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Reaction Roundup: Brian Williams' Apology
By: TV News Desk Jun. 19, 2015
News anchor Brian Williams, who was recently suspended from his post at NBC's NIGHTLY NEWS due to false statements he made several years ago, will not return to the the program. Instead, he will move to MSNBC as a breaking news reporter.
Since that time, NBC began an internal investigation, which led to a six-month suspension without pay for Williams.
This morning on TODAY, Williams sat down with Matt Lauer for his first interview since the whole debacle began. Watch it again (Parts 1 & 2) here, and then scroll down for BWW's "reaction roundup" of the media's response to Williams' apology!
Alessandra Stanley, The New York Times: "He couldn't say the L word...former NBC anchor Brian Williams used every verbal variation imaginable to express error and regret. Every one, that is, except the two words that his colleague turned inquisitor, Matt Lauer, kept pressing him to say: 'I lied.' And that resistance made Mr. Williams' first appearance since he was suspended from NBC News unexpectedly raw, and distressing...Mostly it raised more questions and gave hardened media scolds another chance to castigate a man who has been punished plenty...Like many other people in trouble, he clung to small, self-preserving distinctions: He didn't lie, he just didn't tell the truth...It was a jagged, imperfect apology, but in a way that was better than a glibly concise expression of remorse. There were more polished and politic ways to handle this kind of appearance. Mr. Williams was instead very human."
Andrew Tyndall, The Hollywood Reporter: "It certainly looked like humiliation at the end of the second part of his interview on Today with Matt Lauer, when the normally too-cool Williams had beads of sweat running down his face as he composed his own obituary...Neither NBC News nor Williams himself in his interview with Lauer elaborated on the 'number of inaccurate statements about his own role and experiences' found in the network's own extensive internal review. So it conveniently avoids any accounting by management for its culpable lack of oversight of its star...let's give him the benefit of the doubt, too, and accept his explanation that it was the celebrity spotlight -- the occasions when he was away from the newsroom -- that made him tell stories that made him seem 'sharper, funnier, quicker' than he actually is...In the announcement of Williams' reassignment to MSNBC there was no mention that he would have to stay away from the environment that made him stray from the truth...The best way for a news organization to promote its journalism is journalistically, not through celebrity stunts."
David Hinckley, New York Daily News: "Brian Williams lied and he's still lying...Of course he meant to mislead us. That's the whole point of not telling the truth - to mislead. It wasn't enough to cover the parade - Williams wanted to be in that parade and then shove his way to the front. If you want people to believe an apology, you should start by acknowledging that. Lauer, to his credit, pushed Williams hard about how and why he became a serial fibber...Williams, to his discredit, danced around all those questions, falling back on weasel jargon like 'it came from a bad place' and 'I own this' and blaming 'a sloppy choice of words.' For a guy whose job revolves around verbal economy, getting directly to the point in as few words as possible, Williams seemed mysteriously unable to boil this one down to six simple ones: 'I lied and I am sorry.'"
Kia Makarechi, Vanity Fair: "Will audiences react favorably to Williams's return on-screen? Will his colleagues -- who have been whispering criticism to journalists for months -- welcome him back into a newsroom? Exactly what other lies did the NBC investigation into Williams's behavior uncover? Why haven't viewers been told which other lies Williams told? What does the company mean, when it says, that Williams's false statements occurred outside of his time in the anchor's chair, "for the most part"? Do a critical percentage of cable-news viewers even care about Williams's transgressions? As they say in television, stay tuned."
Todd Roberson, The Dallas Morning News: "If you watch the news anchor formerly known as Brian Williams closely in this video, you will probably see a lot of red flags. He doesn't look his interviewer, Matt Lauer, in the eye as he speaks. And he talks around the idea that he, Brian Williams, was responsible for the lies that he, Brian Williams, spoke. It's as contorted and tortured as admissions and apologies get. The result is something hollow and insincere. Williams won't even admit that he lied. He might as well have said: Untruths were an occurrence that had been passed from my mouth by the ego of me during a time when the mind of me was not in full control of the mouth of me...Ugh. Brian, just say it: I lied. I'm sorry."
