Brian Williams memes: Remembering the good ol' days that never were

[Guest callipygian]

Shame on Brian Williams......

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/living/feat-brian-williams-memes/

[RA1]

So, why isn't he being castigated and removed or asked to resign ala Dan Rather?

I don't trust the MSM and this is only a very minor reason.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest callipygian]

So, why isn't he being castigated and removed or asked to resign ala Dan Rather?

I think, RA1, that the pot is just beginning to boil.....Or as they say.....Developing.

[Guest callipygian]

And there's more....I don't think this is just going to go away.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/02/04/brian-williams-faces-fierce-mockery-after-recanting-iraq-war-story/

[AdamSmith]

Agree the Internets will gnaw him to death. How fast is the only question.

[RA1]

You are just trying to cheer me up.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest callipygian]

Now that the Vets have finally been heard (they've known this for awhile) things will get ugly for him.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/02/05/veterans-slam-brian-williams-for-iraq-lie-question-his-apology/

[Guest callipygian]

Donald Trump now demanding Brian Williams produce long form birth certificate......Developing!

[Guest callipygian]

Vets address Williams

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153110016813689&comment_id=10153111284213689&offset=0&total_comments=2501

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/04/brian-williams-helicopter-iraq_n_6616918.html

[lookin]

Well, there's lies:

"The Iraqi regime... possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons."

"We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas."

"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States."

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his"nuclear mujahideen" -- his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."

-Cincinnati, October 7, 2002

And then there's damned lies:

“The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG.

“Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry.”

New York, January 29, 2015

Now one set of lies cost many thousands of lives and got the liar elected to a second term as President of the United States, and the other set of lies got a serviceman a standing ovation and may cost the liar his job.

Can you guess who we let slide and who we'll go after?

[RA1]

Brian Williams? The other person relied upon "intelligence" as delivered by various US resources as opposed to personal involvement.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest callipygian]

Brian Williams? The other person relied upon "intelligence" as delivered by various US resources as opposed to personal involvement.

Best regards,

RA1

I believe the correct term here would be artificial intelligence. #justsayin'

[MsGuy]

"I relied entirely on intelligence as delivered by various US resources."

"That my underlings bludgeoned the analysts into delivering the assessment we wanted is entirely besides the point."

[Guest callipygian]

Now one set of lies cost many thousands of lives and got the liar elected to a second term as President of the United States, and the other set of lies got a serviceman a standing ovation and may cost the liar his job.

Can you guess who we let slide and who we'll go after?

It's hard to argue the extent of damage that each lie has produced, as they are mutually exclusive and both [lies] were told to gain selfish favor of one's ego and importance in the arena of public opinion and confidence.

They contrast each other as much as they are homogeneous.

One was elected into the highest office in the land. The other, invited into our homes every evening. They both are blatant violations of our trust.

Yes, I agree that it's great that a hero got a standing ovation on TV next to a liar at a basketball game for 30 seconds or less - but I'd be more satisfied if these feel-good moments were reserved for when every one of our returning heroes was treated and cared for the way they should be when they return from the battlefield. Honoring our promise to them.

We have a tendency of making ourselves feel good, at their expense, for recognizing these guys when the TV is on, whether during national debates for elected office, state of the union addresses or stumping on the campaign trail.

But if words were actually actions - Much of the disgraceful care, red-tape and lack of much needed support for these heroes - both men and women - returning home - would not still be happening. Why do we have all these wounded warrior and disabled veterans organizations pleas for money to help them? We have them because Washington sends these treasured people into war and then fails to provide for their horrific injuries when they return.

That's not American - that's just disgraceful.

So no, one lie is not better - or less than - the other. They both represent the very same thing to me.

A violation of not only my self. But to all exposed to it.

[RA1]

But, are we doing anything personally to make things better for these vets? All too often some of us just expect the government or some agency to which we give money to carry the ball when all should be doing it each and every time we see or know of a vet in any kind of difficulty.

Here in MEM I see at least a semblance of caring. I see and hear all the time, thank you for your service and I personally know a lot of employers who make a point of hiring vets. Few things help one's mental outlook more than being appreciated and having a job.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest zipperzone]

I believe the correct term here would be artificial intelligence. #justsayin'

Don't quite understand how "intelligence" and "Bush" can be used in the same sentence.

