June 19, 2015

Brian Williams: "This came from clearly a bad place, a bad urge inside of me."

"This was clearly ego driven, the desire to better my role in a story I was already in."
"Why is it when we are trying to say ‘I am sorry’ that we can’t come out and say, ‘I’m sorry’... Looking back, it is very clear I never intended to. It got mixed up. It got turned around in my mind.... I know why people feel the way they do... I get this. I am responsible for this. I am sorry for what happened here. I am different as a result, and I expect to be held to a different standard.... I would like to take this opportunity to say that what has happened in the past has been identified and torn apart by me and has been fixed and has been dealt with... Going forward, there are going to be different rules of the road... I was reading these newspaper stories, not liking the person I was reading about... These statements I made, I own this, I own up to this.... In our work, I have always treated words very carefully.... It is clear that after work, when I got out of the building, when I got out of that realm, I used a double standard. Something changed, and I was sloppy, and I said things that weren’t true. Looking back, that is plain."
That's him, treating words very carefully. Words are his stock in trade. He's used them and he's still using them. For his purposes. I can't imagine why we'd consume what he's serving. 

59 comments:

Jim said...

Brian Williams, honest enough for MSNBC, too dishonest for NBC. I like it!

Curious George said...

NBC can't try to run this guy back up the flagpole...but he's a joke. An internet meme.

Deja Voodoo said...

MSNBC: mini-me to Minitrue.

Curious George said...
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Gahrie said...

Words are his stock in trade. He's used them and he's still using them. For his purposes. I can't imagine why we'd consume what he's serving.

Please explain the difference between him and Ms. Clinton? If anything surely we should hold Hillary to the higher standard?

Nonapod said...

Is being consigned to MSNBC Purgatory a fitting punishment for a liar? Or will he simply be able to hone his dissembly skills in that house of lies like a convict becoming a better criminal in prison.

Anonymous said...

"This came from clearly a bad place, a bad urge inside of me."

I had to go look up this man's birth date. He's just about as old as I am. It is incomprehensible to me that an adult on the far side of middle age should talk like this. It reads like the speech of a young child who thinks about his emotions with a primitive set of magical, self-disassociating ideas and terms acquired in a pre-school run by the village shaman. "A bad place, a bad urge". Broken man, or broken society?

Anonymous said...

Williams is no Obama. Obama can shift the blame for his every fault to someone else masterfully. Williams needs to take a few cues from the one. Here's a guy who is now telling Democrats, "I didn't say Yes I can, I said Yes We Can!" and so it's all their fault.

You get what you pay for.

Scott said...

NBC: That's okay Brian. Here's another $10 million.

Unknown said...

Perhaps - just maybe - we can go back to basics, with this man as only one reason to do so. We once understood that someone who tells lies, for whatever reason, is to be considered thereafter simply as a liar about any and all things, and therefore best shunned by his society.

cubanbob said...

Brian Williams is yet another reason why cable should be unbundled and Glenn Reynolds Hollywood Tax should be reinstated. Once again NBC lives up to it's moniker the Nothing But Crap network.

sparrow said...

Obama's no better; he just has many more willing collaborators to paper over his lies.

pm317 said...

I am surprised by how hard and fast this Obama footlicker fell. Wasn't there something Obama could do to soften it?

michaele said...

His use of the scapegoating phrase " the bad urge inside me" was no better than a kid saying "the dog ate my homework". I really went into listening to this interview with a willingness to let him have a clean slate but his careful use of language to let himself off the hook really disappointed me. He needed to say "I lied and it was wrong of me to lie".

Heartless Aztec said...

It's called atonement. And every person who is sincere in acknowledging their faults and failures will try to atone the best way that they can. Sometimes all at once, other times in a pastiche of apologies and actions. And while we don't have to buy in or believe, it's more about him atoning to his own soul than ours.

As Jackson Browne so memorably sang so long ago - "Please don't confront me with my failures for I, have not forgotten them."

mikee said...

"I can't imagine why we'd consume what he's serving. "

Hey, how's Hillary's campaign going?

William said...

Is it more important for a newscaster to be likable than to be credible? His history subverts his credibility but not his likability. You could even claim that his tarnished reputation even enhance his entertainment value. I think he would be just the man to do the definitive interview of Rachel Dolazel.

JAORE said...

So he will continue on-air at a lesser spot. How nice for him. And, I suppose we are supposed to believe what he will tell us.

We have come to a place when serial liars, caught red handed serial liars, are allowed to continue to speak with authority. Ms. Clinton being the latest, and most prominent example. In a world with even marginal sense of shame and justice she would be a laughing stock and would have NO future in politics.

But, being on "our team" and having a chance to "win" trumps all of that.

cubanbob said...

@ surfed I would take his atonement more seriously if he had in part atoned by forgoing a ten million dollar payday.

MathMom said...

Something changed, and I was sloppy, and I said things that weren’t true. Looking back, that is plain."

Plain as mud.

How about, "I am a pathological liar." That would be plain.

What is not plain, is why he is still employed.

kjbe said...

surfed, I agree.

Heartless Aztec said...