Al Tompkins, Poynter: Brian Williams' attempt to explain himself to the Today Show's Matt Lauer didn't explain anything. And one reason his mea culpa rang hollow is because Williams did what children and criminals do; he used passive verbs when he should have used active verbs...Williams said: 'I am sorry for what happened here.' Something didn't just happen. Somebody caused it to happen...There is no need to remind us your stories were partly true. Now is the time to own mistakes, not justify them...Williams also spoke about his statements as if someone else was inside his body. He blamed the misstatements, exaggerations and some call them lies on 'a bad place,' 'a bad urge inside me'...'It came from a bad place' is like saying 'The devil made me do it.'...We should take a moment to say Matt Lauer was a pro during this interview. He tried again and again to press Williams for details. Brian would have been better served to allow Lauer to walk him down the painful road of full-disclosure."
Montel Williams, Fortune: "Years ago I took a role on JAG as a Naval Seal facing court martial for hitting a Congressional candidate who fabricated his military honors. I was an actor paid to play a part. When former NBC NIGHTLY NEWS anchor Brian Williams claimed that he faced danger that, in fact, he was no where near and endured by troops protecting him, he was a journalist who lied. When his lie was outed, I wasn't so much upset that he exaggerated as I was upset by what he exaggerated...Brian Williams must atone for lying; and a pre-taped interview with NBC Today Show's Matt Lauer that ran Friday -- in which he can start over as many times as it takes to get his script perfect -- doesn't count...Lying about activities in a combat zone disrespects our soldiers who face real danger every day and insults the memory of service members killed in action...It's not just that Williams lied. It's that he lied and appropriated the experience of servicemen and women whose job it was to protect him."
Kendyl Kearly, Bustle: "Unfortunately, the apology was pretty hard to decipher among the many vague statements and inconsistencies...Although Williams expressed his gratitude at being offered a second chance, much of the viewing audience still did not trust him, and condemned Lauer's inability to get a straight answer out of him...Lauer wanted to know whether Williams consciously lied or was simply inattentive...Williams said that he told an untruth, that he was preoccupied with being the smartest and quickest anchor. But now he says he was not trying to mislead people?...Lauer told Williams that he worried that people who saw the apologies would wonder how he could misremember facts that he supposedly lived through...If he didn't intend to mislead anyone, how did this all come from his ego? If he only mixed up his memories, why did this come from a 'bad place?' The fact that he has been analyzing all of this doesn't make him sound any better...There is too much maneuvering here for the truth."
Jim Watkins, WTNH: "Brian Williams is not good at apologizing. The now-officially-former NBC NIGHTLY NEWS anchor wasn't good at it when Exaggerate-Gate broke last winter, and he wasn't good at it today even though he had nearly five months to practice...Let me save us all some time, and just present a list of William's quotes - what I'm calling his 'lie-pologies' (an apology wrapped in a lie wrapped in bull-t) - from this morning's confessional, and let your own sincere-o-meter do the rest...Williams unpacked some unruly stories that he now owns and once told correctly until he didn't and he still can't figure out what the hell happened unless perhaps it was an ego thing."
Tonya Garcia, Madame Noire: "Professionally speaking, there are only a few reasons why someone lies: to cover their a$$ after making a mistake, to play hooky, or to seem better and more important than they actually are. Williams' reason falls squarely in the option three category. For Williams, this is especially egregious. The facts are (supposed to be) at the heart of what journalists do...The jury is still out on whether Williams is on the path to redemption. He'll likely never rise to the status he once held. But holding a place at MSNBC, at the very least, leaves the door open for him to make segment appearances on NBC and slowly work himself back onto some top-level stories...The first step, however, is a proper apology...An apology is both taking responsibility and accepting the repercussions that come with wrongdoing."
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