Report: Brian Williams 'Fabricated, Embellished' News at Least Five Times

[mystery-ak]

http://www.newsmax.com/PrintTemplate.aspx/?nodeid=640752


Newsmax
Report: Brian Williams 'Fabricated, Embellished' News at Least Five Times
Saturday, April 25, 2015 04:21 PM

By: Andrew Wallenstein

NBC News' ongoing investigation of Brian Williams has expanded to a heretofore unknown incident involving comments he made on "The Daily Show" about what the anchor witnessed during the Arab Spring, The New York Times reported Friday.

The internal investigation that was ordered in the wake of Williams' six-month suspension was already known to be focusing on at least five other questionable incidents.

Williams “fabricated, misrepresented or embellished” news accounts a half-dozen times – including a previously undisclosed fib about his coverage of riots in Cairo during the Arab Spring, according to the Times.

Williams, 55, was suspended on Feb. 10 after being caught in an apparent lie about coming under fire while flying in a military chopper in Iraq. He had repeated the story that his helicopter was struck by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003.

In reality what came under fire was a Chinook helicopter flying well ahead of Williams’ craft that was actually hit and forced into an emergency landing. The anchor was not even close to the action.

In February 2011 Williams made an appearance on the Comedy Central show in which he described to host Jon Stewart an incident in which he witnessed on the ground in Tahrir Square a confrontation between protesters and government troops.

But the testimony potentially conflicts with evidence from NBC footage that places Williams in a balcony "overlooking Tahrir Square," not in the middle of the protest.

Williams also had claimed to have seen a body floating down a French Quarter street in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and that he was mugged in a New Jersey Christmas-tree lot. Both stories are in serious doubt.

And he has maintained that Navy SEALS had sent him a piece of the chopper that crashed during the operation that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in his lair Abbottabad, Pakistan in May 2011.

The New York Times' report noted that the internal investigation has yet to reach a conclusion about that incident, or about any of the other episodes already widely reported to be under suspicion.

[rangerrebew]

Brian of Arabia: Brian Williams Also Fibbed About Arab Spring
 
By P.J. Gladnick | April 25, 2015 | 11:36 AM EDT
 
 

NO ROOM SERVICE!

That was actually the greatest danger facing Brian Williams as he reported about the Arab Spring protests at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt in February 2011. Williams shortly afterwards told Jon Stewart on the Daily Show (45 second mark of video below) that he made eye contact with the man on the lead horse of a pro-government group on horseback and camels whipping the protesters. Unfortunately for the viability of Brian Williams' fib, the New York Times reported yesterday he was actually reporting in relative safety from a balcony near Tahrir Square.

 

It is not clear precisely which parts of Mr. Williams’s reporting from Tahrir Square have been scrutinized by NBC or what the network’s investigation shows. But discrepancies are evident in accounts given by Mr. Williams in February 2011.

In an appearance that month with Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show,” Mr. Williams described his reporting from the square. Speaking of clashes between protesters seeking the overthrow of the Egyptian government, and a pro-government group on horses and camels, he said he had “actually made eye contact with the man on the lead horse.” Mr. Stewart then referred to reports that the pro-government group had used whips. “Yeah,” Mr. Williams replied, “he went around the corner after I saw him, they pulled out whips and started beating human beings on the way.”

The NBC News report on the clash between the protesters that day did not show Mr. Williams in Tahrir Square during the protest. Subsequent reports said that Mr. Williams was reporting “from a balcony overlooking Tahrir Square,” rather than from inside the square itself, a description that matches footage that was broadcast, and that he repeated in an interview with The New York Times last year.
 
 

Here is the video of Williams' actual balcony report overlooking Tahrir Square with nary a horseman nor camel rider in sight:



Since Brian Williams has a lot of spare time on his hands due to his six month suspension from NBC Nightly News, perhaps he can watch Lawrence of Arabia and envision himself charging on horseback as he morphs into Brian of Arabia screaming "NO PRISONERS!" although judging from his Arab Spring situation perhaps "NO ROOM SERVICE!" might be a more appropriate battle cry.

 

Source URL: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/pj-gladnick/2015/04/25/brian-arabia-brian-williams-also-fibbed-about-arab-spring

[rangerrebew]

- FrontPage Magazine - http://www.frontpagemag.com -



The Difference Between Brian Williams’ Lies and the Media’s Usual Lies

Posted By Daniel Greenfield On April 25, 2015 @ 11:22 pm In The Point | No Comments
 

Brian Williams is being investigated for self-glorifying lies, putting himself on the spot in crisis situations and exaggerating the danger to himself, a common enough lie among journalists and politicians, both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden did the same thing.

But journalists who routinely lie about the events themselves are not investigated. It’s only when they insert themselves into the narrative or invent a specific incident that the problem begins.

The media collectively told major whoppers about Katrina, one of the subjects of Brian Williams’ lies. 5 minutes of listening to the news back then gave you the impression that cannibalism had set in because of George W. Bush.

The stories turned out to be vastly exaggerated. The media failed to hold Mayor Nagin, since indicted, accountable for either his neglect or racism, while blaming Bush. No one was investigated for those lies.

Brian Williams’ only crime there was repeating the same lies while embedding himself into the story. And he wasn’t the only one either.

The same goes for Tahrir Square. Again Brian Williams what everyone in the media was doing. But he went further by making himself the story and placing himself in a location where he wasn’t.

This is also true of the Rolling Stone fraternity rape hoax. If the story had relied on generalities and repeated the same safe media cliches, nothing would have happened. It came apart because of its focus on one incident with enough specifics that it could be taken apart.

No investigations are run of media types who accuse fraternities in general terms. It’s only when they fake a specific incident that is easily disprovable that they enter the danger zone.

Our democracy is threatened far more by these general lies, the big picture lies from which the fake incidents stem, than Brian Williams repeating their lies and then putting himself into the lie.


Article printed from FrontPage Magazine: http://www.frontpagemag.com

URL to article: http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/dgreenfield/the-difference-between-brian-williams-lies-and-the-medias-usual-lies/

URLs in this post:

[1] Image: http://www.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/150207180633-brian-williams-new-orleans-report-780x439.jpg