“Accuracy, Accuracy, Accuracy.”
Those words, printed on his newsroom wall by famous publisher Joseph Pulitzer, were repeated frequently by yours truly in my years as a journalism professor.
In effect, I was making it clear to students that being accurate is a prime objective for those who want to engage in the field of journalism.
Brian Williams apparently never heard those words.
Of course, NBC did not care that its highly-compensated news anchor failed to finish college where he just might have immersed himself in case study-based media ethics classes (or in other journalism courses in which students cannot get away with false reporting).
It may not be a perfect analogy, but I recall being in a bad car accident 60 years ago—as a matter of fact, to this day I can cite every detail. Veterans of World War II can paint a picture of things that happened to them seven decades after the fact. And just about any mother can describe, even years later, everything that happened on the day she gave birth.
Is it only Williams whose memory is blotted by time? Or is he a victim of journalistic narcissism?
And now the debate begins. What should NBC do about an anchor who makes up stories as if they are real?
Well, he has put a permanent stain on the reputation of the Nightly News show. His once-stellar reputation has taken a big hit for himself and the network.
NBC will have to make a decision...
But whether he survives in the anchor’s chair or not, he will be going back to college.
Oh, not as a student. His failure to deal in ACCURACY will be a major case study in media ethics classes.