@mrs.e - As a former teacher I understand that a class can and will often take their cues from the professor behind the podium. They want a good grade after all. They will tend to agree and often amplify back what they are hearing. And while the professor was even handed in her assessment her class of commentators amplified - all assholes all the way down for the most part. Nary a conflicting or discerning comment to the contrary. As is often the case in commenting threads though to a lesser extent here than elsewhere.

Curious George said...

"surfed said...
It's called atonement. And every person who is sincere in acknowledging their faults and failures will try to atone the best way that they can. Sometimes all at once, other times in a pastiche of apologies and actions. And while we don't have to buy in or believe, it's more about him atoning to his own soul than ours."

No, it's called bullshit. Spin.

"“Why is it when we are trying to say ‘I am sorry’ that we can’t come out and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ ” he said. “Looking back, it is very clear I never intended to. It got mixed up. It got turned around in my mind.”

Mr. Lauer asked whether Mr. Williams gave thought at the time of the controversy of going on air and directly saying “I lied” when he went on the air and apologized for the helicopter incident.

In response, Mr. Williams said, “I know people would see it that way,” he said. “It is not what happened.”

In response to a question about whether the fabrication of the helicopter incident was conscious, Mr. Williams said that he was “not trying to mislead people, that to me is a huge difference here.” He said that he had told the story about the helicopter incident correctly for years before he told it incorrectly."

There is nothing in these statements that say "atonement".

Roughcoat said...

You have to listen to the audio to get the full nauseating impact of his words. Listening to him speak that horseshit makes you want to bitch-slap him until he cries like a baby.

walter said...

At least he's out of pretend journalism now that he's at MSNBC.

"It is clear that after work, when I got out of the building, when I got out of that realm, I used a double standard."

You mean he told truths when yapping at the bar? No..he seems to be very clumsily suggesting being on location put him in that bad place.

"I was sloppy, and I said things that weren’t true. Looking back, that is plain.”"
He just can't allow himself to use the word lie. There's a big difference between being "sloppy" and lying. He thinks he can do his own Gish Gallop in this half-assed mea culpa.
So what do you do with someone who admits to being sloppy and inaccurate? Put them in "breaking news", of course. What could go wrong?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"Brian Williams, honest enough for MSNBC, too dishonest for NBC. I like it!"

That's what struck me, as well. A tacit admission that MSNBC is all bullshit.

Sebastian said...

"I can't imagine why we'd consume what he's serving"

Pretty boy lib and a useful liar. Even more useful now that he's on probation. He won't dare deviate from the party line.

Roughcoat said...

No, seriously, you really, really have to listen to the audio of the interview with him to fully appreciate just how obnoxious he is. You have to hear the smarm in his voice, that newscaster faux-sincere tone and attitude. You have to let the full force of all the horseshit he's putting out hit you full in the face. He's truly pathetic and I almost feel sorry for him because he's so transparently full of shit and yet so unaware of it. This guy gives horseshit a bad name.

Kyzer SoSay said...

Did he once use the word "unethical" in describing his own behavior? Or was he being too careful for that truth to slip?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I believe that in Britain they call them "news readers" and that always struck me as a practice we should adopt.

SteveR said...

Brian, you're nothing to me now. You're not a brother, you're not a friend. I don't want to know you or what you do. I don't want to see you on my TV, I don't want you near my house. You understand?

Christopher B said...

Our society has developed a serious problem distinguishing 'lies' from 'mistakes', and our public discourse suffers greatly for it.

Christopher B said...

And what Jim and Cracker E said, a tacit admission that MSNBC is all noise and no signal.

Scott said...

Brian Williams must have the same kind of contract that Milton Berle had with NBC. Maybe they just can't get rid of him.

David said...

Scott said...
Brian Williams must have the same kind of contract that Milton Berle had with NBC. Maybe they just can't get rid of him.


Doubtless he knows a lot about NBC that The Bigs do not want publicized. That could explain a lot.

David said...

He is back to his job as a liar reporting about liars.

Curious George said...

God, what a douchebag. He lied. He knew he was lying. He thought no one would ever call him on it. Sorry asshole, your phony apology doesn't cut it. This guy is on his way to the "Dan Rather exile" that he richly deserves...MSNBC is just a short stop. The dirtbags there are going to eat him alive and move him down the road...they have ambition too.

Rae said...
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Big Mike said...

I like what Ann Coulter tweeted:

The mafia must be looking at the Brian Williams situation and wishing they had a place like MSNBC to hide their dead bodies.

rhhardin said...

The words he's missing are that it's a celebrity lie. Celebrities are supposed to tell entertaining stories and nobody cares if they're true.

This mixes with the news media's pretended standard of reality rather than entertainment.

News is about entertainment. That's what Williams should have said.

GrapeApe said...

Good grief... Who in this day and age was ever surprised that this man lied in order to puff himself up? This is what the media does. Present themselves as on the front lines, present themselves as experts... These people have no expertise at all. You'd think these people might be able to diagram a sentence since they work with words. BS. Send me a journalist with a second degree in say, some sort of science, might listen.

Etienne said...
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traditionalguy said...

