Media Scandals

NY Times Sunday Review Columnist: Everyone Lies
By Tom Blumer | February 9, 2015 | 9:25 AM EST

While its appearance at the height of the Brian Williams serial tall-tales scandal seems coincidental, a New York Times Sunday review column by Clancy Martin, a "professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City" who has been "married twice before" (!), reveals quite a bit about the kind of dreck the Old Gray Lady will tolerate in the name of advancing its personal values-free, anything-goes take on the world.

Clancy goes through a tired, predictable "everybody lies in their relationships" exercise, apparently unable to distinguish between good manners, motivational statements, and flat-out factual falsehoods. After the jump readers will see a list of statements the author treats as "lies" which definitely are not in many if not most circumstances. I have applied some of them to more generalized or current circumstances.

Scarborough Warns Media and Pols: I Know A Lot About You So Don't Cast First Stone at Brian Williams
By Mark Finkelstein | February 9, 2015 | 7:12 AM EST

Joe Scarborough's defense of Brian Williams amounts to a warning to people in the media and politics: I know a lot about many of you, too.

On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough ominously said: "in over a decade in this news business, it is fair to say looking straight in the camera, I've seen a lot, I know a lot, and I know that there are very few people in this industry or in politics that could live by the standard of perfection. Cast the first stone? I would be careful."

Geraldo Echoes Rathergate: Williams Critics Attacking 'From Their Mother's Basement' Should 'Shut Up'
By Tom Blumer | February 8, 2015 | 10:15 PM EST

Friday morning on Fox and Friends, Geraldo Rivera, echoing Rathergate, the 2004 scandal which put the blogosphere and New Media on the map to stay and accelerated its growth, reacted to the Brian Williams debacle by denouncing those criticizing the NBC Nightly News anchor "from the safety of their mother's basement," telling them that they should just "shut up."

Saturday, in a pair of tweets reacting to Williams' decision, quoting from the anchor's internal memo, "to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days," Rivera expressed sharp disappointment, saying that Williams should "stand & fight." But in an epic fail, the Twitter account to which he linked in one of his rants belongs to a different Brian Williams.

Maybe This Forced NBC's Hand: In 2007, Williams Says He 'Looked Down the Tube of an RPG' in Iraq
By Tom Blumer | February 7, 2015 | 6:36 PM EST

This is for the "false memories" and "he's an untouchable 'brand' crowds defending Brian Williams, who this afternoon announced that he has "decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days."

At the 2-minute mark of the 2007 interview with a collegiate reporter following the jump, watch Williams speak of his alleged brushes with danger, including how he "looked down the tube of an RPG" during what has now been described by the Associated Press as his "fake Iraq story" (HT Ace and several others):

Wagon-Circling USAT Reporters Defend Brian Williams For 'False Memories' and Against 'Seething Reactions'
By Tom Blumer | February 7, 2015 | 10:48 AM EST

At USA Today Friday afternoon, two of its reporters came down on the side of Brian Williams in the controversy over what even the often media-enabling Associated Press has called his "fake Iraq story."

Roger Yu tried to portray Williams as a victim of a "synergistic stretch" who is now having to defend himself against the "firestorm on the Internet and social media," while Marisol Bello, who covers "breaking news, poverty and urban affairs," wrote that "there are reasons that it's plausible" that "Williams would remember riding in a helicopter that was shot down if he was nowhere near it."

CBS Covers Brian Williams 'Fighting for His Reputation' After Iraq Lie
By Kyle Drennen | February 6, 2015 | 11:43 AM EST

On Friday's CBS This Morning, substitute co-host Jeff Glor introduced a report on the growing scandal surrounding NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams by proclaiming: "This morning, one of the biggest names in media is fighting for his reputation....On Wednesday, Williams said he was sorry for saying his helicopter in Iraq was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in 2003. That never happened. It's an account that has changed over the years."

Conan Mocks Brian Williams By Inserting the Anchor Into World Events
By Matthew Balan | February 6, 2015 | 11:12 AM EST

Conan O'Brien poked fun of NBC's Brian Williams on the late Thursday/early Friday edition of his TBS program over his false Iraq War claim. O'Brien played a montage of the anchor's own footage from NBC Nightly News, but edited it to insert the journalist into news events from recent years – including having Williams fly the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane landing in 2009 and make the first ascent of the Dawn Wall of Yosemite's El Capitan.

NY Post's Page Six: Williams's Copter Got No Ground Fire; Brokaw Wants Him Gone
By Tom Blumer | February 6, 2015 | 1:24 AM EST

If Brian Williams or any of the executives at NBC thought that the controversy over his "fake Iraq story" might start to die down, developments this evening have proven that they were sadly mistaken.

The quoted words in the previous sentence are from a headline at an Associated Press story by David Bauder, the wire service's TV writer. The fact that the nation's self-described "essential global news network" felt comfortable using those words to describe the 12 year-old saga of Williams's fabricated adventure in Iraq is actually among the least of his and his network's troubles tonight. Two major stories at the New York Post's Page Six appear to have made their continuing with the status quo very difficult to imagine.

The Incredibles: NBC's Growing List of Irresponsible Journalists
By Kyle Drennen | February 5, 2015 | 4:02 PM EST

As NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams became embroiled in a major controversy on Thursday over his false story of being shot at in Iraq, he joined a growing list of NBC journalists whose credibility has been shredded in recent months in the wake of various scandals.

CNN's Stelter: Williams's False Iraq Story A 'Serious Blow' To His Credibility
By Matthew Balan | February 5, 2015 | 12:20 PM EST

On Thursday's New Day, CNN's Brian Stelter contented that Brian Williams's false account about his helicopter coming under attack in Iraq in 2003 "just does not pass the smell test," and added that "this is a serious blow to [his] credibility." He also underlined that "all those times in the past where...the story got murkier over time – that seems like it was maybe intentional, and not just an innocent mistake."

10th Anniversary NBC Promos Celebrated Brian Williams's 'Integrity,' 'Humility,' and 'Battle Scars'
By Tom Blumer | February 5, 2015 | 11:03 AM EST

As Curtis Houck at NewsBusters reported last night, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is in serious trouble after he, in Houck's words, "admitted to not being aboard a helicopter that was shot and had to be rescued following RPG fire during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003." Williams's apology, also carried at Houck's post, only refers to the "mistake" he made "on this broadcast last week" — as if it was the only time in 12 years he has recounted the incident. It's not; his "war story" was relayed several other times, including in 2013 on David Letterman's show (video here; note the level of detail now effectively admitted as having been fabricated).

In his apology attempt, Williams also told America that he was in "a following aircraft." That's very misleading. Larry O'Connor at Truth Revolt noted, that Williams "neglected to explain that he was in an aircraft that followed the one hit by RPG fire by an entire hour," which "makes it sound like he was right behind the copter in question." It seems more than fair to compare what we've learned in recent days to how NBC promoted Williams on the tenth anniversary of his presence in NBC's anchor chair last year.

NBC Turns to Quarantine Violator Dr. Snyderman to Preach About 'Public Health'
By Matthew Balan | February 4, 2015 | 1:02 PM EST

Brian Williams brought on infamous Ebola quarantine violator Dr. Nancy Snyderman on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News for her take on the resurgence of measles. Dr. Snyderman underlined that "it's inherently important that those of us who are healthy vaccinate ourselves to protect those who are less vulnerable in society. That's why it's called public health." Of course, the NBC chief medical editor possibly put the "less vulnerable in society" at risk when she got take-out after returning from the Ebola hot zone in Africa.