I'm sorry. Brian Williams is a weird guy

[PCIntern]

His use of language: "Look how sporty it's getting". when referring to horrifyingly strong winds.

And other odd references.

I didn't much like him when he was on local news here in Philly. You can only imagine him in our shot-and-a-beer town. Not much improvement over the years I'm afraid.

[lapucelle]

1. Last year after the attack in Nice, France,

Williams described the vehicle that was used as a "large truck of the smaller type".

He's ridiculously pompous.

[MrScorpio]

67. Williams is the kind of guy who has to keep running his mouth...

Even when he runs out of relevant things to say.

[hlthe2b]

2. Oh, I don't know.. Despite his silly rhetoric and past scandal, I still find his presentation style

calming & professional. After years of hearing Tom Brokaw (who always sounded like he had marbles in his mouth-- and increasingly now). he is pretty welcome to me. I think his nightly news replacement, Lester Holt, has that quality too (but apparently with less personal ego baggage).

I have to admit still missing Peter Jennings--talk about consummate professional.

[JaneQPublic]

19. I like his "rhetoric."

In this age of 24/7 cable news, where most hosts and guests incessantly repeat all the same trite memes and cliches, I rather appreciate Williams' attempts to introduce a novel turn of phrase or wit.

Sure, doing so landed him in deep caca on occasion, but if we're going to blackball every journalist who has ever filed a story containing a factual innaccuracy, then the entire profession would cease to exist.

[ChubbyStar]

23. "I rather appreciate Williams' attempts to introduce a novel turn of phrase or wit. "

If someone in your immediate circle was flat out lying to you over a serious incident would you be so glib? He is a "professional journalist" and his words have meanings and ramifications. Brian Williams LIED about a serious situation, so once again I ask if your child, mother, boss, best friend, husband, brother flat out lied to you would you think it was a novel turn of phrase?

[Hangingon]

29. I agree. Tired of bland.

[JaneQPublic]

33. Did you actually see the newscast?

I did.

The story that got Williams in trouble was a tribute to a retired soldier who provided ground security for those grounded helicopters and who had just been honored at a New York Rangers hockey game while accompanied by Williams.

Williams' lie served more to make his friend appear even more heroic than it did to aggrandize Williams himself.

And by the way, yes, I have been lied to by loved ones on "important" matters and sometimes I forgave them.

[shanny]

37. actually, what got him in trouble was serial exaggerating (i.e. lying)

about things like being in a helicopter when it was damaged by rocket fire in the early days in Iraq. he told the tale more than once

and that was not the first, or only occasion: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/nbc-news-finds-brian-williams-embellished-at-least-11-times/2015/04/25/467e7c74-eafb-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html?utm_term=.86f0edc1e2eb

[JaneQPublic]

41. WaPo published stories later learned to be fabricated.

For example:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Cooke

Shouldn't this scandal and similar ones, along with countless corrections and retactions, mean we should we forever discount the paper as a worthless lying rag?

I don't think so.

[bathroommonkey76]

49. Don't forget the NYT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayson_Blair

[shanny]

60. Ok. Is NPR a good enough source for you?

Or NBC's own investigation?

[ChubbyStar]

43. Why yes I saw the newscast

Doesn't make him any less of a smarmy liar. Next?

[pangaia]

35. He's a professional journalost.

Just another script reader with nice suits and a good hairdresser.

[ChubbyStar]

45. Hell YES!

Thank you for the levity.

[pangaia]

50. Actually it started as a typo "he's not a professional journalist" was the intention.

but then.. sometimes the best things happen from mistakes.,

I was in a recording session once and the drummer messed up... turned out the be the best take of the day.



:&gt ))

[elias7]

66. As do I

No one likes a literalist

[Chemisse]

42. Peter Jennings was great.

I feel the same way about Brian Williams - 'calming and professional', and was sad to see him proven to have exaggerated. I like Lester Holt also.

[Trust Buster]

3. I like Brian Williams. I think he is one of the best in the business.

[Orrex]

7. Aside from that whole, you know, shocking dishonesty thing

He reads a prompter effectively, and he was pretty good on his Sesame Street cameo, so I guess there's that.

[Trust Buster]

8. That is just mean spiritedness.

[Orrex]

9. You're kidding, right?

His lie about being shot down in Iraq should have ended his career, and it wasn't his first or only lie.

