I suspect that the only people happy with the bruhaha surrounding NBC Anchor Brian Williams are Bill Cosby, Kim-Jung-un and Justin Bieber. The news spotlight has certainly dimmed on those three celebrities! Then there is Bruce Jenner and his auto accident, transformation and...oh let's just forget him and concentrate on rich Brian Williams.
I'm sure Mr. Williams is earning more money than any three NFL football players. So he'll be shedding his tears all the way to the bank, if the NBC "suits" decide to dump him and give the job to Lester Holt. It doesn't take much flack for a thin-skinned corporation to suffer when one of their highly paid executives has created a public relations fire storm. Just consider the Ohio State University former President, Dr. E. Gordon Gee, when he uttered "damn those Catholics" on an open mike. Gee was given the boot in a matter of hours.
But Brian Williams can be forgiven by legions of fans, probably millions who have admired his forthright news delivery and handsome persona. He is as much a fixture for the nightly news as was Walter Cronkite and Anderson Cooper and David Muir are now. The latter two often hop on a plane and travel overnight right into the heart of a breaking news event. That takes a lot of chutzpa!
Before getting back to Brian Williams, I'm thinking of a scenario 25 years ago when ABC news anchor Peter Jennings gave me a moral boost. I was attending a convention of television news producers, directors and anchors in San Mateo, California. My invitation happened because I had appeared on "20/20" with Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs to discuss my faux New York Lottery winner, Lee Chirillo. She had graced the full front pages of the NEW YORK POST and DAILY NEWS>
There were a thousand people at the convention. I shared a panel discussion on fake news with Emily Rooney (yes, Andy's daughter) and Richard Tuck. Emily was a TV news reporter in Boston and Tuck was a publicity hound who once waved Richard Nixon's private train out of the Chicago station as he was delivering his speech on the rear observation car platform. Very embarrassing for "Tricky Nixon."
Jerry Nachman, former Executive Editor of the NY POST moderated the panel discussion and he teamed up with Emily Rooney in making disparaging comments over my fooling the media with fake news stories. They didn't like me and fired away. I tried to defend my stunts as satirical, in between the serial killers and predators that dominated the news. Several hundred news people in the audience provided planty of boos and hisses when I spoke. Some even stormed out of the conference room.
That night at dinner in the ballroom, there were 50 tables with open seating for 12 at each one. Every table was soon filled, except for the one where I sat all alone. Nobody wanted to sit with me. Shrimp cocktail was the appetizer as I sensed the conspiracy to ignore me. Then, suddenly, Peter Jennings approached my table and sat next to me. More reporters approached and soon there were 12 diners chatting amiably with me.
So, Brian Williams might feel badly because close friends are boycotting him over his remarks that he was in a helicopter over Iraq taking on rocket and grenade fire. And it turns out he wasn't in that particular flying machine, rather the second one, he shouldn't be censored for his indiscretion. Especially after his apology and a promise to be a good boy hereinafter, as the legal beagles like to say.
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