According to Ken Auletta, Brokaw (aka America's Self-Appointed Conscience) had a lot to do with it: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/brian-williamss-crash-tom-brokaws-role?intcid=mod-latest
Suffice it to say, I find Brokaw's pious moralizing and spewing of banal Beltway conventional wisdom masquerading as sharp analysis far more offensive than anything Williams has ever said. -- Dave Sikula On Wednesday, February 11, 2015 at 11:36:04 AM UTC-8, PGage wrote: > > My thoughts were along the same line as Joe's - this seems like a classic > institutional "Cover Your Ass" move, as opposed to a thoughtful and > proportional consequence. I am a little more tentative in this judgement > however. It is possible that NBC's initial investigation into the accuracy > of William's actual reporting (as in some of the Katrina statements) has > given them reason to suspect misrepresentation, but they will need more > time to get to the bottom of it. Under those circumstances, I could see > them wanting to issue a pretty stern punishment ASAP, leaving themselves > the option to actually fire him later if they have enough evidence to show > that he substantially misreported events from Katrina that he knew or > should have known were false.It is also possible their preliminary > investigation has found direct evidence that Williams' Iraq memory was not > just flawed, but a result of conscious lying. > > If we assume that the behavior that is being punished is limited to 1) > what has already been made public about his faulty memory of being shot > down in Iraq and 2) A more general tendency to get too folksy and loosey > goosey when appearing on entertainment programs then I the six month > suspension is wildly excessive. I am quite sure that a majority of the > people who have anchored any one of the three network newscasts since their > inception have mis-remembered key and dramatic personal details from the > location of important events they were covering, most often with the effect > of portraying themselves in a more flattering or central role, These people > have just been lucky enough to have not repeated these inaccurate stories > on television in the internet age. NBC is in danger of setting an > impossible standard, which will require periodic spanking and termination > of its news staff going forward. > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 10:55 AM, Joe Hass <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> I spent about four minutes last night processing this before the Stewart >> news broke, at which point my Facebook News Feed blew up. >> >> Here, for me, are the key two paragraphs from the NYT write up: >> >> Ms. Turness said in a memo to NBC News staff that executives decided to >> suspend Mr. Williams because he misrepresented the Iraq episode on the >> “Nightly News” broadcast. She said that executives also were concerned >> about the way he portrayed his reporting away from his newscasts. That >> includes his descriptions of reporting on Hurricane Katrina as well as >> other coverage. >> >> “We have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while >> Brian was talking about his experiences in the field,” she said. >> >> I am reading this as the suspension is for the 2015 NN hockey game >> incident and the incidents that have come to light as seemingly everybody >> except my son decided to fact-check everything Williams has said on any >> non-NBC Nightly News medium since the dawn of television. >> >> Based on that, this is almost on par with the initial suspension for Ray >> Rice for absurdity. PGage has discussed the memory thing repeatedly. And if >> you're going to go back that far to discuss questionable conversations, at >> some point you've reached a proverbial statute of limitations. >> >> This smacks of an organization that couldn't figure out what to do, so >> they decided to arbitrarily punish him (and, it's worth noting, they >> reserve the right to continue this, as the investigation is ongoing) >> because he went into a situation where there wasn't any rules and the >> optics were getting bad. I actually would've been able to buy termination >> (even though I think that would've been too severe) before this. This seems >> to be some weird discipline that fundamentally screws Williams while >> "protecting" a brand that's barely worth anything. >> >> On Tue Feb 10 2015 at 7:05:07 PM Joe Hass <[email protected] >> <javascript:>> wrote: >> >>> Six month suspension without pay, per Brian Stelter via NBC sources >>> >>> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015, 09:00 Bob Jersey <[email protected] <javascript:>> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> He apologized Wednesday (4) >>>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33RSg9CBtUY> ('toob) for having said >>>> on NBC's telecast of an NHL game as part of a ceremony honouring a >>>> servicemember* -* and in 2013 to Dave - that a chopper he was in while >>>> covering Iraq fighting in 2003 got hit by enemy fire... the US >>>> military-newser Stars and Stripes busted him >>>> <http://www.stripes.com/news/us/nbc-s-brian-williams-recants-iraq-story-after-soldiers-protest-1.327792> >>>> >>>> (link) after gripes from three actual occupants of the attacked craft that >>>> he was in a different chopper... >>>> >>>> B >>>> >>>> -- >>>> -- >>>> TV or Not TV .... 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