That IDIOT had/has the intelligence of the lowest form of bottom suckers.

[Guest callipygian]

Not the most credible news source - but if true, not good:

Tom Brokaw wants Brian Williams fired

[AdamSmith]

Confusion worse confounded.

Williams' account of Katrina is questioned

Roger Yu, USA TODAY 1:01 p.m. EST February 6, 2015

Further scrutiny of NBC News anchor Brian Williams' other past statements began to surface Friday when the New Orleans Advocate reported that the newsman's account of his experience covering Hurricane Katrina may not be entirely accurate.

In a 2006 interview with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Williams said he witnessed a body floating in the French Quarter area of the city. "When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country," Williams told Eisner, who suggested in the interview that Williams emerged from former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw's shadow with his Katrina coverage.

Citing former city health director Brobson Lutz, the Advocate reported that the French Quarter was largely dry. "We were never wet. It was never wet," Lutz told the Advocate.

"There were bodies in other parts (of the city), but there were no bodies in the Quarter," Lutz told USA TODAY, adding that the only body he retrieved from the neighborhood at the time was a restaurateur who died of a heart attack.

Last week, Williams was at a New York Rangers game with a soldier who helped guard him and other American soldiers while a convoy of military helicopters they were flying on was forced to land on a desert in Iraq in 2003. Williams said the helicopter he was on had been hit by enemy fire and forced down. Veterans from the convoy challenged Williams' story — which he has repeated in the past — on Facebook, forcing the anchorman to recant the story on air Wednesday. "I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert," Williams said Wednesday.

Lutz also questioned Williams' account – told in an interview last year with Brokaw -- that he caught dysentery after he ingested some floodwater.

"My week, two weeks there was not helped by the fact that I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery, our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer," he told Brokaw.

Lutz told the Advocate: "I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don't recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward."

NBC News didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In another development, CNN's media reporter, Brian Stelter, also reported Friday that the pilot he interviewed a day earlier about Williams was "no longer standing by his story."

The pilot, Rich Krell, told Stelter that he was flying the helicopter Williams was on and their helicopter did take fire, though it wasn't hit.

Krell's account has been questioned by other soldiers. Krell told Stelter Friday that "the information I gave you was true based on my memories, but at this point I am questioning my memories."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/02/06/brian-williams-katrina-coverage-in-question/22980005/

[AdamSmith]

NBC News anchor Brian Williams' comments about dead bodies, Hurricane Katrina starting to gain attention, draw scrutiny

Williams said he saw floating body in Quarter

JOHN SIMERMAN| jsimerman@theadvocate.com

Feb. 06, 2015

New details: Katrina photos show water did surround Ritz-Carlton, where NBC anchor Brian Williams stayed

​Original story:

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.

“I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert,” Williams said Wednesday. He painted his earlier description as a “bungled attempt” to thank an Iraq War veteran.

The online feeding frenzy quickly turned to the 55-year-old anchor’s signature assignment: covering Katrina from before it made landfall, when he spent the night of the storm with refuge-seekers in the Superdome and then reported on the harrowing days that followed.

“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” Williams said in a 2006 interview.

And last year, in an interview with Tom Brokaw, the man he replaced in the anchor chair at NBC, Williams said:

“My week, two weeks there was not helped by the fact that I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery, our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer. We are friends to this day. And uh, it just was uh, I look back at total agony.”

But the French Quarter, the original high ground of New Orleans, was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city.

A spokesman for NBC did not immediately respond Thursday to questions about those comments, the hotel to which Williams referred, whether Williams stands by the claims or whether the network is reviewing them.

Williams has described his experiences during Katrina as personally transformative, and he has returned to the city and the topic numerous times since.

“I saw fear, I saw death, I saw depravity, I saw firearms being brandished, I saw looting,” he told the Los Angeles Times a year after Katrina made landfall.

He also recalled the danger of the moment in a 2007 interview on C-SPAN.

