"We have some idea which of our special operations teams carried this out," Williams told David Letterman shortly after bin Laden was killed. "It happens to be a team I flew into Baghdad with, on the condition that I would never speak of what I saw on the aircraft, what aircraft we were on, what we were carrying, or who we were after."Why are we only noticing the improbability of these tall tales now? It was out there in plain view all along. I mean, I wasn't viewing it. I didn't watch him on Letterman, but apparently this is Williams's style and why the network promoted him.
In another telling, Williams said that he had been "told not to make any eye contact with them or initiate any conversation" with the SEALS. But, he said, that didn't stop him from befriending the men. According to Williams, he got into a conversation with one of the elite soldiers about the knife he was carrying. "Darned if that knife didn’t show up at my office a couple weeks later," Williams said. He also claimed that, nearly a decade after this supposed embed, a member of SEAL Team 6 sent him a souvenir from the raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. "I got a white envelope and in it was a thank-you note, unsigned," Williams said during another Late Show appearance. "And in it was a piece of the fuselage of the blown-up Black Hawk in that courtyard. Sent to me by one of my friends."
It's not enough for Williams to be fired. In fact, it's beside the point. If executive heads don't roll, the network should keep Williams and let its viewers enjoy the embellished, punched-up, personalized version of the news.
It's the NBC brand. Be out and proud!
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51 comments:
Not safe for work, bad language. But Hitler parodies never get old:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fu6uBHl0hE
"Why are we only noticing the improbability of these tall tales now? It was out there in plain view all along. I mean, I wasn't viewing it. I didn't watch him on Letterman ..."
Why you ask?
Who watches Letterman or NBC? Certainly not anyone interested in anything newsworthy.
When the advertisers leave, and the money walks to alternative outlets for news reporting, the executive heads will roll.
And I have the hat. I have the hat to this day.
That's one of the best, sykes. Thanks for sharing.
I don't think many people realize just how much most soldiers etc. despise and loathe the very sight of American media types. The media gleefully tells us how Abu Graib is the secret wet dream of the baby killer mental and moral midgets who volunteer. They publicly praise and privately scorn. Soldiers, SEALs, and others have noticed. That that douchebag tried to pass off the story that a SEAL sent him a bit of wreckage doesn't pass my bullshit detector. Why would anyone pick up a bit of a crashed stealth helicopter (likely made of top secret materials) and mail it to some media gasbag strains credibility. I could say so much more, but I'll just say Williams is full of shit.
If executive heads don't roll, the network should keep Williams and let its viewers enjoy the embellished, punched-up, personalized version of the news.
Let's just call it the "NBC evening narrative".
The main stream media are political propagandists. Brian Williams lies were known but not challenged because they gave Williams more gravitas.
Besides the lies that Williams told, think about the 9 MILLION people (idiots) who watched him every day on the nightly news. Just think of how mislead they have been for so many years.
As a follow-up, it interesting that our friends on the left have a battalion of people monitoring every syllable that comes out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth for errors.
Williams? Not so much.
Lean Forward becomes "Serpentine, Serpentine!"
Individually they sound like nice anecdotes; it's only when you string them together that the BS becomes obvious.
There's a whole host of people who "get their news" from a fake news anchor doing a show that is nothing more than an expanded version of SNL's Weekend Update skit. And that guy got huge ratings for more than a decade. And you wonder why NBC is promoted this kind of thing from Williams?
When it was shown that NBC news faked exploding pickup trucks, how many advertisers left and NBC executives lost their jobs? not enough, on both counts. This won't matter in 6 months either
Why are we only noticing the improbability of these tall tales now? It was out there in plain view all along.
Didn't we all know all along? Given the lack of disgust over the tall tales within the political narrative they were pushing I just figured nobody cared.
Came for the The In-Laws reference.
Leaving satisfied.
How soon we forget.
"Kenneth.. what is the frequency..?"
In the last part of SEAL training, after they teach you how to be water-boarded, they get into how you should look for souvenirs before getting into possibly overloaded helicopters that might wind up being chased by Pakistani jets, so the whole thing sounds believable to me.
SEALs also like to mail heliotrope pieces around in envelopes.
OK, OK, helicopter, not heliotrope.
Williams should not be fired. Lying for the advancement of the cause is a feature, not a bug.
Politicians are lying. The ACA was forced thru congress with known lies. The politicians lied and Williams etal knowingly passed those lies along AFTER vetting the information and knowing it was lies.
