Erik Wemple Pulverizes Brian Williams
[guest post by JVW, who is not adverse to using a click-bait headline]
Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple just put up a post in which he takes Brian Williams and NBC News to task for last night’s revelation regarding Williams’ tall tales. Here are the money paragraphs:
Why did it take pushback from “some brave men and women in the air crews,” however? Do these folks have to fight our wars and fact-check NBC News?
A production crew accompanied Williams on the helicopter outing. The Erik Wemple Blog has asked NBC News who and how many people were on that crew. But where have they been as Williams has gone about misremembering the episode in media appearances in recent years?
Anyone want to place bets on whether Williams is in the anchor chair come March? How about come September (after a “decent” interlude where it doesn’t look like he was forced to quit)?
[edited to fix misspellings]
– JVW
I’m laying odds of 1:3 that he is gone by March, but even odds that he “retires” by September.
JVW (c7473b) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:22 pmNaturally the comments from lefties at the WaPo are hilarious: “But, but, but — Fox News!”
JVW (c7473b) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:24 pmI say we support Brian Williams keeping his job,
MD in Philly (f9371b) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:35 pmwith some slogan like,
What difference, at this point, does it make, since you can’t trust any of them anyway?
Amy Pascal got her ass canned for much less
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:38 pmbut she’s a girl
happyfeet (a037ad) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:39 pmLook on the bright side, Williams is now a hands down surefire top choice to moderate one of the upcoming 2016 presidential debates. He available, he’ll be well rested, and and he’s reliable.
ropelight (eec39c) — 2/5/2015 @ 12:46 pmBrian “Stolen Valor” Williams is safe…
no less an ethical expert than Dan Rather vouches for him.
and, if you can’t trust Dan on the issue, who can you trust?
😎
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:04 pm“forced to quit”? Hell, he ought ta be called up to active duty so he can get back in teh sh*t with the grunts…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:05 pmWilliams’s “apology”? fake but inaccurate…
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:06 pmAoSHQ is reporting that Variety has a source that claims netw*rk execs told their head liar to stop telling the Chopper Whopper years ago, but were ignored.
someone make up another batch of popcorn… i don’t want to miss a moment of the action!
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:09 pmHis “apology” for getting caught lying repeatedly over a decade was pretty weak sauce.
JD (1a76f9) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:28 pmuhm, who is Erik Wemple? I’m way behind, i thought H.Kurtz was still doing his conflict of interests.
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 1:42 pmHow much of a liberal Democratic standard bearer is he?
Concur. In fact, it should be an FCC rule. Since the LHMFM is going to lie to us, they should have publicly-outed liars as their anchors.
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:03 pmWilliams deserves something like a Kennedy award.
AZ Bob (7d2a2c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:04 pmI guess you could say it was weak sauce. I’d call it more lies. “Misremembering” is a word only liars use, and they only use it when they’re caught in a lie and they want to lie about the fact they were lying all along.
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:05 pmI prefer to say he spoke inartfully.
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:12 pmleaving aside what Brian Williams has been saying,
if “Misremembering” is not a valid term for you in those cases where people have false memories or honest nonfactual recall of event particulars, what would be a good term?
For instance, i remember that i put my glasses on the fruit juicer but in fact had put them on a table. Is that not “misremembering” ?
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:12 pmIn those cases I prefer a long lost, ancient Anglo-Saxon word.
Forgot.
As in, “Oh, I forgot where I put my glasses.”
As opposed to, “I misremembered where I put my glasses.”
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:20 pmThe mortuary informed my sister that because we couldn’t produce the proper citation my father can not have purple heart written on his tomestone.
He showed me the leg wound from shrapnel received in a mortar attack in Vietnam. He had a permanent limp and a disability plack for the car.
But my word isn’t good enough for the stone carver.
I feel these two disparate incidents are related somehow.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:26 pmhmm, to me “i forgot” means “i don’t even have a clue anymore in regards to the subject” .
so, ” i remember that i took off my glasses but I forgot where I put them ” would not be the same as
“i remember that i took off my glasses but misremembered that i put them on table and not juicer”
i’m open to a different word. saying “but i thought i put them on table” doesn’t appeal to me unless i’m maybe trying to recreate what my thought process would have been at the time.
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:27 pmYou don’t “forget” you weren’t actually on the helo that was taking fire over Iraq, with bullets coming through the airframe, and you calmly sitting their contemplating your own mortality. As Williams told Letterman and many others over the years.
You have to “misremember” your way onboard that aircraft.
Dan Rather didn’t just “forget” he was never a Marine since he was kicked out of the USMC before ever completing boot camp. He had to “misremember” his way through graduation so he could say he was some sort of Marine.
See the difference?
