The Most Stupid Lede I’ve Ever Read

_{Barry Arrington

February 7, 2015

Intelligent Design}

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Dominic Patten writes:

Days into the controversy over whether or not he was in a helicopter that took enemy fire in Iraq in 2003, as he has claimed over the years, the NBC Nightly News anchor today told staff in a memo that he is temporarily stepping away from the anchor desk.

Jaw dropping, just draw dropping. Even someone who is supposed to be a trained observer can write a gobsmackingly stupid lede. And did this person have no editor?

Comments

I don't see the problem with the whole thing. The purpose of media is to consume and destroy facts, and excrete toxic civilization-smashing poison gas. Media should be PROUD that Brian's biography is written with the same principles as his day job. He should get a bonus.polistra_{February 8, 2015
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Barry Arrington at 2: Most likely, it is taking a long time because for some time NBC has existed principally to portray a fictional view of life to its 9 million viewers. Put another way, it really doesn't matter to the viewers that Williams made it up. Network execs KNOW that. A friend of mine is the victim of an expensive lawsuit prosecuted by a person who is often claimed to be a Nobel Prize winner, a claim the Nobel committee disclaims. But to increasing numbers of people, it doesn't really matter whether the claim is true in the sense of "factual." It just needs to be tweeted often to gain the aura of believability. It is like textbook Darwinism, but without the grade points average at stake. However, there may be costs, personal and national, to a refusal to deal with the demands of the real world.News_{February 7, 2015
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Exactly News. There is no controversy over whether or not he was in a helicopter that took enemy fire in Iraq in 2003. How can there be a controversy over that? Williams admits that he made the story up. The controversy is over why it is taking him so long to resign in disgrace and, failing that, why it is taking so long for NBC to fire him.Barry Arrington_{February 7, 2015
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My edit of Domenic Patten: Brian Williams, in the wake of controversy over Iraq helicopter attack claims, is taking a leave of absence. 1. If we don't know by now what this uproar is about, we don't care anyway. 2. If we do know what it is about, why on earth are we paying any attention to him or his network? Many people had to know it wasn't true. Why couldn't they have just quietly retired the myth/mythmaker?News_{February 7, 2015
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