Former Liberty Union Party candidate for Attorney General, Rosemarie Jackowski, on the Brian Williams scandal.
Media with Conscience
Why is Brian Williams held to a different standard than those who lied us into an unjust war where many thousands were killed? Remember the WMD lies and lies about babies being thrown from incubators. Back then it was Judith Miller who led the litany of lies.
Williams just puffed up his resume’. Those who lied us into war should be tried for Crimes Against Humanity and violations of the Nuremberg Principles.
No one knows what Brian Williams was thinking when he made statements that are now failing the truth test. Was he intentionally lying – trying to mislead the public? Intent and pre-meditation are hard to prove. What if Williams was just engaging in resume puffing. How many of his critics should be throwing the first stone.
Let’s be fair. All lying is wrong because it undermines trust, but not all lies are the same. The “No dear, that dress does not make you look fat” lie is different than the WMD lie.
What is it in the national psyche that causes us to have a temper tantrum over one lie and just give a wink and nod to lies of epic proportions. Maybe it all goes back to the US educational system which molds the world view of so many. What about the lies in textbooks.
They teach us that the USA has never done anything wrong. The US is perfect. The US has never committed a war crime. The No Gun Ri massacre never happened. If it did, it would be in textbooks, right? Wrong.
The most important information is almost never taught in schools. Many schools are hotbeds of mind-numbing propaganda and xenophobia.
Back to Brian Williams… what should happen to him now. He did make something of an apology. That’s a good first step, but every authentic apology includes making amends.
Now Williams should offer to do a series on the destructive power of false reporting. He should do an in-depth report and explain how lies about WMDs, babies thrown from incubators, etc. enabled an unjust war and caused the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.
And what about the textbook industry which has propagandized students for generations. They will not be issuing an apology anytime soon – but they should – and then they should donate books about USA War Crimes to every student in every school.