Brian Williams Lied? So where IS integrity in journalism??

Oh, that Brian Williams!

So who is angry at this guy? Sanctimonious assholes? Hypocrite "journalists" from idiotic-named places like Buzzfeed and The Daily Beast, who only wish they were on TV instead of him?

Gee, what a fucking surprise that a writer, journalist, actor, celebrity of ANY type, would vaingloriously fudge a story to make himself look heroic.

Yes, it's rather disgusting that the liar turns out to be Brian Williams, who WAS the most respected name in television news. But that's not saying much, is it?

40 years ago, with no Internet, Americans actually watched the national nightly news, and viewed "the most trusted man in America," CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite. They also watched NBC's team of Huntley and Brinkley. When ABC came along, and began to offer decent competition, they had Peter Jennings.

Now? Now people don't really care about the news, and if they do, they get it off the Internet. There's CNN and MSNBC and local news a'plenty. Most anchormen (and women) are just news readers. Diane Sawyer. You find a nice looking, somewhat intelligent person to read the fucking news.

Brian Williams? He was old school. He replaced the respected Tom Brokaw, who was getting too old-looking for the demographics. He followed Tom's lead by showing up at events. He was one of those "Here I am in Kuwait" guys. And frankly, that was fucking brave of him. The anchor at ABC got hit in the head with shell fragments when he pulled one of those "Here I am in Kuwait" deals, and was never the same.

Brian's mistake was "puffing." He puffed until it blew up in his face.

IF I'M BEING HONEST, as a journalist myself over the years, I've taken liberties. It's very common. A minor example would be getting a quote from a celebrity. I and five other idiots are standing around waiting for a comment. Mr. Celebrity finally walks in, we all start taking pictures, we all start shouting questions and pointing our microphones. Some guy on my right asks a great question and gets a great answer. I in turn, ask a great question and get a great answer.

The next day, I write, "Mr. Celebrity told me..." and I quote BOTH answers. My rival does the same thing. The "white lie" is that, well, he did tell ME. I was there. But more accurately, he told "US." But "US" doesn't impress people as much. My reader wants to know I was there, and he need not even think of going elsewhere.

So, what happened with Williams, was he was part of a squadron that was under fire. To make himself seem more important, he used the editorial "we." "We" were under attack. No, not really, Brian. You had the feeling of what it was like, but technically, you weren't under attack, and most definitely, YOUR helicopter didn't get hit and go down.

Naturally the more this slick superstar told the story, the further from the truth it got. I'm not defending him at all; I'm just explaining how it happens.

And here's the evolution of the LIE:

What makes the story a bit more obnoxious, is that back when he first started bragging about it, soldiers called him on it, and complained it never happened. Being a STAR, he blithely ignored the complaints, and I guess his fabulous bosses never bothered to question him either. As in, "If Brian says it happened, we trust that he's covered his ass. And ours." Not exactly.

Somehow, the "HEY IT DIDN'T HAPPEN" complaint finally registered, and the other night Brian Williams issued an appropriately VAGUE apology.

It's always amusing, if not disgusting, the kind of weasel words and spin a celebrity puts on something stupid he did. At best, he'll shrug and say "I did something stupid, I'm only human." At worst he'll weasel it some more, and complain that all he did was "neglect" to be truthful, because he was "confused."

Ultimately what we have is just the cynical confirmation of the Paul Simon lyric: "I don't believe what I read in the papers. They're just out to capture my dime." Which goes for what you hear from reporters on TV. Then again, we have people saying that we shouldn't even trust what we see...that photos are Photoshopped, and even terrorist footage of beheadings can be staged.

All of this helps raise the paranoia level, and allow the psycho conspiracy theory maniacs to insist "it's all been covered up."

Mort Sahl, who was a comedian and not a reporter, used to slyly say that what he said on stage was "factual if not actual." What he meant was that he was guilty of "puffing." He'd take an anecdote and put himself in it. For example, there was a reporter on Airforce 1. Kennedy said to him, "If this plane went down, your name would be in very small print!" Mort, who wrote jokes for Kennedy and was sometimes on Airforce 1, told the anecdote but in the first person: "The plane hit some turbulence. We all went flying. It was pretty hairy. JFK says to me, "What would happen if this plane went down? Your name would be in very small print!!"

Factual if not actual.

Brian Williams was IN a helicopter that was part of a group of helicopters. He saw first hand how easy it was to get hit by enemy fire, and internalized it. But, no, it didn't really happen to HIM, and he should've said, "I was in the helicopter just behind, and I saw it all." But he wanted to be sound a little more impressive. And now he's being called untrustworthy and a liar.

I don't know what the guy can do now, except weather the storm, keep reporting, and maybe, once in a while, begin a segment by saying these four words:

"IF I'M BEING HONEST..."