Brian Williams Faces ‘Fact-Checking’ Inquiry at NBC
The full article also notes that "Williams already admitted that he had made false claims about his experiences in Iraq."
Damn shame. Williams seemed to be an old style "just the facts" kind of news anchor before this, the likes of which we don't really see any more in a world of tabloid TV and many of the opinion driven shows on MSNBC, CNN and FOX.
At the same time, if he was fabricating or misreporting stories, that would seem to make him no better than Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass and Janet Cooke. They were all forced out for committing what some would say in the most unforgivable sin in journalism.
Does Williams stay or go?
- Scrambling to contain a crisis engulfing one of its most prominent on-air personalities, NBC will begin an internal investigation into Brian Williams, the embattled evening news anchor who has admitted he misled the public with a harrowing tale of a forced helicopter landing in Iraq.
The “fact-checking” inquiry, confirmed on Friday by several people in the network’s news division, will review not only the Iraq incident but also Mr. Williams’s reporting during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as well as any other issues that arise during the investigation....
Mr. Williams now admits that his portrayal of the helicopter journey was misleading, and that he had been on a different helicopter, behind the one that was hit. He said he had “conflated” the two versions, and apologized.
It’s not clear whether other people at NBC were aware that Mr. Williams’s version of the events was inaccurate.
On Friday, other statements by Mr. Williams also started to draw close scrutiny. Some blogs and media outlets questioned Mr. Williams’s description of what he saw while reporting on Hurricane Katrina. In one account, he described seeing a person committing suicide. At another time, he said that he had heard a story of a man killing himself by jumping from the upper deck of the Superdome in New Orleans.
Tom Brokaw, who held the anchor chair before Mr. Williams, said in an email that he “neither suggested nor demanded Brian be fired,” refuting news reports that he had done so. But Mr. Brokaw also did not offer up an endorsement of his successor, saying only, “His future is up to Brian and the executives of NBC News.”
Before the episode, Mr. Williams long had been considered one of the most trusted people in not only in the news business but in the country as a whole. He was trusted by about three-quarters of consumers, making him the 23rd-most-trusted person in the country, according to the celebrity index of The Marketing Arm, a research firm owned by Omnicom.
The full article also notes that "Williams already admitted that he had made false claims about his experiences in Iraq."
Damn shame. Williams seemed to be an old style "just the facts" kind of news anchor before this, the likes of which we don't really see any more in a world of tabloid TV and many of the opinion driven shows on MSNBC, CNN and FOX.
At the same time, if he was fabricating or misreporting stories, that would seem to make him no better than Jayson Blair, Stephen Glass and Janet Cooke. They were all forced out for committing what some would say in the most unforgivable sin in journalism.
Does Williams stay or go?
