Since it has nearly derailed this thread on NBC’s Brian Williams: Brian Williams Helicopter story: blowhard BS, but not a fireable offense - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board
Have at it!
How can we debate something that does not exist.
It is certain that he was never in the Falklands War, only ‘experiencing’ it in the way that any other individual outside the warzone experienced it.
Does this matter? No. He is to news and truth as Pravda and Izvestia were.
Propagandist, not a Journalist.
Lie-o-meter:
Brian Williams 8
Bill O’Reilly 4
I’m not going through that other thread, so maybe someone can establish this:
Did either Williams or O’Reilly report significantly false information when acting as reporters, or was it only while they were acting as entertainers?
I disagree (but that’s okay). I think we can both agree that on the “response-o-meter”, Williams’ ‘I’m terribly sorry and terribly embarrassed’ is far more honorable than O’Reilly’s ‘left-wing media haters are out to get me!’.
I agree with this. But, Bill O’Reilly went after Brian Williams for his lies, so I add him some additional “hypocrite” points.
Similar to how I don’t care of some guy gets a hummer in a bathroom stall, but if he is an anti-gay politician, it becomes more interesting.
Definitely. But only a fool would ever expect a monstrous egoist like O’Reilly to ever admit error. The guy is a machine of self-assuredness, well beyond the point of fault.
Did he? I honestly don’t know as I don’t watch FoxNews and am not up on the history of BO’s comments about BW.
Yeah, back on February 11, O’Reilly spent a few minutes blasting Williams, which is probably what prompted Corn’s Mother Jones article the next week.
Regarding the “4” and “8” grades, above: Williams falsely claimed to have been shot at; O’Reilly claimed to have been a hero while falsely claiming that he had been shot at. I would reverse the grades given.
Do you have a link to the source?
My quick google search found this:
Well, O’Reilly’s lying certainly lets Brian Williams off the hook.
Transcript:
Today’s edition of *Reliable Sources *(CNN, 11am EST) filled in a lot of the gaps, and answered many questions asked in this and the other thread about O’Reilly’s movements during the period in question.
Host Brian Stelter talked to as many of O’Reilly’s CBS colleagues from the Falklands War days as would give statements, and/or appear on camera. He also had a compendium of clips of O’Reilly’s claims about that time, as recorded over the years.
I don’t see the entire show up on video yet, but here are some snippets and descriptions:
Not seeing how that is “going after” BW. Pretty much just giving the chronology of events that led to his demise. There were lots of folks who were “going after” BW in pretty vicious ways, but I wouldn’t put BO’s comments in that category. YMMV.
As for O’Reilly himself, he’s told enough lies/fibs/whatever that his days a straight news reporter are over. But that’s not what he’s doing now, so it’s not really an issue.
Your claim here is that for O’Reilly, because of “what he’s doing now,” credibility is irrelevant.
Are you really asserting that he doesn’t care if his “non-fiction” books and his remarks (on television, radio, and Internet) are labelled and widely acknowledged as being complete fabrications?
Really?
He was embedded with a unit on the front lines in the War on Chirstmas.
I heard he was stationed with a British Thermal Unit during the Falklands.