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:27 pmSeriously, have you ever used the word “misremember” before? I never have.
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:28 pmNever, ever, no never misunderestimate the liberal’s obsessive need to feel heroic.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:33 pmNo, really, “forgot” will cover that situation.
I had been cutting up wood in the yard, but I was interrupted and when I got back I forgot where I put my axe. I could have sworn I had sunk it into a log, but it wasn’t there. I spent 20 minutes looking for it. Then I noticed I had put it on top of one of the yard-tool chests. I forgot I had put it there.
I didn’t have to jump through hoops about “misremembering” it in a log.
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:33 pmBrian Brian
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:41 pmfeels like dyin’
caught him lyin’
and now he’s cryin’
went from news anchor to news chancre… such a pity.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:42 pmDavid Zurawik, Baltimore Sun
slp (347e33) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:45 pm
His reportage always felt so cloyed
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:45 pmand now he’s all so null and void
re #21 and 22: like i wrote in #17 , not talking about Williams.
Many years ago , in the early 90s iirc, i read a nonfiction book about false memories and implanted memories. it was amazing what people could believe happened that didn’t happen. even more problematic was that when people do remember the macro , they don’t remember the micro correctly. Even with huge stuff: one example was people misremembering (sorry!) who a Nazi prison guard actually was and the wrong person being accused.
In an indirect level, you’d be surprised how many when shown a photo of the ‘bag man’ blocking the tanks at Tienanmen Square in front of a crowd onlookers don’t say “that is not correct”.
So , yeah, i forget when i started using the term ‘misremembered’ . 😉
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:46 pmAs I recall, “misremembered” was precisely the same word that Hillary! used in connection with her lie about dodging snipers in Bosnia. Apparently she and Brian are using the same Democratic damage control flack.
GKH (1943bf) — 2/5/2015 @ 2:50 pmre #30, pretty sure H.C. said ‘misspoke’ . that is a word i do not understand.
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:03 pmGolly, if we could be rid of (in an NBC television sense of course) both the insufferable Brian Williams *and* the insufferable David Gregory in a single 12 month period that’d be swell.
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:21 pmSeriously, have you ever used the word “misremember” before? I never have.
I think it’s a legitimate word. The other day I was talking to a woman that I dated briefly in college. I had “misremembered” that we attended her sorority formal in the fall of my junior year, but it turned out that it had in fact been that spring, and she showed me a picture that provided definitive proof of the fact. And until she set me straight I would have sworn in court that it had been the fall formal. So that is a case where I absolutely “misremembered” something: I was certain that I was correct, but in fact I was not. In my defense, the formal was over 20 years ago.
But I don’t think you “misremember” having your helicopter shot out of the sky or ducking sniper fire. In those cases, the person is lying to him/herself in the hopes of seeming heroic. And that’s pretty pathetic.
JVW (c7473b) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:24 pmAnyone fancy a game of Misrememberer’s poker?
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:27 pmReal war reporters are howling. Michael Yon says he will never link again to NBC if Williams does not immediately resign or get fired.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/02/05/why-war-reporters-cant-stand-the-brian-williams-scandal/?tid=trending_strip_3
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:38 pmJournalists are such patient, nice folks, too. You can bet that certain people in that arena there are salivating at the prospect of taking over that anchor chair from Brian.
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:41 pmGood grief! From Elissa’s link he has also said that the pilot of his chopper received a Purple Heart for his injury sustained during that flight.
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 3:48 pmNBC Nightly News —
PBS News Hour — with Gwen Ifil, Judy Woodruff
ABC World News Tonight — with David Muir
CBS Evening News — with Scott Pelley
That’s the lineup on my TV nav screen.
Something missing?
papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:05 pmMad Mikey Yawn is hard one to be casting stones about integrity
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:37 pmPapertiger:
you can request all your dad’s military records, starting here as next of kin.
that will start the ball rolling on getting him everything he is entitled to, to include, IIRC, a military headstone with his awards notated on it.
good luck. any questions, email me: just as “at” drunkenbastards DOT org to my nick here.
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:41 pm“hardly” vice “hard” in #39
#DOH!
redc1c4 (34e91b) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:42 pmi went all day without doing a terrible deed in the name of christ!
all. effing. day.
can’t touch this
happyfeet (831175) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:49 pmsomeone asked somewhere the question of why didn’t any of the NBC support personal set the record straight on the manner. Well, I guess we can say based on his claim that the pilot of the chopter got a PurpleHeart that B.W. was so full of B.S. that either it couldn’t penetrate or they didn’t bother.
You’d think his bosses would have said something to him though.
Was he the same person who claimed to have seen floating in LA after the Katrina breach?
