Brian Williams suspended

[Manowar]

Brian Williams was suspended without pay for 6 months for misrepresenting events on the Iraq war he was covering in 03. This happened Jan 30th 2015
Should He be suspended? Why do you guys think. I think because he is a News anchor he should be fired, period!

manowar

[FatAndFaithless]

If Brian Williams is being suspended for misrepresenting events surrounding Iraq and terrorism in the early 2000's, then just about every one of the major news channels in America should be eviscerated for the deceit and blind nationalism they pushed themselves.

[JesusHChrist]

I suspect this is an "Art of War" type maneuver on the part of the higher-ups. I suspect they were aware of the questions around the original story and still ran with it; maybe even blessed it.

Yes, I'm a cynic.

As the Emperor says (on hearing of some debacle) to one of his top generals in the Art of War, "I need your head".

[Minimalist]

I have to laugh.

These people are not journalists. They are news readers. Handsome or pretty talking heads who read the teleprompters.

Brian Engle. Glenn Greenwald. James Risen. Nick Kristof. Those are journalists.

[Clueless Morgan]

Did he do it with the intent to mislead or was he honestly misremembering the incident?

If he did it with intent, he should be fired.

If he misremembered (which is understandable given that he's human, he covered news about war-torn areas and could easily conflate his experience with a news item as well as just flat out remember a situation incorrectly, and I'm sure he doesn't go back through his filmed segments and rewatch them on a regular basis) then suspension without pay is reasonable to me.

The crux of the situation, to me, is demonstrating the intent to deceive. Everyone misremembers stuff and if we strung up every news anchor that misremembered something or reported incorrect information there would be no news media.

[dyresand]

If Brian Williams is being suspended for misrepresenting events surrounding Iraq and terrorism in the early 2000's, then just about every one of the major news channels in America should be eviscerated for the deceit and blind nationalism they pushed themselves.

Because of the media bias... and they should.

[Manowar]

Did he do it with the intent to mislead or was he honestly misremembering the incident?

If he did it with intent, he should be fired.

If he misremembered (which is understandable given that he's human, he covered news about war-torn areas and could easily conflate his experience with a news item as well as just flat out remember a situation incorrectly, and I'm sure he doesn't go back through his filmed segments and rewatch them on a regular basis) then suspension without pay is reasonable to me.

The crux of the situation, to me, is demonstrating the intent to deceive. Everyone misremembers stuff and if we strung up every news anchor that misremembered something or reported incorrect information there would be no news media.

He said the helicopter he was on was hit by and RPG (rocket propelled grenade. How can anyone misremember that? Apparently his copter landed a half hour later than the copter that was hit. There is no defense for that statement, it's a lie plain and simple. Maybe he thought he could get away with it considering it happened about 03.

[Cato]

Now, the real trick is getting Hillary Clinton to go away for the same fucking reason.

[Angrboda]

It's all just image management. He wasn't suspended because he lied. He was suspended because it made his network look better.

[Clueless Morgan]

He said the helicopter he was on was hit by and RPG (rocket propelled grenade. How can anyone misremember that? Apparently his copter landed a half hour later than the copter that was hit. There is no defense for that statement, it's a lie plain and simple. Maybe he thought he could get away with it considering it happened about 03.

I've "remember" being places that I've never been simply because I've heard the story of the event so many times that I've inserted myself into it. I wasn't lying when I recounted those stories to the people that were there and who actually know that I wasn't, my brain just fabricated the events so convincingly I thought I was there.

For example, my mom was in a car accident on her way to lunch one day at an intersection that's notoriously hard to navigate (I've had issues with the same intersection) and I heard the story so many times I actually thought I was there with her when she was in the accident - but it happened before I was even born.

So, once again, was his intent to deceive, or was this an instance of his misremembering an event that was certainly memorable, but sufficiently long enough ago that his brain inserted him into that helicopter when he wasn't really there?