For those of us old enough to remember Walter Cronkite, we heard him say “And that’s the way it is (followed by the date)” at the end of his nightly CBS news broadcast. We felt that Uncle Walter had precisely described the news that day. He was very believable.

Contrast Walter Cronkite with Brian Williams. Brian Williams reads the nightly news on the NBC evening news program. Is Brian Williams believable? Until Feb. 4, the answer was yes. His broadcast was number one in the ratings drawing 9.8 million viewers the week of Jan. 26. On 4 February, he apologized on air for incorrectly claiming that he was aboard a chinook helicopter that took rocket propelled grenade (RPG) fire in Iraq during the 2003 invasion. He had repeated that claim as recently as Friday, Jan. 30. The truth was that Williams was in a different helicopter that landed 30 to 60 minutes later at the site of the downed helicopter. Williams claims that his helicopter was forced to remain on the ground for three days during a sandstorm.

I cannot understand why anybody would tell such a story that wasn’t true. There were witnesses and flight manifests to expose the truth. Is it possible for someone to “misremember” coming under fire and being forced to land in hostile territory with landing in a perfectly good helicopter at least 30 minutes later? Even if Brian Williams is a victim of his own memory, he has a huge and immediate problem: his credibility is wounded. Will NBC demote him or fire him? I can’t predict because I can’t begin to understand employment policy at NBC. If he remains the NBC nightly news anchor, will his show remain number one in the ratings? At least initially, I predict that it won’t. Why should people tune to him if he could get confused about something so personal?

The Internet is an unforgiving place. Anybody with a computer and Internet access can write anything they wish. Brian Williams certainly lit up the Internet. People are questioning his reporting during Hurricane Katrina that he saw a body floating in the French Quarter. People are questioning every aspect of him including the factual aspects of his own apology on Feb. 4.

As a conservative, who distrusts the mainstream media, I wonder what would have happened if a conservative anchor like Bret Baier on Fox News had misremembered something so personal. I put to you that editorials in all the major newspapers and on the mainstream TV news broadcasts would call for his immediate firing or resignation. As of Feb. 6, I haven’t seen it. Other media have reported on Williams but they have left off the righteous indignation that certainly would have been voiced if a conservative had done what Williams did.

I’m glad that the mainstream media hasn’t howled for Williams to go. He deserves the benefit of the doubt until more facts come to light. He did apologize on TV so it could be only a mistake. I have read already an Internet article from a physician that false memories are possible. If it develops that Brian Williams has a history of embellishments, however, all bets are off. He’ll join Dan Rather, whose credibility was destroyed by a forged letter pertaining to President Bush, and who lost his job at CBS.

I really wish that Walter Cronkite were alive and anchoring the news. He may have been very liberal but he never was caught misremembering.

 

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.