[Charlie Southerland]

Was Brian Williams' "stolen valor" story, "lie" an egregious offense by a major network journalist. What should happen to him. Whaddya say?

[John Whitworth]

I've no idea what this is about but as a general rule no-one should ever quit. Always wait to be fired. Quitting is playing the boss's game and leaves you out of pocket. Remember - all bosses are bastards and that is why Trade Unions were invented.

Oh, and government bosses are the worst of all.

Ah, now I see. A journalist lying. Nothing to see here.

[Woody Long]

This thread is the first time I've heard about it. Anyway, the video of Williams's apology is here.

— Woody

[Skip Dewahl]

Let's just wait and not jump the gun, please. Anyway, I'm sure scandal-mongering sites like TMZ are sniffing into his history to see if he hasn't established a pattern of embellishing the truth. If this is a one-time thing, then just let's all give it a rest and not try to gleefully ruin another human being. I understand he told what was substantially factual when he first recounted his adventure, but as time went on perhaps things got jumbled.

[Jeanne G]

Originally Posted by Skip Dewahl

Let's just wait and not jump the gun, please...let's all give it a rest and not try to gleefully ruin another human being.

Skip, I like the cut of your jib (slant rhyme anyone ). Most sensible thing I've heard in awhile.

I have no idea what's behind this. Maybe he embellished, maybe someone is setting him up now (his speech sure did have the air of, did I say it right, did I do good?). Politicians lie all the time, and we catch them on air, then they retract, waffle, pontification, spin...and later do it all again. And we seem stuck w/ the bastards anyways. Why do we care about this poor bugger, not like he's running our country.

Jeanne

[Wintaka]

Brian Williams should ask to be traded to Fox News.

WTP?

[John Whitworth]

It must be better over with you. Our journalists lie all the time. All except Andrew Gilligan and the Beeb (the home of lying journalists and child molesters) fired him for telling the truth.

[Michael Juster]

It has been an awful year for NBC News. David Gregory's ineptitude and eccentricity almost destroyed the venerable "Meet The Press" and Gregory walked away with $4 million in severance. Nancy Snyderman, their health correspondent, shamefully broke an Ebola curfew and got only a slap on the wrist. NBC News signed up Chelsea Clinton--as a "correspondent," not a commentator--for occasional fluff pieces at $600,000 per year even though she was a board member of a publicly traded company. Eventually NBC backed out of that very, very bad idea.

Having said all that, I am inclined to be charitable toward Brian Williams. I have been in positions where life has been like the proverbial drinking from a fire hose, and after a while you do sincerely start to conflate events because human beings have capacity limits. That may have been what happened here based on what I have read.

I believe that Williams has a long and honorable track record (even though we do not see eye-to-eye on most issues), and he fessed up promptly and apologetically, and I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

[Quincy Lehr]

Of the deliberate falsehoods spread about Iraq by the American media, Williams's is fairly picayune and stands out only in its self-aggrandizing quality. Judith Miller may not be with the New York Times anymore, but she still gets work despite being one of the most catastrophic purveyors of WMD lies out there.

[John Whitworth]

Didn't Hilary Clinton do much the same sort of thing?