Brian Williams, the next Dan Rather?

Good day all. Late last week the story broke that NBC News Anchor Brian Williams had been “Embellishing” stories going back to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In that story, Williams claimed that the helicopter he was in was forced down by enemy fire. The problem was that the crew of that helicopter had no memory of the incident in question. Since then, Williams appears to have embellished stories of Hurricane Katrina, as well as other. The Katrina incident is particularly disgusting since he claimed to see bodies floating around New Orleans. Here are a few details on that story from the New Orleans Advocate:

NBC News anchor Brian Williams, who apologized on the air Wednesday night for lying about an experience covering the Iraq War, is now facing scrutiny over his gripping accounts of Hurricane Katrina, the disaster that burnished his nightly news bona fides almost a decade ago.

Williams’ account of seeing a body float by in the French Quarter — which remained largely dry — and even a claim of catching dysentery from drinking Katrina floodwaters have raised eyebrows among bloggers and elsewhere since he took it on the chin this week over a claim that he rode in a helicopter that was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq.

You would think Williams would have, you know, looked to see if the French Quarter was flooded or not. And dysentery? Believe me, if he had that, he would have been filing his reports from the nearest port-a-potty. Then we have another fib he told of saving a puppy from a burning building. According to Grabien:

As attention now centers on the many things Brian Williams has reported over his years at NBC, a new story just emerged that stretches the bounds of believability. Writing in USA Today in 2011, the anchor of “Nightly News,” talked about his days as a volunteer firefighter in New Jersey. And shares one episode of modest heroism:

My firehouse was a modest engine company — three engines, three garage doors and about 30 of the best men I’ve ever known. We fought all the usual fires that break out in the suburbs: brush fires, car fires, dumpsters, dryers, light fixtures — and worst of all, the occasional house, already in flames when we arrived. I remember one such house fire — the structure was fully involved with flames and smoke. I was wearing a breathing apparatus, conducting a search on my hands and knees, when I felt something warm, squishy and furry on the floor of a closet. I instinctively tucked it in my coat. When I got outside, I saw two small eyes staring up at me, and I returned the 3-week-old (and very scared) puppy to its grateful owners.

I think I’m beginning to see a pattern here. I’m not the only one and now people are starting to say that Williams needs to go. According to Page Six, Tom Brokaw, who was replaced by Williams, is calling for the firing of Williams.

You know you’re in trouble when Tom Brokaw is out for your blood. NBC’s most revered journalist is furious that Brian Williams is still in the anchor chair after he sheepishly admitted he hadn’t traveled on a helicopter hit by enemy fire.

“Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter,” an NBC source said. “He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”

Hmm, maybe Brokaw wants his old job back? Frankly, I don’t know why people are so shocked that Williams lied about his background. Major news personalities have been doing this for a while. It’s just rare when they get caught at it. The last time was Dan Rather when he tried to palm off forged documents indicating that President George W. Bush received special treatment when he was in the Air National Guard. That story blew up in CBS’s faces and forced the retirement of Rather far sooner then he had planed.

Then we have the infamous NBC Dateline rocket attack on a GM pickup truck. For those who may not remember, I recommend going to WhatReallyHappened.com and reading the full story of the “Great NBC Rocket Attack” on GM. Here are a few highlights.

Last week General Motors Corp. might still have been reeling from a $105.2 million jury verdict, awarded to an Atlanta couple whose son died when his GM truck exploded in a collision. NBC News might have been touting itself for having exposed the danger of GM’s controversial ”sidesaddle” gas tanks in a riveting Dateline NBC segment. Instead the network singed its reputation, and the car company won in the court of public opinion the safety battle it had lost in the courthouse.

I recall this story. Basically, the plaintiffs accused GM of a serious defect and won a major case. Dateline NBC, which had just started broadcasting decided to do story on how unsafe these trucks were. They just had one problem. They couldn’t get the trucks to explode.

Dateline’s report on Nov. 17 featured 14 min. of balanced debate, capped by 57 seconds of crash footage that explosively showed how the gas tanks of certain old GM trucks could catch fire in a sideways collision.

A tip? You mean an insider at Dateline called GM and provided information to them? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

Following a tip, GM hired detectives, searched 22 junkyards for 18 hours, and found evidence to debunk almost every aspect of the crash sequence. Last week, in a devastating press conference, GM showed that the conflagration was rigged, its causes misattributed, its severity overstated and other facts distorted. Two crucial errors: NBC said the truck’s gas tank had ruptured, yet an X ray showed it hadn’t; NBC consultants set off explosive miniature rockets beneath the truck split seconds before the crash — yet no one told the viewers.

Now recall that this was back when the Internet was just getting started, and back then the Main Stream Media controlled all access to what people read or saw. Since GM had deep pockets and a lead, they could afford to track down what really happened and shove it in the faces of NBC. Brian Williams is in good company when it comes to honest journalism and reporting. NBC rigging rockets to a truck to get it to explode, Dan Rather peddling forged documents to sink a sitting president he didn’t like and Brian Williams making up stories about his personal background.

Saturday afternoon, Brian Williams has decided to “Take a little time out” for a while. This can mean one of two things. He’s on his way out the door, or both he and the NBC brass are hoping that a few days out of the spotlight will let the heat die down a bit and Williams can go back to giving Barack Obama virtual blow jobs.

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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