By Deborah Hilcove
The news hit hard: Brian Williams, anchor of NBC’s Nightly News, had received an unpaid six-month suspension due to his acknowledged exaggeration of a helicopter episode in Iraq. The story reminded me of my onetime employer, Darrow J. “Duke” Tully, former publisher of The Arizona Republic and the Phoenix Gazette. As society columnist for the Gazette, I often encountered him at charity balls. Whereas other guests wore black tie, Tully wore a lieutenant-colonel’s uniform and talked about having been an Air Force combat pilot in Korea and Viet Nam. The kicker? Until his December 1985 resignation, only a few close friends knew Tully had faked his military career. Embellishment? Exaggeration? Outright lies? For the past 10 years, Williams has anchored NBC Nightly News. His steady, well-modulated tones eased our concerns as he brought us the news. Now, suddenly, he himself has become the news. The headliner has become the headline. Embellishment? In 2005, ensconced in New Orleans’ Ritz-Carlton after Hurricane Katrina, he described the shock of seeing a body float past. Exaggeration? We don’t know. In 2005-6, Williams gave varying accounts of risks faced when he reported the Israel-Hezbollah war. Early on, he spoke of being in a Black Hawk helicopter with an Israeli general and described the preceding rocket fire. Later, he offered another version, claiming he was in a military helicopter when Hezbollah’s Katyusha rockets passed just below. Outright lies? Again, we can’t be sure. Referring to Navy SEAL Team 6, Williams suggested he had once been embedded with the elite team that killed Osama bin Laden. However, a U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman told The Huffington Post that journalists are not embedded with any unit conducting counter-terrorism missions. His downfall happened at a recent New York Rangers game. Williams appeared with an Iraq war veteran, paying tribute to a retiring command sergeant major. He later suggested the sergeant had protected him in Iraq when his helicopter was forced down. After a hasty landing by the wounded pilot, the NBC News team was rescued by U.S. Army 3rd Infantry. The pilot, he said, received the Purple Heart. However, the military publication Stars and Stripes interviewed Williams, who admitted his error. There was no rescue, no wounded pilot, no Purple Heart. At that point, Williams stepped aside. NBC has named Lester Holt the temporary anchor and promises a thorough investigation. My concern is that the loss of credibility by journalists may lead more people to look for news in social media, in blogs and twitter accounts, many written by amateurs who may lack the contacts and networks available to professional journalists. While some do present excellent work, others sensationalize stories to gain readership, and we readers are not always able to sift through the chaff. This is why we depend on credible sources to bring us unbiased and balanced news. This is the responsibility of our social media, our television networks, our newspapers. And this is our responsibility as an informed, intelligent public: to seek the truth, even when it hits hard.
