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Post by fauxmaha on Feb 5, 2015 9:01:22 GMT -5
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Post by millring on Feb 5, 2015 9:15:04 GMT -5
I've been listening to comments about this all morning and I say it's a tempest in a pot of tea. When he exaggerated, he did so in his role as a celebrity and tv personality and he was doing it to get his network some positive pr by acknowledging the heroic efforts of the military (the principle focus of the exaggeration). In an newscast, as far as I can tell, he simply reported the story 12 years ago.
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Post by majorminor on Feb 5, 2015 10:31:11 GMT -5
Did you read his mealy mouth "explanation/apology"? Conflated indeed.
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Post by aquaduct on Feb 5, 2015 10:53:13 GMT -5
What the world really wants to know is if he was the ballboy in the Patriot's locker room.
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Post by Marshall on Feb 5, 2015 11:06:17 GMT -5
Gee, I liked the guy. I prefer him to the other anchors out there. But I realize to make it to that level you've got to me more aggressive than just a nice guy. This doesn't surprise me. But it bothers me just the same. They made a big deal out of the story again at the Rangers game. I'm sure he thought he was honoring his military friend. But truth is truth. And this was clearly an exaggeration that had too many legs to correct. So, he let it ride. Sad mistake for the business of truth. He's come down a step in my eyes. Though, like I said, I never totally buy into anybody's media persona.
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Post by millring on Feb 5, 2015 11:13:13 GMT -5
I guess I never saw the news as being so closely connected to truth and so devoid of human foible.
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Post by Marshall on Feb 5, 2015 11:16:18 GMT -5
No. You see it as a conspiracy to misdirect public opinion. (Watch out. Hammond will soon pounce to defend the honor of reporterdom. )
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Post by fauxmaha on Feb 5, 2015 11:20:35 GMT -5
What's important is that none of this takes anything away from his fabulous hair.
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Post by Marshall on Feb 5, 2015 11:23:16 GMT -5
His head is lopsided you know. His chin goes one way and his nose goes the other. He never looks straight at the camera. So you're always seeing a slight profile. Only his nose looks directly at the camera.
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Post by millring on Feb 5, 2015 11:26:02 GMT -5
No. You see it as a conspiracy to misdirect public opinion. I know you're just kidding, but since that seems to be the assumption to which most people jump, I'll just repeat again that it couldn't be further from the truth regarding my views about the media.
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Post by fauxmaha on Feb 5, 2015 11:31:29 GMT -5
This business reminds me of an old Stephen Wright joke that went something like "The other day I..[pause]...[apparent confusion]...no, that was someone else."
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Post by Chesapeake on Feb 5, 2015 18:50:10 GMT -5
In the absence so far) of Hammond.... My instinct is not to pile on this poor fellow. I feel sorry for him. But he has blown his credibility as a newsman. He is either delusional or a flat-out liar who apparently thought he would never be caught - which in itself is bizarre, given there were so many witnesses. It's a well-known temptation among explorers, writers, and other exotic critters, to make up stuff about what happened to them and what they did that went unseen. It looks like he figured that since he got away with telling this whopper once or twice, he was home free and could keep telling it forever more. His integrity as one who is supposed to be delivering truth every night is shot. I don't think he will survive, at least not in his current capacity, if at all in the news business.
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Post by Chesapeake on Feb 5, 2015 18:56:05 GMT -5
In the meantime, I'm sure he is a soul tortured with regrets. Whom the gods would destroy, they will first make mad.
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Post by jdd2 on Feb 5, 2015 19:21:34 GMT -5
This guy is a real human compared the shell that is Jim Clancy.
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Post by fauxmaha on Feb 5, 2015 19:47:08 GMT -5
In the absence so far) of Hammond.... My instinct is not to pile on this poor fellow. I feel sorry for him. But he has blown his credibility as a newsman. He is either delusional or a flat-out liar who apparently thought he would never be caught - which in itself is bizarre, given there were so many witnesses. It's a well-known temptation among explorers, writers, and other exotic critters, to make up stuff about what happened to them and what they did that went unseen. It looks like he figured that since he got away with telling this whopper once or twice, he was home free and could keep telling it forever more. His integrity as one who is supposed to be delivering truth every night is shot. I don't think he will survive, at least not in his current capacity, if at all in the news business. My take goes something like this: I can imagine how psychologically shocking a situation like that must be...being put in a situation where real people with real guns are pointing them at you with bad intentions. That's got to be a jolt, to say the least. I can see how in the adrenalin-fueled rush of the moment, Williams could have honestly twisted a few facts one way or another, merged a few stories together, etc. But what I can't see is how this has gone on for 12 years. From the bits and pieces I've picked up today, it appears as if various people who were there came forward to NBC after the original reports and said that wasn't the way it happened. There were also however many members of the NBC crew present with Williams who knew what did and what did not happen. There were various military people who knew better. Are we to believe that none of that was brought to Williams' attention, even once, before now? Are the news crew people so obsequious that they didn't dare mention his error? Did no one at NBC, having been informed of the error, think to bring it to Williams? I suppose all that is possible, but it surely seems far fetched. In short, I can give Williams the benefit of the doubt for an initially faulty memory of a harrowing experience, but I can't buy that everyone there at the time developed the same faulty memory, and I can't buy that Williams only now realized his mistake.
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Post by RickW on Feb 5, 2015 20:56:25 GMT -5
Jeff, I'm sure there was a little, or a lot, of "rally around our guys" at the time. The guys in the military kept their mouths shut like good soliders, and the news guys were with the same company.
It's such a public lie. It's what, or mostly what, he's going to be remembered for.
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Post by Village Idiot on Feb 5, 2015 22:23:55 GMT -5
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Post by Marshall on Feb 6, 2015 1:10:35 GMT -5
Reporters on or near front lines take incredible risks. History shows that. Why, now ISIS is capturing aid workers as well as reporters and threatening or doing horrible things to them. I expect anyone who takes on the reporting career volunteers for these assignments with a healthy amount of trepidation. Yet, in a strange way, you've got to have some harrowing experience on your resume to rise to the level of national broadcaster. It's sort of like being in the military. You can't raise up in the ranks without some battle experience. It's part of the job. A necessary evil. You don't relish it (unless you're psychotic), but you accept a certain amount of risk in your career.
So when some real bullets actually fly nearby, you thank your lucky stars you didn't get hit. But at the same time you have to trump up the fact you've punched your bingo card with another square. Maybe the fear that lurks in the back of your head works on your mind so your memory embellishes a little to match your inherent fear.
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Post by Marshall on Feb 6, 2015 1:16:00 GMT -5
In another vein, Mr. Williams has enjoyed some great popularity and notoriety. He's ridden the crest of media adoration. Another bingo square to fill in the game of life is to deal with a little humiliation.
It builds humility.
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Post by millring on Feb 6, 2015 5:21:10 GMT -5
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