“THE use of the air waves is not a right, but a privilege.”
This was one of the things I learned as a student and later on as an Instructor at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication which has stayed with me all through the more than two decades practicing my profession as a television and radio news anchor.
The quest for the truth, the accuracy and precision in reporting the news has been what I have known to be the guiding principle of ABS-CBN News, cognizant of the fact that people watch and/or listen to our news programs because they believe in the integrity, fairness, and discernment of the men and women reporting to the world what happened that news day, a building block in writing history.
Yes, there might have been many instances when an organization followed a wrong lead, or was given false information by a source, or failed to get different perspectives of an issue in a timely manner, but if such news organization acted in good faith and rectified its error immediately, then its credibility is saved.
However, when a news anchor or reporter knowingly and purposely exaggerates a story; or adds elements to the narrative which are not factual; or puts him/herself in the story even if such inclusion is not what really happened just to boost his /her presence, image, or ratings — there is when his/her credibility is damaged.
This may very well be how NBC news anchor and correspondent and managing editor Brian Williams legacy may be written, depending on the outcome of further investigation in the “lies” made and kept for more than 10 years.
Last February 4, Brian Williams apologized in his newscast for mistakenly claiming he had been on a helicopter that was shot down by ground fire in Iraq in 2003.
The New York Times reported the turn of events leading up to Williams’ “confession”:
Last last week, NBC Nightly News filmed Mr. Williams taking a soldier to a New York Rangers game. The public address announcer at the game explained to the crowd that “U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Tim Terpak was responsible for the safety of Brian Williams and his NBC News team after their Chinook helicopter was hit and crippled by enemy fire” during the invasion of Iraq.
Mr. Terpak received a standing ovation, and, on Facebook, where NBC posted a video of the story, Mr. Williams was also praised. But one commenter cast doubt on the story, which Mr. Williams also told in vivid and specific detail to David Letterman in 2013.
“Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft,” wrote Lance Reynolds on Facebook. “I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.”
The military newspaper Stars and Stripes, which first reported on the Facebook comment, identified Mr. Reynolds as the flight engineer on the helicopter. He and other crew members told Stars and Stripes that Mr. Williams was not in their helicopter that had been shot down, but in one that arrived an hour later.
On Wednesday [February 4], Mr. Williams, the news anchor, replied on Facebook and admitted that he had made a mistake, acknowledging that he was not in an aircraft hit by ground fire, but instead was in a following aircraft.
“You are absolutely right and I was wrong,” he wrote, adding that he had in fact been on the helicopter behind the one that had been hit. Constant viewing of the video showing him inspecting the impact area, he said, “and the fog of memory over 12 years — made me conflate the two, and I apologize.”
On Wednesday’s night’s Nightly News broadcast, Mr. Williams reiterated his apology.
“This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not,” Mr. Williams said. “I hope they know they have my greatest respect and also now my apology.”
BUT this just opened a can of worms for Williams, as many people came up and questioned his trustworthiness in telling the news stories in the decades he’s been in the profession as a broadcast journalist.
What about his reporting on Hurricane Katrina? The Washington Post asked, “Was Brian Williams terrorized by gangs at the Ritz-Carlton during Katrina?” as he said in a TV interview and told two book authors.
The Washington Post went further to rundown stories Williams told that have been debunked:
“The one he told about witnessing a suicide at the Superdome. Or the one he told about watching a body float past the Ritz-Carlton, perched at the edge of an otherwise dry French Quarter. Or the one about the dysentery he said he got. And, finally, the story he told about the Ritz-Carlton gangs. Three separate individuals told reporters no gangs infiltrated the Ritz-Carlton.”
If indeed Brian Williams knowingly fabricated these lies for selfish or for whatever reasons, he has lost his integrity, and therefore his credibility and trustworthiness as a news man.
We, the public, do not want to be knowingly lied to. This is a betrayal in his use of his privilege.
Brian Williams should resign.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
