“MISREMEMBER” THAT …
|| By FITSNEWS || NBC News anchor Brian Williams has been suspended from his job for six months as a result of fabricating (“misremembering?”) details from a 2003 incident during his coverage of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He’s also been accused of fabricating stories related to his coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Earlier this month, Williams repeated a claim that a helicopter he was traveling on during the early days of the Iraq War “was forced down after being hit by an RPG,” or a rocket-propelled grenade. It’s a story he’s told repeatedly over the last 12 years … but when crew members on the helicopter in question disputed Williams’ story, it got ugly. Fast.
“Because I knew we had all come under fire, I guess I had assumed that all of the airframes took some damage because we all went down,” Williams told Stars and Stripes.
During NBC Nightly News’ broadcast last week, Williams came clean to viewers.
“I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” he said. “I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by an RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft.”
The fallout? Instantaneous.
In a week’s time Williams went from being the 23rd most trusted person in America to occupying spot No. 835 – according to The Marketing Arm, which monitors celebrity credibility for marketing firms.
On Saturday, Williams – who is NBC News managing editor – announced he was taking himself out of the anchor’s chair for “a few days.” Now NBC has extended that suspension through August.
Can Williams’ career survive? And more importantly … why should anyone care?
Let’s be honest … the guy reads a Teleprompter loaded with status quo talking points for a living. And the rare investigative reporting done by his outlet (usually in pursuit of some left-leaning agenda) is prepared for him, not by him.
So seriously … who cares what happens to him? Or which focus-group tested “reader” follows him? Well … we do. A little. Williams’ downfall is actually quite sweet for those of us in the new media – who were on the receiving end of his derision back in 2007.
“You’re going to be up against people who have an opinion, a modem, and a bathrobe,” he said at the time. “All of my life, developing credentials to cover my field of work, and now I’m up against a guy named Vinny in an efficiency apartment in the Bronx who hasn’t left the efficiency apartment in two years.”
Maybe so … but at least Vinny’s not a liar.
Anyway … the most important thing to take from the Brian Williams scandal? That people were tuning out him (and the other nightly news programs) long before they knew he was a liar.
Take a look …
(Click to enlarge)
(Pic: Via)
45 comments
Yeah, Brian Williams is very relevant. I watch the evening news. I get all of my news from the TV!
– Said no one ever
– Said no one ever
I want to believe…
I prefer to read news from unbiased sources, but that’s getting hard to find. When will FOX and CNN hold their anchors to the same standards?
Everybody has a ‘bias’. Don’t be so naive.Why would you listen to somebody that doesn’t believe in a damn thing?
When it comes to lying Williams is a rank amateur. Walter Cronkite cost this nation a well earned victory in Vietnam with his lies about Tet. .
100%!!! Cronkite was a traitor and should have tried for war crimes.Jennings,Brokaw,Rather…all of em were liberal elitist and Democrat Party operatives…add the New York Times and Washington Post and Americans were as informed of the truth about like Pravda kept Russians informed with the truth. :-)
Thank God Limbaugh and Fox News arrived and opened up avenues for the alternative media.
“Walter Cronkite cost this nation a well earned victory in Vietnam with his lies about Tet.”
Well, consider it Karma for the US being lied into the war by McNamara with the help of the NSA, via the Tonkin “incident”.
The big irony of Vietnam is that they are far more capitalistic today than they would have ever been even if the US had won the war.
True. Next stop for him is Fox News.
now if some one would suspend u for 666 years Folks!!!!
Interesting number you chose for Folks. The mark of the beast.
Hey, Grand Tango – there is an opening for the anchor desk at NBC
Why don’t you and Flip hop in your mom’s smart car and go for an interview
You are so damn funny! You this funny when you are drunk?
Now, if Nikki would only —— ?
What if Nikki comes out with an update on her biography (before Mr. Folks publishes his book) and admits (in detail) her shenanigans with Mr. Folks? Now THAT would really rock his world!
What if Obama comes out with an update of his biography and admits he is a Muslim,hates America and is trying to destroy not only the economy but also the moral and cultural foundations that made this country the envy of the FREE world?
Wait…we are living that in real time.
1,000,000,000 +
You actually believe that Sic Willie has a book concerning his alleged (by him) affair with Haley in any stage of preparation?
Rocky believes unemployment is 5.7%. What do you think?
Nikki update and Folks book. Sh&t won’t stink before that happens.
