What we call the media — that peculiar, homogenized information and entertainment product trained on us like a fire hose by mega corporations — is in a frenzy beating up on Brian Williams.
The anchor of NBC Nightly News has begun a six-month suspension imposed by his employer, an international conglomerate. It appears Mr. Williams embellished his reporting from Iraq in 2003; now his company's investigation is questioning the accuracy of other stories from his portfolio.
What we call the media — that peculiar, homogenized information and entertainment product trained on us like a fire hose by mega corporations — is in a frenzy beating up on Brian Williams.
The anchor of NBC Nightly News has begun a six-month suspension imposed by his employer, an international conglomerate. It appears Mr. Williams embellished his reporting from Iraq in 2003; now his company's investigation is questioning the accuracy of other stories from his portfolio.
No doubt he will be pilloried at the post of righteousness for as long as people are interested in the story of a newsman inflating his own importance.
True, Mr. Williams was an anchorman, a role society places on the pedestal. With memories of Walter Cronkite, we expect a national anchor to impart the news with both authority and balm.
Embroidering your own experience in world events is, in the eyes of NBC Universal (a subsidiary of Comcast), a suspendable offense. I suppose NBC wants to be seen as a truthful news source.
Now, other news organizations are less particular about honesty. Let’s not forget, a 2003 Florida Court of Appeals opinion agreed unanimously with Fox News’ assertion that there is no rule against distorting or falsifying the news in the United States.
We really aren't surprised by Fox, but we expected the truth from Williams, and that is why he is getting piled.
Still, it is odd how little we acknowledge that what we are fed as news is strictly rationed by the very few corporations that own the media. The Fox narrative serves Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. NBC Universal, Disney, and others see their interests in different lights.
Stranger still are the standards we demand from those who are essentially entertainment company employees versus political leaders who impact our lives in far greater ways.
The fact is, plenty of elected officials told whatever lies were necessary to ramp up support for going to war in Iraq. Then and now, most of these falsehoods largely went unexamined by the media. But that should not be a surprise; the companies who own those news operations stood to make a lot of money if the US went to war.
I suspect a host of current elected officials are not telling the truth about the state of our cities, our states, and our world. But we won't get the inside story from the news. There is, sad to say, more profit to be had in ignoring dishonesty and distracting the populace.
And you're not going to hear the truth from anybody in elected office. They need all the campaign cash they can get from their deep-pocketed, news-organization-owning corporate sponsors. Besides, the political class, unlike a news anchor, is expected to deceive us.
Yes, it seems Mr. Williams mixed some personal misrepresentations with those provided by his corporate employers. But, honestly, there are loads of fibbers in elected office who deserve an unpaid vacation more than he.
Pat Grimes, a former South Bay resident, writes from Ypsilanti, Mich. He can be reached at pgwriter@inbox.com