If I told a proportionately equivalent lie in my job, I'd be fired before the end of the day. But Brian Williams gets a cushy reassignment and millions of dollars in continued income.


Mean spiritedness? Bullshit! If anything, I was too gentle.

[Trust Buster]

10. Just mean spirited IMO.

[Orrex]

11. I prefer my news-talkers to be less grossly dishonest

But hey, YMMV.

[Trust Buster]

12. None of us have ever made a mistake. I'm not so negative.

[Orrex]

13. That's horseshit. He didn't make a mistake--he told multiple deliberate lies

When someone is getting paid millions to present factual news, I expect him to present factual news. When he deliberately lies, then he should be fired.

Instead, he continues to make millions.

[Trust Buster]

14. Whatever.....have a nice Sunday.

[Orrex]

15. Whatever. Keep praising a news-talker with zero integrity.

[ChubbyStar]

17. Bravo for your posts!!!

The old "MISTAKE" canard, that shit is so past its freshness date. Thank you for calling Brian Williams out for the fraud, liar, traitor, and worthless bag of hair that he is.

[shanny]

38. exactly right

[shadowmayor]

16. Nope

Having spent a year in Iraq as a soldier with the 18th MP's during OIF3, I say fuck him. After dodging mortars and rockets and bullets and IED's and seeing the death and destruction we unleashed on an innocent country; I can never give this asshat a pass. Stolen valor is a term we use for folks pretending to be warriors in uniform when they weren't. He is supposedly a journalist, obligated to tell us the truth, and for him to lie about his experiences in Iraq is simply unforgivable.

Watching him marvel at our missiles headed toward Syria without any consideration of what life was like for those on the receiving end was deplorable. He's a GD warmonger, a liar, a coward, and a corporate shill.

Shame on him. I hope he chokes on a turd!!!

[Hoyt]

31. I suspect at lot of people, from bush to military, have lied about their experience involving Iraq.

[shadowmayor]

54. And among those who served

Far too many refuse to tell the truth. Many of my fellow soldiers still think that the Iraqi people are somehow the "bad guys" though they had nothing to do with 9-11.

What in the hell did the people of Iraq ever do to the people of the US?

[Hoyt]

61. A whole lot of people didn't tell the truth, like what possessed those

who enlisted in bush's Crusades after the invasion. Did they honestly expect Iraqis to welcome our storm-troopers into their country? Christ, before bush there were 700,000 Christians living in relative peace in Iraq. They were forced to flee with our invasion. You watch, these guys 40 or 50 years from now will wonder why they aren't treated like heroes by everyone but the Muslim haters.

[shadowmayor]

62. One of our interpreters was a Jewish convert Iraqi dude named David

When we met, I mentioned that David was not a Muslim name. He laughed and said of course it isn't. It's Hebrew.

He told us his family didn't care that he left the Islamic faith and joined the Jewish faith. We're all brothers of the book and sons of Abraham is how he put it. Strange things in strange lands. I doubt he's alive unless he made it out of Iraq.

Iraq was brewing beer before we arrived. That's right, we bombed the one Arab, predominantly Muslim country that brewed beer into the stone age. Prior to our liberation, er invasion, the Sunni and Shiite populations were living in relative peace and harmony. Was Saddam a good guy? Hell no. But neither was lil' Bush. And Iraq was demonstrably better off before the Americans arrived.

When people try to thank me for my service, I tell them "you're kidding, right?". We helped spawn ISIS or al qaeda 3.0 when I was there.

And no, I didn't see any GD flowers landing on my feet. Just mortars and IED's. What a cluster-fuck!

I was against the war before we we invaded, while we were there, and have been ever since. But - I had signed the line, and wasn't going to let some other poor slob go in my place. It's complicated. I was stop-lossed, and cross-leveled into a NY MP outfit. And I cannot fathom how ignorant the US population is about war. That is, until I realize that well-paid media fucks like BriWi helped cheerlead the whole friggin' fiasco.

[Hoyt]

65. Great post.

[panader0]

4. I know his brother from the old days.

They are quite different.

[JimGinPA]

5. My Buddy Calls Him "Handjob"...

Because of the way he strokes every one of his guests.

[SharonClark]

22. As I've said before, he's obsequious

He overly praises his guests' credentials. His guests must be embarrassed by it all.
However, his Irma storm coverage has been better.