“We had to have men with guns behind me one night because I was the only source of light downtown, was the lights that were illuminating the broadcast,” Williams said. “We were told not to drink our bottled water in front of people because we could get killed for it.”

Other accounts have Williams curled up in the fetal position between his on-air reports from a bad bout with dysentery.

A spokeswoman from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals said dysentery is not one of the reportable diseases the agency tracks but that contaminated water sources are possible “transmission points” for dysentery.

Dr. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director who manned an EMS trailer that was set up in the 900 block of Dumaine Street, a block from his house in the French Quarter, said he was a fan of Williams but dubious of his claims.

“We were never wet. It was never wet,” he remarked of the conditions in the city’s most historic neighborhood.

As for dysentery, “I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” Lutz said.

As for Williams saying he accidentally drank floodwaters, Lutz added, “I don’t know anybody that’s tried that to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.”

In his interview last year, Brokaw praised Williams, saying that with his reporting during Katrina, Williams “took ownership, if you will, of the anchor chair” following a longtime stint as Brokaw’s understudy.

Since then, Williams has become well known for his sharp-witted comic turns on the late-night talk show circuit. And he has continued to check in on a city that he has said “is always going to be a part of me.”

Questions about Williams’ recollections of his experience during Katrina weave into a larger tapestry of erratic, and sometimes downright erroneous, journalism that emerged from the chaos of the storm and its aftermath.

Four weeks after the storm, The Times-Picayune published an article noting that many of the most shocking stories that had been reported by media outlets across the world — reports of widespread violence and babies being killed, raped or trampled — had no apparent basis in fact.

More recently, the myth-making that arose in the storm’s aftermath has again made news with the box-office success of “American Sniper,” a biopic about Navy SEAL Chris Kyle.

Kyle has claimed in published accounts that he came to New Orleans after Katrina with another sniper, set up shop on the roof of the Superdome and shot roughly 30 armed men. That account has been widely disputed, given that a large group of bullet-riddled corpses in that area — or anywhere, for that matter — was never discovered.

Kyle was shot dead in 2013, allegedly by a U.S. Marine suffering from stress.

Gordon Russell contributed to this story. Follow John Simerman on Twitter, @johnsimerman.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/11526453-148/nbc-news-anchor-brian-williams

[Guest callipygian]

[Guest callipygian]

Brian Williams stepping aside for 'next several days'

Brian Williams is stepping aside from his "NBC Nightly News" amid mounting questions about the accuracy of a story he told about an Iraq War mission in 2003.

"I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days," he said in a memo to colleagues.

Williams, the subject of an internal investigation by NBC, said "it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions."

Lester Holt, anchor of NBC's "Dateline," will fill in for Williams.

"Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us," Williams added.

NBC has struggled to respond to a scandal that broke wide open on Wednesday when Williams apologized for claiming he was aboard a helicopter in 2003 that was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. He was actually aboard a different helicopter. (Here's how his story changed over time.)
In the wake of the embarrassing revelations, journalists have started to raise questions about Williams' reporting about Hurricane Katrina as well.

[AdamSmith]

[Guest callipygian]

I suspect that you are right.

I first "liked" your post for it's ingenuity and insight, then "disliked" it simply because nobody wins with this and although I have not been a consumer of any nightly newscast for some time - it's really a shame that an individual blessed with so much public trust threw it away simply to expand his pec size a bit more.

I have on the other hand, always been a big fan of Lester Holt and had hoped CBS Evening News would have made an offer for him over Katie Couric at the time.

[AdamSmith]

That Brokaw now looks like a towering figure is all the commentary needed on how far the role of evening news anchor has shrunk.

Not to say that, on balance, it's not easier to be better informed now than back in Uncle Walter's day. But very telling that Williams is now among the best that role seems able to attract.

[Guest callipygian]

That Brokaw now looks like a towering figure is all the commentary needed on how far the role of evening news anchor has shrunk.

Not to say that, on balance, it's not easier to be better informed now than back in Uncle Walter's day. But very telling that Williams is now among the best that role can attract.

True - but think of it this way - FoxNews will pick him up in a New York second if he doesn't come back! He's just passed their interview and character criteria with flying colors.