It's time to own up to your mistruths, Mr. Williams

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NBC reportedly pays “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams $10 million a year to report the news. Let’s be clear: He is not an entertainment reporter or a salacious talking head. He is a well-respected and very likable journalist.

Except that now, in my opinion, Williams should be fired for his failure to be honest in reporting the news and for embellishing his reports in a clear attempt to increase ratings.

Ladies and gentlemen, as much as we think we have come to know our nightly news anchors — they are a part of our daily routine, and we trust them — it’s time to get past the pretty faces and pearly white teeth and face reality. What Williams did to his millions of viewers is inexcusable, and he must be fired. How are people ever supposed to know when he’s telling the truth?

Tom Brokaw, the revered anchor who turned over his chair at “Nightly News” to Williams, has reportedly called for him to be fired (though Brokaw has publicly denied those reports). I have had my share of differences with Brokaw, but he has never concocted a story and then reported it as fact.

When he was still the anchor, in 2003, Williams was covering the Iraq War. That March, Williams reported to Brokaw, the NBC brass and staff and, later, viewers, that a rocket-propelled grenade had hit his helicopter. Since then there have been differing reports about the event, but none of them have verified Williams’s story, In fact, all have disputed it to varying degrees.

The New York Post reported that Williams may have embellished his reporting during Hurricane Katrina.

The buck must stop at his desk. We should hold journalists to higher standards than politicians. Aren’t they supposed to be the paragons of truth and virtue? They hold themselves up to be sources of news that are truthful, accurate and impartial, so people can put their trust in them.

It’s one thing to state an opinion, but it is absolutely unacceptable to lie. That’s why people have become so distrustful of politicians, and now journalists, too. The least our broadcasters can do is report the truth.

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