[cilla4progress]

6. He has a certain wit

But I don't think I would like him personally. Quite self-absorbed. Probably goes with the territory.

[frogmarch]

18. I Like him and think

his show The 11th Hour is great. Until this morning when I found out he's a Democrat (I don't know who told me he was a republican), I felt guilty about liking him and his show, but now that I know he's a Dem, I feel liberated, and it explains why I never noticed him dissing a Dem.

[UTUSN]

20. Yrs before his scandal I dubbed him Wedding Cake Guy for his mannekin wardrobe/grooming

That is to say, I couldn't put my finger on it, but he seemed "off" in some way. Whatever was "wrong" about him back then, I couldn't pin an ideological gripe on him, such that my tag was the most innocuous tag that still signaled unease. Hence, the (supposedly) harmless pretentiousness of being a figurine of static perfection.

When he got to the period before his scandal blew up, the unease was getting upgraded as he was showboating about NASCAR and really being a Joe Sixpack and then how what he really thought was he had a gift for late night comedy.

Now all I see is his sealed-up tension not to be sitting where Lester HOLT is. Something that pent up, *controlled* just HAS to explode!1

Plus, my own irritation that somebody like Andy LACK salvaged him, the way Jack WELCH did with BARNICLE.

[QED]

21. I thought he said "snotty" not "sporty"

kind of perked up my ears at that.

[milestogo]

24. I'm have no idea what "sporty winds" are or what "snotty winds" are either.

Maybe "snotty winds" is like a really hard sneeze.

Maybe "sporty winds" is like when a kicker aims a really perfect kick between the goal posts, but it misses because of the "sporty winds".

[Beartracks]

28. Maybe it's in the context of boating...?

=======

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

55. It is. I've often heard it in the context of sailing:

"Sporty" winds are a somewhat understated way of describing high velocity and challenging winds.

[yortsed snacilbuper]

25. Nobody's perfect.

[arthritisR_US]

34. TY! One man cannot be all things for everybody.

[bobbieinok]

26. Always thought his shoulders got him the job!!

[stopbush]

27. I like Williams. He's quite eloquent in his own way. He often turns a phrase

sharply. He can be humorous in a unique way.

Sometimes, he swings and misses, just like any other performer (let's admit that 99% of TV newsreaders are performers). Yeah, he screwed up with his Iraq "under fire" story. Hillary did something similar. People make mistakes. Get over it.

[MuseRider]

30. It is hard enough to get fully

covered stories sometimes. I appreciate the stories coming from honest people. There are enough liars around so our major news people should be required to be honest and fired if they are not. All to self aggrandize. Only sad little men (or women) do that.

[pbmus]

32. Execs at NBC are trying to replicate Walter Cronkite...

Like Brian will ever be cronkitiesh...

[Expecting Rain]

40. Cronkite was at CBS

[ChubbyStar]

46. The poster didn't say he was

The poster said NBC was trying to replicate Cronkite.

[Vermijelli]

36. Brian Williams was there when Irma first formed

He was reporting live from a canoe in the center of the storm.

[shanny]

39. nice one

[malaise]

44. He is so fugging stiff

and corny - and he lies to impress.
Is he the only person in a suit today?

[lillypaddle]

47. He's weird alright

I've said before he has a stick up his ass - kind of prudish and almost of a different age and time.

That having been said, in this time of cookie-cutter news anchors, it's kind of refreshing, amusing, really ... to have someone like Brian Williams on. Corny for sure. But he knows his stuff.

I vote to keep him on, keep him informing and entertaining us, even though he probably doesn't even realize how entertaining he is.

Good job, Brian Williams. You are one in a ... million?

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

51. He's Peggy Noonan in a suit.

[George II]

53. He's very tedious. If I have insomnia I switch over to his 11 PM show. Asleep in minutes.

[Skittles]

57. I can't get past his South Park eyebrows

it's like they have a life of their own

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

58. I don't mind him. I think he does a pretty good job on his regular show.

[bluepen]

59. You don't like his 3-minute questions?

[Hekate]

63. He's sententious. KnR.

[Raine]

64. I like him

he's different, he takes getting used to but I find him likeable.

[PCIntern]

68. For the 20th time:

He described something as "sporty".

What does that even mean?