Brian Williams and his memory. And his profession. — Page 2

"It may have been that he gave in to the craving to tell a good story, to win the crowd over and capture its attention by virtue of his real stock in trade: storytelling. Now, you might object that Brian Williams is a journalist, not a storyteller; surely, he needs his credibility, his trustworthiness, if he is to carry on. A journalist no one believes can no longer be a journalist ...But we, as consumers, are more significantly culpable in the bigger picture. The news shouldn't be entertainment. It shouldn't be fun. We shouldn't be asking Brian Williams or other journalists about their experiences during an invasion or other reporting."

How could I have missed that? That it's all my fault? Of course. I tuned into Letterman hoping for Mark Twain, not Eric Sevareid! So that's what he gave me! Merely what I demand. Making me pull up a chair so he can address me, wet-eyed, brimming with heroic brio about flying through war, or paternalistic fear about flying by Foy. I'm responsible, I created Brian.


Getting Caught Up In Telling Stories

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Updated On: 2/8/15 at 04:01 PM

Being a big old fruit salad myself I'm generally all for apples and oranges, but those really are two separate things.

Now, a look at which outlets downplayed the government lies and which have locked their jaws around the Williams story might show significant overlap, which would be interesting.

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Apples and oranges. Of course. But isn't one something to really be bloody angry about and the other relatively trivial?

Surely his cameramen and producers knew the truth (Iraq incident, Katrina), and someone would have reported it to the top brass at NBC News. Disgusting that a cover-up ensued. (Someone reported that everyone at NBC knew that he embellished all the time, but that has not been confirmed.)

Wilmington - I believe he was called out by members of the military.

What is revealing is watching the old clips of his tall tales. He is so narcissistic. He has to interject himself into the story.

Will the program still be called "Evening News with Brian Williams"? For six months? That's the telling issue here. If that's contractual, then perhaps unavoidable. But six months of a name attached without the face. 6 months is a long time in television. I have two words that might remind us: Ann Curry.

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Updated On: 2/10/15 at 08:33 PM

To put some reality on it: six months brings him back in mid-August. May sweeps without Williams? But his name remaining attached? No. I believe HorseTears is correct on all points.

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"The right honorable gentlemen is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts." Richard Brinsley Sheridan

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Six months means find another job.

i had heard it reported that one of the men who actually was in that helicopter exposed the lie.

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There is no bus, though, is there? Williams became a character in NETWORK, Chayevsky nailed this syndrome circa 1977. We're playing catch-up. Not for the first time.

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Have any of you lived outside the US? I'm wondering if any other countries make their major anchors such big celebrities? I mean, it's probably true that by their nature, network news desks make anchors enormously famous in the US and that those anchors still have the biggest audiences in news by far and, if successful, generate a ton of ad revenue for their networks, but it is a bit odd how much we revere some of them. I mean, in the UK they call them news readers, not anchors, to start. And I get the impression - perhaps Jon Snow of Channel 4 aside - those BBC, ITV, Sky News news readers aren't really placed upon a pedestal.

Just curious if other countries have this somewhat odd relationship with their major anchors.