynch hero stories required media complicity to keep a lid on the coverup afterwards. Same goes with the "babies being pulled out of incubators by invading Iraqi troops" that was the main story for "liberating Kuwait" back in 1990. Whether the invasion was justified or not, the U.S. Government seemed to really have a strong desire to have lots of propaganda stories as icing on the cake!

Every time now that I hear or read about a new object of American regime change, I'm more inclined to take out my crap meter to get a reading, than to accept the story at face value!

The Tillman and, especially the Jessica Lynch, were whoppers for sure. Troops shooting each other and crashing their own vehicles into each other just doesnt sell well on the 6 o clock news. One that had me scratching my head was some years back I was at the airport in Tblisi Georgia when in flew a 757 with USA written on it so I made my way over and clearly saw Donald Rumsfeld descend and motorcade his way into town. I went home and flipped on CNN and the lead story was Donald Rumsfeld spends a third day on his surprise visit to Iraq. And went on to tell what he would be doing for the day. I went to my computer and found how to contact CNN and sent them a note saying you know I just saw Rumsfeld get off a plane that wasnt in Iraq. Got back one of those machine generated responses thanking me for my interest. Plane was gone the next day am, end of story. Who the hell knows what was going on there.

[GostHacked]

Whether the invasion was justified or not, the U.S. Government seemed to really have a strong desire to have lots of propaganda stories as icing on the cake!

Icing on the yellow cake. You know the so called uranium Iraq suposedly bought from Niger? Remember the mobile chemical trucks that were trotted out by Powel and Rumsfeld? Don't forget Saddam was conspiring with Al-Queda. . Kind of strange when multiple dictators are accused of supporting Al-Queda when they don't even like each other.

The incubaters thing was quite touching too. Turned out to be the daughter of a Kuwaiti official I believe. Good performance , she should have won a few awards for it.