Recalling Another Brian Williams "Bungle"
By Anthony Cody.
This week, Brian Williams is suffering from a public backlash because of the way a story about helicopters under fire in Iraq evolved over the years, leading to a version that inaccurately described the incident as one where his own life was in danger.
But this was not the first journalistic bungle by the popular NBC newscaster. About four years ago, during the second edition of the NBC News production of Education Nation, Brian Williams interviewed Melinda Gates. The Gates Foundation had underwritten the broadcast, but nonetheless, this was a journalistic endeavor. The Education Writers Association had awarded NBC News director Steve Capus with a first place award for a news series. When Williams interviewed Melinda Gates, however, he displayed none of the objectivity one might expect from a journalist. Here is what he said when he introduced her:
We’re also going to be joined by Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates Foundation, one of the sponsors of this event, and the largest single funder of education anywhere in the world. It’s their facts that we’re going to be referring to often to help along our conversation.
You could refer to our guest as the top funder of education in the world. A partner and sponsor of this year’s gathering. Also spending half a billion dollars to devise a way figure out what makes a great teacher, what makes them most effective. The estimates are the Gates Foundation has already spent, obviously a record for any education spending, spent or committed to spending five to seven billion dollars.
This gushing introduction, and particular his statement that the Gates Foundation’s “facts” were going to be guiding the discussion, represent a low point for American journalism.
The Education Writers Association recently declared that I was ineligible to compete for their prizes, even though I have won three awards, including a first place prize last year in the opinion category for my series on the Common Core. But there was not a peep from the EWA when Brian Williams declared his complete Recalling Another Brian Williams "Bungle" - Living in Dialogue: