Williams Lapse of Journalistic Ethics

NBC’s Brian Williams

By 2010, NBC’s Brian Williams had emerged as the leading anchor in broadcast news. He was a major player in the launch of the network’s MSNBC news channel in 1996. His influential role in the establishment of the news channel and his tenure at NBC made him become one of the renowned newsmen in the United States (Stelter par, 7). During his stint at the helm of NBC’s Nightly News, the program was one of the most-watched news shows in the country. While Williams’ rise to become a leading anchor in broadcast news in the United States is inspirational, he has also attracted controversy during his time at NBC. In interviews, Williams was found to have exaggerated some stories and his tenure at Nightly News was cut short in 2015. His fall from the top in 2015 was instantaneous.

In 2003, Williams claimed that he was shot at in a Chinook helicopter during the first days of the Iraq War. He further claimed that he was rescued by heroic American soldiers. However, soldiers from the scene who were interviewed by the military publication Stars and Stripes denied Williams was in the helicopter that took fire. It later turned out that he had made up the whole thing. Even though he apologized, the damage was already done. In June 2013, NBC announced that Williams had been found guilty of a series of inaccurate statements and replaced on the Nightly News by Lester Holt.

Williams’ actions primarily constitute a lapse of journalistic ethics that contributed to his swift and dramatic fall from grace. The use of journalistic ethics is more important in today’s society since we are living in the information age. According to Cohen, there are four ethical standards or principles for journalism (par, 5). These principles include seeking truth and reporting it, acting independently, minimizing harm, and being accountable and transparent. By making a number of inaccurate statements, Williams violated some of the principles. First, he failed to seek the truth and report it, which is an important principle of journalistic ethics. An inaccurate statement by a journalist or an untruth about another in broadcast or writing can harm a person’s reputation or breed contempt of others (Cohen par, 7). Secondly, Williams’ actions are tantamount to violation of journalistic ethics principle of accountability and transparency. Even though Williams demonstrated accountability by admitting that he lied, his actions already violated the principle of transparency. Therefore, by failing to seek the truth and report it as well as be accountable and transparent, Williams’ fall from grace was essentially a lapse of ethical principles of journalism.

The network handled the situation by suspending Williams and replacing him with Lester Holt. The suspension came after the network acknowledged that Williams had made several inaccurate statements. This implies that prior to the suspension, the network conducted its own investigations to determine the veracity of Williams’ claims. In this case, the network did not rely on what was already in the public domain to make its decisions but conducted its own internal investigations. By suspending Williams, the network sought to demonstrate its strong stance on promoting ethical journalism. The suspension implied that the network did not tolerate unethical journalistic practices.