Could we have asked for a better topic for a Friday? Actually, yes. I truly hate this story. But it is what it is.
Brian Williams, the last network news anchor that I actually liked, lied about a story. Not only lied about it, but inserted himself into it. Not only inserted himself into it, but claimed he “conflated” what happened to others on a different helicopter with his own experience of arriving on the scene a minimum of 30 minutes later.
This was no “mis-memory” or whatever other bullshit term he came up with to try to minimize the enormity of his blatant lie.
Although it still would have been an egregious error (one whopper of a story) if Williams was employed in any other capacity. Not only is he the Anchor of the NBC Nightly News, he also holds the title of Managing Editor.
NBC News has suffered with credibility issues for some time now, with Meet the Press losing not only the Sunday morning ratings battles, but also its relevance. NBC’s cable “news” channel MSNBC is rumored to be teetering on the edge of a cliff (for numerous reasons). And now, its flagship news offering, Nightly News, is the butt of a litany of caustic, yet much-deserved jokes.
The New York Times today stated NBC’s dilemma in the headline, “With an Apology, Brian Williams Digs Himself Deeper in Copter Tale.”
For now, NBC isn’t commenting on the story and the official word is that they’re standing by their man. But the criticisms, truly warranted, are coming from all sides and show no signs of letting up. I predict that Brian Williams will be absent from his anchor desk tonight and, perhaps, permanently.
Sadly, there appears to be no way around this. Brian Williams has nowhere to go from here but home. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.
Today on the show
After dishing out more than enough disgust and disappointment about Brian Williams, we moved on to our Friday diversions.
Yes, I’m addicted to Criminal Minds. Apparently I’m not alone, as this show has been on TV for 10 years now! The popularity of this show and others like it (of which there are many) underscores the weird obsession that America has with serial killers!
Today, I spoke with Dr. Scott Bonn, Professor of Criminology, media expert and analyst, public speaker and author, about his new book, Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers.
For our Flashback Friday segment, we moved back to December of 1996, for a fun and lively Music Hall session with the Wild Colonials at KSCA/fm 101.9. Enjoy!
[…] was wrong on Friday. I predicted that Brian Williams wouldn’t be sitting at the anchor desk Friday night and, perhaps, never again. He was there Friday night… but he won’t be […]