Sharyl Attkisson: Why Did Hillary Survive a Brian Williams-like Tale?

Sharyl Attkisson: Why Did Hillary Survive a Brian Williams-like Tale?

Emmy Award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who covered the story of Hillary Clinton's lie about being shot at in Bosnia, says she can't understand how the former secretary of state weathered the scandal while NBC News anchor Brian Williams may not.

"To me, part of the irony is if Brian Williams isn't able to survive it — that we think it's important enough when somebody gives this kind of story that he would lose his career — yet we didn't care enough to have it matter that much with someone who became our secretary of state," Attkisson said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"[A person] we relied on for honest answers and truths in the aftermath of Benghazi and so on."

Last Wednesday, Williams, one of NBC's biggest stars, recanted his longtime claim of being aboard a helicopter forced down by a rocket-propelled grenade during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that Williams was nowhere near that aircraft — but on another aircraft that took no fire.

Williams, who apologized on his nightly newscast, told Stars and Stripes: "I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another."

"Is it really more important that Brian Williams has a certain type of character and honesty than a presidential candidate or secretary of state?" said Attkisson, a former CBS News reporter.

"I don't know, that's up to the American people to decide, but clearly they got past it in the case of Hillary Clinton, although it was never explained. We'll see if people can get past it in the case of Brian Williams."

Clinton's gaff came during her 2008 run for the White House, when she claimed she and her staff had dodged sniper fire on an airport landing strip in Bosnia. But news video of the event revealed it never happened.

"In both cases, the attempt at a mea culpa initially kind of almost made things worse," she said.

"With Hillary Clinton, after the video was found that there was no sniper fire, there was no apparent danger on the runway as she claims, she doubled down and said, 'Well, I stopped and you saw pictures of me greeting the young girl, because how could I walk past her and break her little heart? But after that I ran to the car.

"So I was assigned to do a second day story by [the CBS] Evening News … that showed more video that too wasn't true, and when she knew we had the video it is just beyond me that she continued to tell this tale."

Attkisson said the video showed that Clinton "lingered on the runway, took pictures with a group of seventh graders, visited with the troops, [and] took photographs with them.

"There was no apparent danger to us, there was no mention of it, there was no corkscrew landing, there was no sniper fire," she said.

"You kind of wonder in both instances … how they got away for so long with telling the story and how they thought that they would get away with it without somebody coming to them, family members and so on, saying that didn't happen."

Williams, who has temporarily taken himself off the air, is now under an internal investigation at NBC. His fate may weigh on other things besides just journalistic integrity, according to Attkisson.

Poster’s comments:

1)       All I hope for is the “news” and not someone’s stories, often good stories, by the way.

2)      The same idea applies to governments, too. Let me say it another way. I just want the news. Friday night releases of bad news are just classical examples of how to try do propaganda, professionally of course.

3)      And I just want my kids to be educated , vice indoctrinated in today’s way of thinking and the political priorities of today’s ruling group, like enough to be happy in their own future lives. Let me say it another way, I hope our children  are educated enough to make good decisions in their own lifetimes and about their fate, and their Family’s fate, given their circumstances at the time. And this idea applies to America, to boot.

4)      To hear a leader say things like “that is just the right thing to do” often reflects his or her’s own priorities.

5)      And I do believe in and support public education. Also most private education these days, depending on what level you are thinking about, often mimics public education goals. Now this is not knocking home schooling, but more supporting public education as a method to go forward when it gets cleaned up. My opinion is that it needs “cleaning up”. Only time will tell how this sorts out, too. My own example is when I had a child get course credit for pet care in Wake County, Raleigh, NC then I thought she was getting short changed in her life. After all, there is only so much time in the day, and so much time in the voted on and allowed public education time during the year.

6)      Last, and in my opinion, the second most important vote I have is to my local school board because it affects our children. The most important vote I have is about people who pursue federal elected offices. Not only do they often decide my fate, but they also approve or disapprove non-elected  nominations to positions that also affect my fate.

7)      As a leader I already know that many young people watch us older people like a hawk. Practically, that means, to me, to be a leader by example, be that at home, or business, or even church. Call it moral authority and smart, too. Said another way, how we treat our rich and well off people is just as important as how we treat our poor and less well off people in America.  All people are watching in my humble opinion. And there is only one standard, a simple human standard, again in my opinion. And of course, the rich do tend to do well in this process, too. So how are the poor and less well off doing, too.

8)      Last, during WWII we in the USA had war bond drives as a way to raise revenue to expand our own military and pay for fighting the war we were in. Then one (we the people) had to work to even pay for a war bond that did deliver interest and long term benefit to the buyer of the war bond. And our government got the money. Now our elected politicians just borrow money to do the same thing. The scale of the borrowing is pretty big these days. So what happens if the big shot loaners of their money won’t loan us the money, or can’t even loan us their money? I myself don’t like having my fate decided by such simple things to worry about.

9)      America deserves better!  And we are oozing with such future good and honest prospects, too.