If this can happen to Brian Williams…how many more days does FITS have???….LMAO…
Answer: as long his followers are Head-up-the-@$$ liberals, and kook-job Liberal-Tarians…forever…
But when do advertisers figure out they damage their product and themselves by being seen on this site? …that’s the BIG question…
PS: Glad FITS JUMPED on this story so quickly. What a F*#king SCOOP for FITS…
And I got a tip: An EXTREME leftwing Sony exec has been demoted for RACIST comments…and lily-white, privileged, elitist Hillary is THE ONLY hope the Democrat Party – that has to have 120% African-American voter participation – to win…
Hey Vinny…Karma came around for your ass in a matter of days. FITS is still standing while your nonsensical ramblings spelled FAILURE from the get-go. Tell us some more about Sony on SCPSD…HAHAHAHAHAHA! LMAO…you just got the F#$ing PI$$ slapped out of you!
Are you blaming Spurrier: Y or N ?
The answer is no, Steve Spurrier had nothing to do with Brian Williams lying and he should not be blamed for it. Are you day drunk or something?
Liberals ALWAYS flee from what you are…when called on it…LMAO…
Textbook…Hahahahaha…
We’re all going to jump to your blog for “more accurate analysis”.
That should keep us up to date.
You would not be up-to-date if you had it rammed up your @$$…The truth does not stick w/ Dumb@$$ liberals, like you…
You continue to prove how unintelligent you really are.
Are you a real person? I’ve never met anyone as dumb as you.
Better question: Why do you try when your are so inept at this???…all you can do is play off me…and you OFFER nothing but stupid S#!t…
“That people were tuning out him (and the other nightly news programs) long before they knew he was a liar.”–
Most people knew Brian and NBC were liars and political hacks long before this incident surfaced. The numbers are indicative of this. As more misrememberings come to light, Brian will be forced to hang it up. How does he come back from a 6 month stint in rehab?
Big question: who inherits the reins?
Jon Stewart was a big fan and supporter of Williams, and he just announced he’s leaving The Daily Show this year. Coincidence?
No.Colbert left and now Stewart.They see an ass kicking for the Democrats in 2016 and why they ran from the political satire arena.
Hard to be funny when your guys won’t be in power again for a 100 years.
Please. The only asses getting kicked are the taxpayers. Doesn’t matter which boot, left or right.
The wingers on either side don’t like this, as it completely destroys their power agenda.
Too bad its so true.
Every single MSM shitbag/cheerleader for our corrupt government should meet he same fate. They are all liars, their bosses too. They just aren’t as obvious about it as Williams is/was.
Williams was a shill.
John Stewart is leaving the Daily Show. he might actually not be a bad replacement
The “Big 3” nightly newscasts certainly are comedies, I’ll give you that…
“Maybe so … but at least Vinny’s not a liar.”
It’s not necessary to lie. You can choose what to report. You repeat dated facts. You can disseminate misinformation without ever lying or leave out critical information needed to understand to true story.
Fits reports the decline in the South Carolina work force and continues to link it in other articles, but doesn’t’t report the recovery.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LASST450000000000003
Fits has not reported on South Carolina’s unemployment report for the last two months. Fits keeps linking old Workforce participation data. In the last five months when the nations WPR fell 0.2%, South Carolina’s rose 0.6%. For the last three months, South Carolina’s workforce has been at consecutive record highs. For two months the number of South Carolinians with jobs has been at record highs.
As you can see by the charts and table linked above, Fits has reported the dip in the labor force but does not report the recovery clearly shown in the top labor force chart. At the top of the linked page you can change the “From” date to 2009 to coincide with Haley taking office . Then you can see almost steady improvement since about the third quarter of 2009 except for a dip in mid 2014. This dip is the only SC economic news Fits reports. REPORT THE RECOVERY!!!
Surely FITS is an honorable man!
I still think he’s redeemable. If only he would report the latest SC economic data….
You are right of course but can you imagine what will happen to America when Karma comes to Obama and the Democrats!
While Brian Williams has been “embellishing his reportorial adventures ” (per the Erik Wemple Blog) – not a good thing, a kind of pathetic thing to do – CBS and Sixty Minutes still have Lara Logan on the payroll after a paid vacation for conspiring with a writer to invent a false story about Benghazi for Sixty Minutes, producing and presenting it, with no apparent supervision or oversight or meaningful consequences.
Hhmmm…personal tall tales vs. conspiring to lie and producing a lying news story about an actual event….hhmmm…personal tall tales vs conspiring to lie and producing a lying news story about an actual event…I’m just trying to figure out which one is really, really the greater evil.
And, this morning on CBS This Morning, CBS is running back slapping ads about how honest CBS News is.
HILLARIous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHVEDq6RVXc
If she makes it to POTUS, she can issue a Purple Heart to Lying Brian.
He made 10 million a year for his exaggerations..
Curveball only made 30,000 a month.
Bloggers make shit up too
“So seriously … who cares what happens to him? ”
Thats the same thing I asked about Ben Hoover, for mostly the same reasons. Who cares?