People pay for the familiar face and voice they relate to inside their unconscious from many views. That is why there is no such thing as bad publicity in Celebrity World. All time on camera builds up the magic. They are paying Williams NOT to take his magic face and voice to a competitor.

Anonymous said...

I noticed that he said he would never hold himself up to a higher standard. Twice, he said "a different standard." That's not the same thing.

ObeliskToucher said...

His words make sense if you interpret them as part of NBC's brand recovery campaign for the Brian Williams "product". His brand image prior to this debacle was the wise, down-to-earth guy-next-door news celebrity in the Walter Cronkite/Tom Brokaw tradition (not saying that he was actually any of those things in real life). This brand was worth many millions of dollars to NBC in viewership and reputation, enough to justify paying him $10 million per year. NBC had the choice of cutting him loose (like CBS did Dan Rather) or finding some way to keep him around until his brand recovered enough to bring him back full-time (sorry, Lester Holt, but you're still the sub). Unlike CBS, however, NBC has a kid brother network that they can use as a rehabilitation assignment -- and that's what they've done.

His words come straight from the pen of a some much younger media consultant who probably has a lot of experience helping people like Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Lindsey Lohan describe the "bad place that their heads were in" when they did that stupid, brand-damaging whatever. It just *sounds* silly and juvenile when it's coming from him...

Dan Hossley said...

The urge came from a "bad place". Yeah. Like his character.

David Begley said...

Headline: Williams the Liar Joins the Loons at MSNBC. No One Notices.

Darrell said...

The only way out of this mess is to send some of that $10 million to me. We all know it.

john said...

His words make a lot of sense to a female. That's NBC's, and MSNBC's, core audience. That's all the apology means, and that's all that's necessary.

Besides, he obviously has lined up his apology tour on the Opra, View, Ellen, Rachael 1, Rachael 2, Martha, Wendy, Chelsea, and Mo'nique shows.

khesanh0802 said...

For a guy who reads news Williams is surprisingly inarticulate. Of course his high level of self-deception makes it difficult to finish a cohesive sentence. Wouldn't it be a lot more effective to say "I f***ked up, I made stuff up because I wasn't satisfied with my own performance in a combat zone. It was stupid of me and I have learned a difficult lesson about myself. I will do better."?

My gag reflex was activated by the statement: "when I got out of the building, when I got out of that realm, I used a double standard." First, what does that mean, really ? Second, is he saying "out of work I am a schmuck?

He can't last.

Fen said...

Something changed, and I was sloppy, and I said things that weren’t true.

*snort* The problem is that this is just the tip of the iceberg for him. And he only got caught because he became complacent in his lies.

Its like coming home 10 mins early to find your wife in bed with another man, and being expected to believe it was the first and only time. Nah, first time cheaters take great care to hide. The more they cheat the less energy they put into covering it up. Its human nature - why spend the time and energy going to Deception Level 10 when Level 3 appears to be working just fine?

Brian Williams has been lying about EVERYTHING, not just his personal exploits.

Anonymous said...

Hey, liberals. Are people basically good, or do they contain "bad places" and "bad urges"?

I know what I think--yes. Even celebrity news readers.

Johhnybandit said...

If a man can be a woman, and a white can be a black, why can't a liar, be honest?

Williams' use of psycho-babble terms like "bad places" and emotional terms like "urges", play well with typical leftist. They are all about emotions (amirite?). To a leftist, emotions, trump all true, observable, behavior.

I have always believed that a man can atone for his sin, and should be given a second chance. But this second chance most be monitored to insure that the subject has truly changed, and that he is not just mouthing platitudes to cover his ass.

I hope that Williams transfer to MSNBC is to monitor his behavior, or as my father use to say: "Give him enough rope to hang himself". But the pessimistic side of me believes that the "powers that be" are giving him a new podium to spew his lies, without worrying about that pesky thing called truth. All he needs to do to is keep talking about his "feeling", and the moon-bats will be happy to lap it up.

walter said...

He's now in the senate and wary of comment, I'm sure, but I picture Brian borrowing some of his self-talk:

"Because I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me!"

wildswan said...

Maybe NBC is hoping that Brian Williams will take down MSNBC - like a drowning man pulling down a would-be-rescuer who is a poor swimmer. Because Williams had a contract and he got a lawyer so it would be expensive to get rid of him. In NYC bad teachers who lawyer-up are sent to a room where there is nothing to do and they get paid for being there. As I remember, it's called the "rubber room." So MSNBC is NBC's "rubber room." And maybe NBC can't get rid of MSNBC for the same reason it can't get rid of Williams - because of lawyers. So some genius said: "Put the two them together and they will pull each other under. And also everyone at NBC will learn not to lie because a Fate Worse Than Death - a job at MSNBC - awaits liars."

In this corner, Rachel Madow. In this, the challenger, Brian Williams. Fighting for the Heavy Weight crown.

walter said...

He seems to suggest he wasn't himself. Perhaps.."Brianna"?

themightypuck said...

He is reading the news. A pretty face and good diction seems sufficient.

themightypuck said...

seem...

Anonymous said...

So much bullshit. Just admit that you lied. You lied, embellished, and bullshitted when it served your purposes. For that your lost your job and the trust it requires.

Please go away.