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:50 pmThanks Red.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:51 pmre #42: did you do the terrible deed in the name of Muhamed ?
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:51 pm🙂
just checked – nothing , nada, zilch about B.W. at http://www.nbcnews.com/ , So i guess it is not a story.
seeRpea (181740) — 2/5/2015 @ 4:58 pmAt the time this happened, Brian Williams may have been in competition with David Bloom. Both of them were in Iraq and their whole careers may have seemed to hinge on who did better.
This happened on March 24, 2003, and, according to Stars and Stripes:
“The NBC online archive shows the network broadcast a news story on March 26, 2003, with the headline, “Target Iraq: Helicopter NBC’s Brian Williams Was Riding In Comes Under Fire.”
David Bloom did not die until April 6, 2003 (not from enemy action, but, it is believed, from having his knees scrunched up for far too long and developing a clot which traveled to the lungs.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 2/5/2015 @ 5:48 pmBrian Williams’ contract was just extended in December, probably for five years.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 2/5/2015 @ 5:52 pmWhat Williams did was predictable. He is a lefty, after all. What I am incensed about is this sonuva b*tch Obama equating terrible stuff that went on hundreds of years ago -allegedly at the hands of Christians – with this evil stuff (burying children alive, beheading men, women and children, raping and torturing women and children, etc., etc., committed by radical Islam… ISIL, in particular.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:02 pmEffectively giving ISIL permission to do this. He should be criticized and made to understand just how patently offensive and WRONG he is! He does not meet even minimum requirements for the office of POTUS.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:08 pmThe old fake moral equivalence ploy.
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:22 pmEspecially since The Crusades were essentially a response to the type of Mozzie domination that is taking place today. Again.
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:24 pmWhoever writes President Obama’s speeches and talking points is really not very good at it.
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:27 pmMaybe he should stop hiring his former campaign van drivers and luggage handlers as speechwriters and senior national security advisers, huh?
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:39 pmPlus TFG is dumb enough to read them. Smartest guy in the room, says VaJa? Not even in a Porta-pottie.
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:47 pmGreetings:
Maybe the NBC executives should send him a copy of Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim”.
11B40 (844d04) — 2/5/2015 @ 6:52 pmSays that sh*t and looks around the podium like, “can I get an amen?”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:03 pmThe reason none of the staff said anything is that Williams would have got them fired. Matter of fact, I bet you some spoke up and WERE fired, or maybe just sent away. Be interesting to find out.
Also, I put even odds that, if Williams goes, some of the support staff will also go for NOT talking. Small-folk always get it in the neck.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:09 pmHave any of the writers at VOX “explained” anything about the crusades lately? If so we can be sure it the new meme.
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:10 pmAnyone fancy a game of Misrememberer’s poker?
Anyone?
Gazzer (e441dc) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:32 pmReal war reporters are howling.
It will be interesting to see if NBC does anything, The model for Williams is probably John Kerry who lied about his service, including awarding himself medals, and got elected to the Senate from a left wing state. NBC viewers probably lean left, given their ownership of MSNBC, and they may be waiting to see if anyone who actually watches him complains. We have already seen a sign of left wing response over at Althouse.
“Of course, if he were a Republican congressman, you would have to make him chairman of the House Budget Committee.”
Why the budget committee ? Tom Price is that chair.
For nearly twenty years, Rep. Price worked in private practice as an orthopedic surgeon.
No understanding the looney left.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 2/5/2015 @ 7:39 pmAs a result of the prayer breakfast John Hinderacker has added an important new phrase to the lexicon:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/02/barack-obama-a-moral-and-historical-ignoramus.php
elissa (a34092) — 2/5/2015 @ 8:23 pmAS with most, he is a self-aggrandizing bald-faced liar delivering the news.
AZ Bob (34bb80) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:23 pmThanks for sharing that link, elissa. Hinderaker expressed the feeling much better than I could ever hope to.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:53 pm“It grieves me much to write this, because it is a horrible situation. Obama is not a Manchurian candidate and never was. He never had to be. He is just absolutely the wrong human being to be leading the West at this point in history. Heaven help us.”
– Roger Simon
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/5/2015 @ 9:57 pmTurn out the lights, the party’s over:
http://pagesix.com/2015/02/05/tom-brokaw-wants-brian-williams-fired/
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:31 pmAre all the newsies conducting a death watch in front of his digs?
askeptic (efcf22) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:39 pmHe’s absolutely the wrong human being to be a H.S. hall monitor let alone leading the West.
Steve57 (f0ee0c) — 2/5/2015 @ 11:39 pmThis is just one of millions of lies coming from the mouths at nbc.
mg (31009b) — 2/6/2015 @ 12:34 amThe anti-Cronkhite.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/6/2015 @ 7:42 am