If you haven't heard, NBC anchor Brian Williams doesn't have a very good memory. He's said for years he was shot down by an RPG while riding in a helicopter during the first days of the Iraq war. Turns out, that's not not quite true. Now the proverbial "face of NBC," and thus the network itself, is facing a massive credibility problem. Focus: Make fun of Brian Williams. If you want your joke to go on TiB's Twitter, just hashtag it and make it 140 characters or less. Alt. Focus. Discuss the situation, or what this means for Brian Williams and NBC. Do you think this was a "fog of war" type thing, or a simple matter of someone out to insert himself into a story he wasn't a part of?
He put himself in a situation that didn't really happen to make a good story, now he's backpedaling. War is foggy, but thinking you were on a chopper that was hit when you were actually on a bird that showed up an hour later? No fucking way, man. He did write rapper's delight, though. The Sugar Hill Gang are a bunch of damn thieves. #BrianWilliamsMisremembers
I've been a Brian Williams fan, he always seemed to have a good sense of humor and appreciation for pop culture that belied the stodgy nature of what he did. That being said, this is a scumbag move of the highest order that you can't really defend, and couple that with his sketchy memories of Katrina, which I didn't really realize until I was rereading them this morning, and dude's credibility is shot. You mix that in with his daughter getting ass munch on HBO, shit, somebody take his shoelaces cause its been a shitty start to 2015 for ol B Dub.
He fucked up. Really how much credibility does he need to read a teleprompter? Just pronounce the names correctly, do not stumble over words and I am happy with my news anchor. Fuck if I care what side of the political fence he is on.
What it means for me is that I will no longer be watching the Evening News with this asshat. I've railed about it before, but I'm sick and tired of the 'cult of personality' that has become the news, whether it be the morning, noon, or evening. I want someone to tell me the facts and not be a fucking celebrity about it. At this point, I'm down to BBC World News and Al Jazeera. Maybe the terrorists have won, I don't know, but I do like watching news without a bunch of fucking self aggrandizing commentary about what a super journalist someone thinks they are. Get off my lawn.
"Honey, I conflated you with another woman last night. Sorry about that." I just can't see how you can "misremember" whether your helicopter or a different one got hit with an RPG. That's a pretty big fucking deal in my book. He's either done, or he's next in line for Secretary of State. Mrs. Clinton made a similar claim and nobody cared. And - do people still watch network news? Why? I'm old and I can't remember the last time I saw a news broadcast, especially a national one.
I have two responses about this. 1) Who the fuck cares? He's a dude that just reports shit his junior people give him. Does this story really crumble our worldview where everything we believed is a lie? 2) He told a personal story that was bullshit, okay. Has anything else he reported that really had to do with a bigger picture turn out to be false? How accurate do these guys need to be? If he got hit or didn't get hit, it doesn't change the course of history in anyway. There is a saying in accounting/finance/data "if one number is wrong, all the numbers are wrong", which people want to apply to everything now. It's all bullshit, everything isn't 0 or 100. This guy bullshitted a few stories that are much ado about nothing. It's not like he wrongly reported that Kim Jong-Il did something or we took over Iran. No one lived or died based on his stories.
Did you really type that out and read it? How accurate does SOMEONE WHO IS REPORTING FACTS NEED TO BE? I'd say pretty accurate. At least if I want solid facts, but if I'm happy with bullshit, I guess have at it.
He's also the fucking editor of the NBC Nightly News, he's not a gameshow host or a TV presenter, he's the curator and moderator of the content they bring in and produce. If your editor is full of shit, what kind of credibility does that give your News program and station? He was a journalist and correspondent before this, so its not like he's just some celebrity who hosts a news program. He may not have effected life or death like you said, but I think the fact that it calls into question his reporting of the Katrina situation where there were some less than true things said all the more interesting.
I don't know. From what I've read of the story, his initial statements of actually being in the bird that was hit was kind of a mis-speak; he clarified and claimed that he was in the bird immediately behind that one... only to later have soldiers who were there say that, in fact, they were an hour behind them and were forced to land because of a sandstorm, not the risk of being shot down. So if it's a matter of he thought he was nearer to getting shot down than he actually was, well, to be honest, I can understand why someone might mis-remember that. There have been a lot of things in my life that I thought I'd remember for a very long time, only to find that a few months later, the memories had faded significantly. Not as dramatic as getting shot in a helicopter, but in my line of work you sometimes see some things that make an impression. In my own circle of friends, I've seen the effect of fading memory: someone will tell a story, and then a little while later, someone else tells the same story as if it was actually them who was involved in the first place. To say nothing of all the very well-known examples of the effect of memory on witnesses in trials and so forth. Bear in mind that for someone like Brian Williams, flying around in helicopters in a warzone isn't a one-time thing; they do such things on a rather routine basis. For the average person, this kind of experience might be very unique and persistent, but for someone like him, it fades in to a decades-long career of doing similar things. But then, it does make me wonder how the soldiers who were with him would still remember this level of detail over a decade later.
A few from TiB's Twitter page: #BrianWilliamsMisremembers standing on a table in the student union and shouting "fuck that pussy!!!" #BrianWilliamsMisremembers calling "beastmode up the middle" #BrianWilliamsMisremembers MH370 is in the South China Sea
I could see if he got hit 3 or 4 different times while riding in helicopters and mixed up details from one event to another, but I can just about guarantee that isn't the case. The soldiers remember what happened because significant events like that stay with you for a long time. I was shot at with an RPG ten years ago. I watched it fly right past me, and I about shit my pants. I still remember every detail of that event like it just happened this morning. Most days nothing ever happened, and those are the times that I don't remember very well. It was the times that we got hit that are still crystal clear in my mind.
I was thinking more about the guys who were with Williams an hour away from the guys who actually got hit. It's a little but suspicious that Brian Williams would remember the situation imperfectly, but the people who were around him would. There are some mildly contradictory stories from the people around him, though, for example from here: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/ ... arity.html One flight engineer says: Another flight engineer says:
Watching CNN (shut up!) and this hashtag just made it into a story. Dear lord what is this world coming to.
#BrianWilliamsMisremembers the location of that Polynesian hooker he murdered to get an erection. #BrianWilliamsMisremembers drawing Bobbi Kristina Brown a warm bath. #BrianWilliamsMisremembers that he has to return some videotapes. #BrianWilliamsMisremembers singing you Wicked Game from under your bed while you were unable to sleep.
Memories are tricky. Let's run the tests here... 2005: Roxanne is pretty sure she just had sex for the first time. Liars $5 because she promised not to fuck the slutty captain of the lacrosse team. 2006: Roxanne decides she didn't have sex because she honestly can't remember. Goes to college a virgin. Does not get her $5 back. 2007: Being a virgin in college is the surest way to never get laid. Roxanne remembers, oh yeah, I had sex in high school, definitely guys, I swear. 2007 (contd.): Roxanne has actual sex. Definitely was not the same thing as high school. Realizes she is a confused liar. Also a ho fo sho. 2008: Says she has had sex loads of times to sleep with hot friend. Actual count: 2. Maybe 1.5. Totally 2 after this though. Present day: I am a normal person. Science checks out. Memories are weird. Sorry Brian, you're still an RPG virgin.