Megyn Kelly devotes half her prime time hour to mourn the fall from grace. Other journalists on other networks join in the lamentation. You figure broadcast media operates something like the legal profession. The barristers rumble in court and lob their verbal grenades; but after the verdict, they head to the watering hole to compare notes; and if one of their own ever takes a fall, they quickly circle the wagons. Likewise, Kelly puts on her melancholy face. She grieves, stumped how a world-class news anchor, the “face” of NBC, could possibly jeopardize his career and betray the people’s trust in him and his vaunted organization. In successive interviews, she remains sorrowful, truly despondent that a well-liked superstar could tumble from his celebrity pedestal. Her guests, equally somber, share in the sentimental eulogy. If Kelly is stumped, you’re flat stupefied that anyone is even mildly surprised that the face of NBC News is a liar. Let’s be real. Who is naive enough to believe that anyone with an IQ over 80 trusts NBC, or any other network for that matter? The Brian Williams tumble may be calamitous news to his guilt-ridden peer group; but your first thought was, “Sure, he lied; he works for NBC.” Incomprehensibly, or hilariously, the self-important news media actually believes it has a reputation to lose. And, typically, it avoids the bigger story behind the Williams disclosure. And that story is this: America has a lying culture — sown, nourished and sustained by none other than the nation’s elected leader. Not exactly breaking news, is it Matilda? Obama lies routinely, skillfully, even artistically — arguably his life’s matchless talent. If the leader lies, it follows that the people who work for him must lie. They reside in the State Department, the Cabinet, the “Justice” Department, the Treasury, the IRS — throughout the Federal landscape. Most visibly, they are the Press Secretaries and other talking heads who occupy podiums, with a straight face, mind you, to spin and recycle the boss’s original deceptions — something you might call “twice-told tales.” And what is mainstream media’s response to duplicity and treachery? Why, nothing less than to engage in a conspiracy of silence, if not compliance, to serve as a political pawn, like the nationalized media in a ruthless dictatorship. NBC furloughed Brian Williams to live off his multimillion dollar portfolio, but not because he lied. They knew he lied when he lied. They disciplined him because he got caught. Poor baby. Filled with remorse, he now will be relegated to writing a NY Times best-selling, first-hand account of his place in the sun; and then devote himself to others by accepting lucrative speech engagements in the interest of honest journalism. The unpleasant truth in all of this is, Brian Williams would still be inventing facts had someone not blown the whistle, just as J. Sandusky would still be prowling about Penn State locker room showers. Getting caught does have consequences. Oh, except when you’re the leader of the free world. Then your continual duplicity gets a free pass, not only from your peers who betray their oath of office, but also from a bankrupt media that long since lost its soul.
