Name game takes another victim

Sara Bertsch Managing Editor

This is a name game.

Have you ever gotten yourself into a sticky situation and somehow miraculously saved yourself from said situation? Mostly everyone has.

Let’s say you are about to walk across Medary Avenue and a car comes flying by without slowing down or waiting. This happens all the time. You, obviously in distress, decided to shoot your friend, mom, relative, significant other a text saying, “OMG, I was almost run over! This car was going like 100 mph and almost hit me!”

That is not completely true. You embellished your story a little bit to be in your favor. This is what Brian Williams did. The only difference between you and him is that he is the managing editor and Nightly News anchor for NBC News.

Like I said, this is a name game.

His position as the anchor is quite the gig. He probably worked extremely hard to get this job, since not just anybody can become the Nightly News anchor. This is also the main reason as to why Williams has started a media frenzy in the last week.

All it took was an embellished story and 30 seconds on air to ruin Williams’ entire career and reputation.

I’m not saying what he did is okay, because it is not. As a journalist, he broke the code to which we live by. I mean, we cross our hearts and hope to die while grasping our AP Style guides for dear life. What Williams did is wrong, but unforgivable? No.

Now that Williams has been called out for his little white lie, it is all the media can talk about. For more than a week, this is all we hear about. Now all of his work is coming into question and people are coming forward with rumors of various pieces that are questionable. Is it really necessary to start digging into every single story he has ever written?

Obviously, he should not have lied, but he must have been doing something right to become the Nightly News anchor for NBC News. NBC News has a viewership of approximately 10.2 million. To host this show is THE job. This is a lifelong dream for most journalists and they work hard to get to the top. There is no way that Williams got there by lying. This is one time and he’s obviously sorry.

Williams has been suspended for six months, according to NBC News. His future in the world of journalism is foggy right now and quite unclear. But it’s time for the media to layoff and move on. Let’s focus on something like international news or what’s happening with our government. It’s not fair to viewers and it’s not fair to Brian Williams.

If this happened to a politician, there would be a slap of the hand and the official would continue in office, telling the world that he ‘learned his lesson.’ Williams has been suspended and is most likely hiding from anyone and everyone right now.

So let’s all leave him alone and move on to something more important, because Williams is just another person who talked himself up.  He’s just getting more negativity because of who he is. 

Like I said, this is a name game.

Sara Bertsch is majoring in Journalism. She can be reached at [email protected].