Topic: NBC (aka MainStreamMedia) Nightmare (Read 1307 times)

Did Brian Williams bury stories that hurt the Obama administration?



The departure, temporary so far, of Brian Williams has provided a measure of relief to NBC’s beleaguered news division. With Lester Holt getting good ratings and other stories erupting (notably Hillary Clinton’s scandals at State and the Clinton Foundation), people have paid less attention to efforts to scour Williams’ records for more evidence of fabulism and exaggeration. It’s been almost a month since the last big reveal, and NBC News has been very quiet about its own probe into Williams’ public statements.

That doesn’t mean that NBC has righted the ship in its news division, though. New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman offers a lengthy look at the dysfunction that has gripped NBC News for years and impacted every one of its shows. However, buried dozens of paragraphs deep into the story, Sherman alleges from multiple stories that Williams buried two news stories that later rocked the Obama administration (via Justin Green):

The Nightly News crisis exposed deep-rooted anger among many NBC journalists, who felt frustrated that Williams had been allowed to gain so much power. In recent years, the anchor had churned through executive producers who challenged him.

Others complained about Williams’s unwillingness to go after hard-hitting stories. Multiple sources told me that former NBC investigative reporters Michael Isikoff and Lisa Myers battled with Williams over stories. In February 2013, Isikoff failed to interest Williams in a piece about a confidential Justice Department memo that justified killing American citizens with drones. He instead broke the story on Rachel Maddow. That October, Myers couldn’t get Williams to air a segment about how the White House knew as far back as 2010 that some people would lose their insurance policies under Obama­care. Frustrated, Myers posted the article on NBC’s website, where it immediately went viral. Williams relented and ran it the next night. “He didn’t want to put stories on the air that would be divisive,” a senior NBC journalist told me. According to a source, Myers wrote a series of scathing memos to then–NBC senior vice-president Antoine Sanfuentes documenting how Williams suppressed her stories. ­Myers and Isikoff eventually left the network (and both declined to comment).

Williams didn’t want to be “divisive”? Let’s put it another way — two other ways, actually, in which people in the industry define their mission. Aren’t journalists supposed to speak truth to power, and to afflict the comfortable while comforting the afflicted? That’s how media outlets commonly define the mission of journalism. In what ways do Barack Obama not qualify as power and “the comfortable”?

Even at the core of news reporting, the audience reaction should not enter into the equation. Isn’t it the purpose of news organizations to report the news and let everyone else decide what is “divisive”? Reporting the news means giving viewers the facts in order to have a more informed citizenry. This kind of thinking — if sincere, which seems doubtful — represents the worst kind of condescension and patronization. Williams didn’t trust his audience long before his audience found reason to lose their trust in him. Even Rachel Maddow trusted her own highly partisan audience more than Williams trusted his.

Sherman’s report here echoes the most pervasive and insidious kind of media bias, as described by Bernard Goldberg in his seminal book Bias. Most problems of media bias come less from the reporting and more from editorial control of the content. What we call “media bias” is largely “editorial bias” — choosing which news stories to cover, and which to bury. The impact of that reaches into the reporting, not just because of hiring practices but by the incentive structures that get built up with editorial bias.

New York Magazine may have inadvertently provided an example of this here, too. Why did this get buried near the bottom of a long analysis? Has anyone thought to ask Lisa Myers of other stories she had that Williams buried, and whether they had any similarities with the two listed — especially in regard to whether they were critical of the Obama administration? Sharyl Attkisson found herself on the outs at CBS in a very similar scenario.

Seems like there’s a story there, for those who aren’t worried about divisiveness or afflicting the comfortable.


http://hotair.com/archives/2015/03/09/did-brian-williams-bury-stories-that-would-hurt-the-obama-administration/

To have knowingly protected a serial liar for so long is an amazing problem. We always lose the perspective of how big of a job and how many people are involved when you see the 'news' on TV. Yet people will still believe he was the only one involved, not the crew around him seeing and recording everything. Have any of them come forward in all those years?

Brian's got a real big problem on his hands now, and so does his network. Except for his loyal die hard brainwashed followers, most reasonable people now are going to be wondering if he's telling the truth on what he talks about or is giving his take on a story as to how he believes it should be understood, even if he has to, shall I say, lie. Not exactly a trusting relationship with viewers. They may have to 'can' him eventually.

