If you have been keeping up with recent news, you would have seen the disappointing revelation about NBC “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams. Williams, a well-known and popular journalism figure, admitted that he lied about what happened during a helicopter mission he was on in Iraq in 2003.
He said he was on one of the helicopters that got hit, but he was not. This has caused quite a controversy for NBC as well as the journalism community.
Should Williams be fired? Is journalism as a whole being tarnished by the actions of some journalists? How do we come back from something like this?
It is unfortunate that Williams is in this position, but he did it to himself. As the years went on, he exaggerated the story more and more during speeches or television appearances. What he did not understand is that he will always be Brian Williams, the journalist. Yes, he is a human being. However, he is a person with journalism credentials. Everything he says is put under a microscope because of who he is and what he does.
It did take great guts for him to finally come clean about his lie. It was also noble of him to apologize on television and take himself off the air for a while. But that still does not excuse his actions.
As young journalists, we look up to people like Williams to set a path and good example for us. For some of us, he is the down-to-earth anchor on primetime television. For others, he is one of the many journalists we look up to. When an incident like this occurs, it leaves us in an uncomfortable position. If the journalists we look up to are not doing their jobs right, we have to be the ones to change the game in the future.
At The Globe, we strive to be the best kind of journalists there are. We follow the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics that tells us that we should always seek the truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable and transparent. We follow the rules, but sometimes we color outside the lines.
There have been instances where stories had the facts wrong, but we have always made sure to correct our mistakes. The difference between Williams and us is that we don’t wait until someone calls out our mistakes to apologize. We admit to our faults as soon as possible to remain a credible newspaper.
We don’t want to become journalists that lie to the public. We don’t want journalists like Williams ruining our chance before we even get the opportunity to show we can be trusted. We will work hard to show our audience that not all journalists are the same. At The Globe, we value honesty before anything else.
