Situation Definition:
Brian Williams, a reporter for the evening news on NBC’s Nightly News, was called out by military personnel after falsely reporting a story from when he was covering the war over seas. In 2003, Williams reported that that the helicopter he was riding in was shot down by an RPG. According to an article written by Erik Wemple for the Washington Post, this is not true, and the article quotes a Facebook comment from Lance Reynolds that reads, “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what happened.” While Williams claims that the helicopter he was riding in was shot down, others have a different recollection.
The ethical concerns that are presented here are lying and fabricating the truth. Williams was a highly respected journalist when he began lying to the public and fabricating stories to look like a hero of some sort. He portrayed himself as a survivor of a serious attack on military personal and the world that he was there, none of which was true. Although only one major story was brought to the public’s attention, there could have been many more.
Analysis:
In an article by Michael Malone for Programming, Andrew Heyward was quoted saying, “Throwing his whole career out the window was not a terrific outcome for anybody—for him, for NBC, for the viewing public.” Those most affected by the decision would be the staff at NBC, Williams’ family and the soldiers involved.
In some cases, a network, newspaper or magazine will defend their journalist and support the decisions they made in reporting. But for Williams this was not the case and for good reason. His choice to lie and fabricate key details in a story goes against the most basic ethics of being a journalist. Williams name had a strong connections to NBC as he had been a reporter there for years, so his impact was directly reflected on them. After Williams was blatantly called out on Facebook for the fabrications, NBC suspended him for six months without pay (Baysinger, 1). This was important for NBC because they needed to show that they did not tolerate unethical behavior because, at the time, they were struggling to compete with other big broadcasting networks like ABC and CBS. To save NBC’s reputation in the eyes of the public, they made it clear that they no longer had trust in him as a reporter as they replaced him with Lester Holt.
In regards to his family, their reputation was affected because Brian was such a big public figure and reporter that people trusted. Everyone knew who he was and in turn knew the members of his family that he was close with. Their financials were also affected because he brought in a significant amount of money because of his reputation. It should come as no surprise that the better you are at reporting, the more of a fan-base you can build, and the better you can market yourself when it comes to the terms of a paycheck. Without his job, he could no longer provide for his family.
The soldiers involved were most likely offended that Williams was trying act like he was one of them, being attacked by enemy fire. These soldiers put themselves on the line every day and go through life-changing, near-death experiences. Most of them are lucky to survive and feel pride and joy when they do. So, the fact that Williams tried to portray himself has one of these men that escaped deaths reach is unforgivable.
Conclusion:
The consequences of fabricating are never good. In regards to Williams, he lied over and over again for years. Jim Naureckas said, “…There are some other tall tales that Williams might want to take back. Take his recounting of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans…”The consequences for his case were long term. He will most likely never report another story again.
NBC’s decision was extremely important for their network and the continued trust from their viewers. It was clearly and fully justified because Williams has lied for years and ruined his own reputation along with the reputation of NBC. If they had kept Williams and tried to get him to gain the viewers trust again, it could have hurt them even more. People have trusted NBC for years and this could have been detrimental to their business, especially with the industry that they are in.
References:
Baysinger, T. (2015). Reboot of Network News Divisions Accelerating In Williams’ Absence. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=436aee48-0ff2-4a53-a701-af732720e768%40sessionmgr120Malone, M. (2015). Brian Williams, MSNBC Plot Parallel Comebacks Discredited anchor’s move is good for struggling cable news network, but is it good for viewers? Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=bac4a393-6424-4874-9da8-cc2c51e9c7a5%40sessionmgr4006Naureckas, J. (2015). Some Other Tall Tales Brian Williams Should Apologize For. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=c2eca1f1-1a40-4be7-9095-0cfe6a922fa7%40sessionmgr4010Wemple, Erik. (2015). The Brian Williams Scandal is an NBC News-wide Scandal. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/02/05/the-brian-williams-scandal-is-an-nbc-news-wide-scandal/?utm_term=.89c153c17e12