Is Brian Williams telling "tall tales" a big deal?

I watch NBC nightly news for easily over 20 years now. i went from Brokaw to Williams and not for one day have i distrusted either of them to tell me the truth. reason being, i never viewed either of them as news providers, only as someone that had a pleasant speaking voice presenting what was happening in the world. i could care less if he says he witnessed something when he didnt. i guess i would if i thought it might tarnish a later claim that really did happen. but as news is not structured that way, everything is video footage and field reporters now. the credibility of the news presenter is really not that important. any thoughts?

Williams was initially accused of making up the helicopter story, but now web sleuths are calling some of his other stories into question. he claimed to witness a dead body floating by in the french quarter after katrina, meanwhile the french quarter did not flood. he also made claims he saved a puppy from a burning building and some other stuff. i dont really care too much if they dumped him, Lester Holt is just fine. its just i dont understand why everyone is getting so bent out of shape for Williams BS stories as long as they arent news stories themselves.

Hoss_sl said:

I was wondering if this would come up. I'm surprised its in the TV forum instead of the politics thread. I kinda think he's being thrown under the bus for political reasons.

I dunno, I'm not much of a consumer of TV news, but trust seems like a pretty big deal in someone who is supposed to be whittling down and spoon feeding you the news. Even if the lies he was telling didn't matter, I think his viewers have a right to be peeved that he was wasting his limited time telling those lies instead of giving them some more real news.

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its really not an issue of right vs left as i am a hard right conservative yet i knowingly watch left wing news.i dont look at newscasters as reporters. reporters need to have credibility in their news reporting while the attractive male or females presenting it on TV just need to read the teleprompter correctly and look good while doing it.
basically this

Gilgamel_sl said:

Gravitas and credibility are the reasons he gets paid 14M a year. That is pretty much out the window. And if the Katrina story is true he basically took an already terrible story and tried to make it seem even worse, for whatever reason. I personally wouldn't believe a thing the man said at this point, and neither should you. He'll be out within a year.

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in probably every news market, the local tv news has at least one female who has giant titties/ass doing the weather or sports. if you actually listened to them read a play by play or the 7 day forecast, you know they are just reading the teleprompter and likely do not have any expertise in those fields, they are just there to titillate. but you still watch for the forecast and the box scores. the news is no different, even though most men and women prefer a male anchor for those reasons you give. ts really a myth though. they are just as airheaded as those big tittied weather chicks

well shit, thats the end of him. they need to perpetuate the news reader=reporter myth. Lester Holt is fine too. hopefully he doesnt like to spin yarns like Williams did.