In recent news, anchor Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News has been accused of fabricating the stories he has reported on and, in the case of other stories, just completely flat out lying about them. This includes the story that he was in a helicopter that was brought down by an RPG.
Besides the fact that his cowardice as a human being and a reporter is completely evident, due to the fact that he had to lie about a story in order to obtain a reputation within the field of journalism, people are now wondering if he will ever be able to report on the news again.
Though the answer is no, the reasons why he cannot do it are multi-faceted.
First and foremost, a journalist’s only source of validity is their credibility and reputation; if a journalist’s words or thoughts cannot be trusted without having to doubt the fact that what they are saying is completely true, then they cannot work within the field.
On top of this, the media will, in a twisted sense of irony, not let up on the fact that Williams lied about what he did.
Being that Williams was one of the most well-known faces in the world of journalism, people and reporters alike held Williams to a higher standard of reporting because they trusted him.
According to an article by Business Insider, Williams was, at one point, the 23rd most trusted man in America
He is now the 835th.
Now, I understand that many people are angry and upset at Williams because they trusted him, but I am more taken aback that he was a liar and, more importantly, a coward.
In my eyes, if he had to completely fabricate the fact that he was on a chopper that went down in order to make his story seem more “daring” and “heroic,” he should be viewed as being in the same standing as a receptacle of human waste.
By lying to the public about this story, he made himself look like some type of war hero who went through a horrible ordeal, and that takes away from the actual heroes that sacrificed their lives in the war.
So what other stories did this craven “reporter” lie about?
If Williams is to be trusted, then apparently he was not only shot out of the sky by an RPG, but he also flew into Iraq with the fabled Seal Team Six three days after the war in Iraq broke out and watched the Berlin Wall fall in person.
Now, if Williams was as good at lying as he was at was being a piece of trash, then he would have looked into the fact that journalists are not embedded into any units that undertake covert operations, nor was he actually in Iraq three days after the war broke out.
On top of this, Tom Brokaw was the only American reporter who was doing a live report of the Berlin Wall falling, with Williams coming on scene 12 hours after it fell.
However, the way he spins his stories made it seem like he was on the scene watching the wall come down, when in reality, he was not.
Williams had some sort of natural knack when it came to reporting the news; people trusted and believed him because they believed what he said was true. That, however, is not true anymore: he clearly cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction, even within the realms of his own life. His days of being a trusted news reporter are long gone, and unfortunately, his actions will not only lead to questions about his own credibility, but also that of every other person in the world of journalism.