Apparently there are other stories of his that questions are being raised about, including several dramatic  from New Orleans during/after Katrina.

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"I'll be back" - The Williaminator

FLASHBACK 1992: NBC Caught Lying About Chevrolet Trucks Exploding


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtpMzGN9uWc


On November 17, 1992, Dateline NBC aired an hour-long investigative report titled "Waiting to Explode," which focused on allegations that General Motors' Rounded-Line Chevrolet C/K-Series pickup trucks exploded upon impact when involved in collisions due to the poor design of the vehicle model's fuel tanks. Dateline '​s footage showed a sample of a low-speed accident in which the fuel tank exploded; the explosion during the crash test would later be discovered to have been rigged by producers with the program, who placed remotely controlled model rocket engines inside the truck's fuel tank to initiate the blast. The program did not disclose the fact that the accident was staged.

GM hired investigators from Failure Analysis Associates (FaAA, now Exponent) to study the footage; FaAA investigators discovered while reviewing the video that smoke had actually started to expel from the fuel tank six frames before the actual impact occurred. Acting on a tip from someone involved with the Dateline crash test, investigators with FaAA searched through 22 junkyards in Indiana before finding the charred wreckage of the GM pickups.[9][10]

It was also later revealed that the Dateline report had been dishonest about the fuel tanks rupturing and the alleged 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) speed at which the collision was conducted. The actual speed was found to be higher than stated, around 40 miles per hour (64 km/h), and after x-ray examination of the fuel tanks from the C/K pickups used in the televised collision, it was found that they had not ruptured and were intact.[11][12] GM subsequently filed an anti-defamation/libel lawsuit against NBC after conducting an extensive investigation. On February 8, 1993, GM conducted a highly publicized point-by-point rebuttal in the Product Exhibit Hall of the General Motors Building in Detroit that lasted nearly two hours after announcing the lawsuit.[13] The lawsuit was settled by NBC that same week, and Dateline co-anchor Jane Pauley read a 3½ minute on-air apology to viewers.

The General Motors lawsuit and the subsequent settlement were arguably the most devastating blows for NBC in a series of reputation damaging incidents during the 1990s and early 2000s. Within NBC, Michael Gartner, who resigned under pressure shortly after the incident, was the source for much of the blame. NBC News President Reuven Frank stated Gartner was hired in 1988, despite having no background in television news, in an attempt to satisfy parent company General Electric, by replacing current journalists with cheaper, less experienced reporters and producers.[14]

In addition to the resignation of the news division's president Gartner, three Dateline NBC producers were dismissed as a result of the incident and the findings of the resulting investigation: executive producer Jeff Diamond, senior producer David Rummel, and Robert Read, producer of the report on the pickups. Michele Gillen, the correspondent involved in the segment, was transferred to NBC's Miami owned-and-operated station WTVJ, where she became an anchor of the station's evening newscasts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dateline_NBC#General_Motors_vs._NBC

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When you look back at NBC's past history you realize how normal brian william was with his lies...

Brian Williams will misremember to come to work on Monday night.



NBC Nightly News Managing Editor and anchorman Brian Williams said Saturday that he is temporarily removing himself from the network’s nightly broadcasts following revelations he made false statements about his experience reporting in Iraq in 2003.

“In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions,” Williams said in a statement to NBC staff. “As managing editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days.”


http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/02/07/nbc-brian-williams-says-will-step-down-from-broadcast-for-several-days/

2006: Brian Williams Lied About Hezbollah Rocket Fire Aboard Israeli Helicopter





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmUp6lhAtTI


The dude does not stop!

 

Now we know conan wasn't the only clown on NBC... The other one was a fabulous fabulist artist
(try saying that five times fast)


 

The only good thing that NBC has ever delivered is the Conan hosting The Tonight Show.

Thank you for the inspiration I got from your link

 

So?! I agree with PCR, that that's not the worst lie to come with.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/02/05/cowardly-despicable-american-presstitutes/

Williams in 2007: I looked down the tube of that RPG launcher...






http://ace.mu.nu/archives/354829.php



Come on!

 

The shame of our national news media is they have no shame. They expect this story to last 24 hours in their news cycle and they move on from there. Thing is, the rest of us don't forget.

Long Time Anchor Brian Williams admits that his story of coming under fire while in Iraq was false