By Phil Riske | Managing Editor
National Public Radio reacted with, “You could always rely on NBC anchor Brian Williams for the smooth handling of a tricky issue on the NBC Nightly News . . .[y]et now his dependability — the trust built up over years with millions of viewers — has been cast in doubt due to a self-inflicted journalistic war wound over a story nearly a dozen years old.
You’ve probably read Williams retracted and apologized for saying he had been in a helicopter forced down by enemy fire during the invasion of Iraq in early 2003. People on social media, including some professional journalists, have called him an outright liar.
Williams lie first serves to exacerbate distrust of media. Second, it shows how competition among TV networks brings out the cheaters. Third, I have always felt Williams was too darn slick–like a snake oil salesman. In a juxtaposed way, he is today’s TV anchor “Ted Baxter” as well.
When I was a reporter for the Des Moines Register and Tribune, the managing editor was Michael Gartner and the paper at that time had more Pulitzer Prizes than any other. Newspaper. Gartner, I thought, was the poster child for journalistic ethics.
He left the paper to become head of NBC News and several years later admitted the network rigged the crash-and-burn of a GM truck for a story on GM’s controversial “sidesaddle” gas tanks
Some media failings disappoint me. The Williams thing really angers me, and he should be fired. Now.
