Friday, February 13, 2015

Subterfuge as Sanctuary

Much has been made of the fact lately that NBC news anchor Brian Williams has been guilty of lying in some of his “reports,” though news-anchor reports are always suspect since they seem to be done on a quick trip somewhere to show up in whatever wardrobe fits the circumstance, climate, etc., and confer with the reporter on the spot, perhaps even giving greater credibility to whatever is said/shown just by his/her august presence. Such was the case back in 2003 when Williams reported from Iraq that the helicopter he was riding had been shot down.

Williams lied. The helicopter blessed with his presence landed safely. Williams made a weak apology the other day and allowed that he'd step down for a while. That was sort of a lie, too, since it happens that NBC has actually suspended him without pay for six months, as if six months will magically restore his credibility. According to CELEBRITY NETWORK, Williams “earns” $13 million annually so he's coughing up $6.5 million for a lesson too late for the learning. CN claims his net worth at $40 million, so don't shed any crocodile tears. Unfortunately, some subsequent fact-checking has produced other Williams shady shenanigans, so NBC may suggest another line of work for him.

If anything, NBC is guiltier than Williams since employees ranging from those who just carried Williams's luggage to his producers to the camera-people to the head honchos at the system knew about this stuff and just sat on it. This reminds of the “Dan Rather Subterfuge” back in 2004 when he and CBS tried to ride out the storm occasioned by Rather's bogus documents claiming military dereliction by George Bush. Finally, some folks were fired but Rather got to stay on until he sort of disintegrated and disappeared.

The consensus is that NBC as well as CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC are shills for the Democrat Party in general and Barack Hussein Obama in particular. This is interesting in considering the positions Obama has taken on same-sex marriage. His campaign honcho, David Axelrod, has just published a book in which he notes that Obama lied in 2008 when he said marriage was a man-woman thing, not same-sex. Obama was very emphatic. In 2012, Obama claimed he had “evolved” to the point (evolution is such an exact science) of understanding that marriage between homosexuals was quite normal.

Whoa...in 1996 when he was running for the Illinois State Senate, he said he favored legalizing same-sex marriages and would fight efforts to prohibit them—strong stuff. So, is there a serial liar in the White House in the Williams tradition, a sort of extension of NBC on governmental steroids? The president said he knew nothing about “Fast & Furious” or the IRS manhandling of the Tea Party and insisted that a 13-minute YouTube film caused the “Benghazi Massacre.” These were momentous affairs that could not have escaped his attention...thus the LIE. He even cited the Benghazi lie in a speech to the United Nations two weeks after disgorging the initial lie in the Rose Garden while on his way to a fund-raiser in Hollywood.

Okay...there are liars in both political parties, maybe ALL political parties. But democrats seem to have a natural—even compulsive—talent for it, especially when the stakes are high. The consensus is that Hillary Clinton will be the presidential nominee in 2016, though she has been very quiet for the last six months or so. That's just as well since she told an even bigger lie than Williams, Rather or Obama when she claimed in 2008 that she had undergone sniper-fire in Bosnia in 1996 and had to run for it, with Chelsea at her side, as if the army would have let the then first lady and first daughter anywhere near sniper-land. She and Chelsea simply walked across the tarmac at an airport and were greeted by a pretty girl-sniper holding a bouquet.

Williams, Obama and Clinton all told lies that—surely to their knowledge—could be easily exposed just by the cameras and mikes that recorded what actually was the truth. Or...could it be that they were actually ignorant of that fact? Or...could it be that they were/are so cynical that they figured it didn't matter, sort of like they could walk on water and the great unwashed could just suck it up? Shades of NBC and CBS—just like Rather—that's probably the answer.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

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