When republicans are asked about Williams, they should simply answer that "Williams cant be held to a different standard than his peers"
Just leave it at that.
Keep Williams in the chair, he is a known quantity. It has the advantage of being able to impeach the MSM at every story. Asked about some supposed scandal, a pause, thought, and response.....'Yea I heard Williams report about that, I filed it with the rest of his lies'.
I am still trying to figure out who watches him.
Maybe NBC should just show the movie Broadcast News in that time slot every night.
Don't talk to the SEAL's that he's embedded with? Why would that be a requirement? What a moron.
It's the NBC brand. Be out and proud!
Huh, it is also the Obama brand. Williams was Obama's lapdog and executives didn't want to upset the apple cart. Maybe now Obama is a non-factor.
In observing the marketplace, I suspect demand grows for some institutional authority, even if it's no more than just 'blow-dried idiots.'
Viewers get tired of the caucaphony and the reality of sausage-making, just as they do with their politics and politicians.
The old model's been shaken-up and Williams always seemed a guy who was trying hard to be an 'very important anchor' in his mind, and maybe suffered the same problem that actors and other man of non-action suffer: The desperate need to prove their legitimacy.
The highest-rated show for me has been the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the 'anchor as authority' and the plot-holes in the Cronkite history of America...the almost scripted hand-holding therapy session over Jon Stewart's departure.
Where shall 'we' find meaning? WHERE?
This just in, 'NYU professor says gay groundhogs in upstate New York ARE racist and should not be featured as guests of honor at butter festival.'
I haven't watched the national news programs since the early '80s. Not worth my time.
I kind of agree with you, but the reality is that NBC now either has to commit to being the fantasy news or try to rebuild some credibility.
I don't watch TV at all, so I am baffled as to why this stuff didn't ring alarm bells earlier. Probably it did for many who watched, but why did the media investigate nothing?
NBC and all the rest are news filtering operations meant to control what gets related to large segments of the public.
They all lose money, but are subsidized by interested parties as their way to pay protection money or bribes. Even advertising revenues seem to be sourced at least partially as subsidies or for political purposes.
This includes most of the major US newspapers.
In the old days limited circulation political magazines like the National Review or the Nation were maintained with subsidies for this purpose, but the major media were proper businesses run to make money. But now all but a few are living on similar subsidies.
The exceptions seem to be those major media entities that are still actual money-making operations intended to generate a profit by selling products desirable to their audience. Fox, Bloomberg and the WSJ, and maybe a few others. These have problems in different ways but probably represent their editorial voice as such, and not just their role as political assets.
He is a top-rated talent in a JournoListic production. Why would they cut their meal ticket, and after sponsoring a long running series of professional abuse? There must be another, undisclosed motive to remove him now.
I fear that the real result will be that Brian Williams will remain a millionaire no matter what. And most likely NBC will continue to employ him, making more millions for him, because no one cares and those that even notice this are too few.
There must be another, undisclosed motive to remove him now.
Agree.. Why now? after all these years? All I can say is that Obama is a lameduck and it is safe to let him go now. But why did the marines who brought the first helicopter story wait for so long? or did they?
Easy problem to fix. This is Parks and Rec's last season on NBC (unless they do an emergency renewal because all of their other shows suck.) So they can just pick up the contract of Jay Jackson who play Perd Hapley. Problem solved.
Prof, Here is the question no has asked:
If the NBC heads knew a year in advance that Brian Williams wanted to be a talk-show host AND that the was making himself part of news story by making up things (as Brokaw complained more than once), why then was his contract renewed for $10 million a year for 5 years in December 2014?
Is it because of $200 million advertisements?
Is it because the NBC heads were lazy?
Is it because they thought the American viewers are so stupid that this does not matter?
What are other thoughts?
Lucien: "In the last part of SEAL training, after they teach you how to be water-boarded, they get into how you should look for souvenirs before getting into possibly overloaded helicopters that might wind up being chased by Pakistani jets, so the whole thing sounds believable to me."
All military personnel whose role will place them in a position of possibly being captured undergo SERE training. The SEAL's attend SERE school with the others.
When I attended, we were told that the number of SEAL's permitted per "class" was limited due to the "danger" that if you gathered too many SEAL's together at one time they had a tendency to take over the facility.
Williams always seemed likable and honest in a good humored way. That was his act, and he was good at it. He wasn't paid to tell the truth. He was paid to appear to tell the truth. The fact that he got away with so many outlandish lies for so long is a perverse compliment to his credibility.....He's toast now, and I don't think he will have nor deserve a second chance as a newsman. But, for all that, he's a human being, and there are far greater jerks in public life.
Sykes.1, nice video of the parody. I loved it:
Brian Williams goes to Letterman because he thinks he is Jason Bourne!
If you're wondering if any NBC execs are going to suffer for this, consider how many senior NBC News execs are related to the current administration by blood or marriage. No NBC execs were fired when they faked an exposé of an exploding GM truck, or when they doctored the George Zimmermann audio tape. None will be fired now.
" the improbability of these tall tales now? It was out there in plain view all along. "
You mean like Obama in 2007/8?
What's especially absurd is that Williams (and many others) seem to think a SEAL team is a small, discrete unit that would fit on one aircraft. In fact, a SEAL team consists of more than 120 men, broken down into squadrons, squads, etc., and there's movement within the team so that those on one mission would not all be the same on the next mission. The idea that Williams would be on the same aircraft in Iraq with the EXACT same guys from the bin Laden raid is absurd on its face, especially considering that raid drew from multiple squadrons.
How about a "reality" show where he gets put through basic training?
"There I was..on my 12th push up...drill sergeant fracturing my broadcast tuned eardrum.."
Whoops..."212th push up"
Besides being humiliated in public, Brian Williams has created another problem shared by his fellow liars. People who recognize a bullshit artist tend to not believe his true stories either.
Brian Williams has. no doubt, some truly interesting experiences. Now, even the truth will be seen as a lie.
Brian Williams is the only celebrity I can think of whose punishment is proportionate to his crime. Not counting celebs who die of overdoses, of course.
@ Drago:
Do SEALs do the same SERE training that everyone else does & not an enhanced version?
Because the other guys (& gals?) haven't been through BUDS, so it isn't really fair, is it?
As a soldier in Vietnam and after, I had no respect for most Journalists. This clip says it all:
Jennings & Wallace, reporters first, Americans second
Lucien,
Each Service has its own school and several have different course levels. In wartime (my experience from Vietnam), more troops get at least SERE Intro in local courses. Graduates are encouraged not to discuss training...
The Wiki view.
The U.S. Air Force SERE School is located at Fairchild AFB, Washington, while SERE Training for the U.S. Army is located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The Navy and Marine Corps SERE School has known locations at: the U.S. Navy Remote Training Site at Warner Springs, California, the remote Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center (Bridgeport, California), and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.
I have a suggestion. The Betty Ford Clinic should offer a rehab program for bullshit artists. Call it Munchausen Dementia Syndrome. Offer a 12 step program. Williams can go away and undergo treatment. Every day is another day, but with the love and support of his family and many kind fans, he will lick this sickness and come back just as strong. The story thus becomes a tale of struggle and eventual triumph and redemption over one of mankind's oldest maladies. Williams can become a role model for bullshit artists everywhere. They are not alone, and there is a cure.
Is there any way to quickly find out the money advertisers spend at NBC or the New York Times? I might want to express my opinion to them.
I already actively avoid broadcast news and the New York Times. So far that has not been enough to put them out of business.
Drago @ 12:13, When my son graduated from jump school at Ft Benning a year ago, there were members of other services along with Army in his class, but he said that SEAL's were no longer trained there. It seems there were some differences between the Army and the SEAL's and one of them took a dump on the Airborne School commander's desk one night. True or not, too good a story to check...
I like what Limbaugh said.
Williams will not return to NBC news. He'll get a reality show: "Can you lie better than Brian Williams?"
"I was a space marine on Mars for 18 years!"
"Don't talk to the SEAL's that he's embedded with? Why would that be a requirement?"
It's a requirement to the story, not to the mission. It gives the intrepid reporter the ability to demonstrate, once again, that he's "the most interesting man in the world."™ He can even charm Navy Seals into speaking to him when they're not supposed to and it shows he's just one of the guys out there roughing it for you.
"'the improbability of these tall tales now? It was out there in plain view all along.'
You mean like Obama in 2007/8?"
Remember, he never once heard Reverend Wright say any of those racist, nasty things. Even though he attended his church for 20 years and considered him a mentor. Nope, never heard him say anything like that even once.
poppa india: "It seems there were some differences between the Army and the SEAL's and one of them took a dump on the Airborne School commander's desk one night. True or not, too good a story to check."
I'm afraid that "phantom sh***ers" are more than myths at sea.
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