News reports on February 9, 2015, stated that Brian Williams, long-time, respected news anchor andNBC Nightly News leader, has taken an ‘undetermined’ break from his job at NBC. A new report today, February 10, 2015, from Washington Examiner reports that Brian Williams has been suspended from NBC for six months without pay.

A report on February 9, 2015, suggest that NBC anchor Brian Williams’ account of being hit by enemy fire while in Iraq, his details of rescuing a dog while working as a volunteer firefighter and his Katrina reports from New Orleans are inaccurate. The controversy is described in NBC’s Brian Williams reportedly told differing stories about coming under Hezbollah rocket fire. An accusation of false details contained in Williams’ report from Irag was apparently presented in 2006, but was not acknowledged until recently.

Why would a leader at NBC need to enhance news stories with colorful, exciting details which allegedly did not happen? To gain money, attention and fame? Didn’t he already have all of that?

On February 9, 2015, Dr. Keith Ablow explained his thoughts and analysis on Brian Williams’ reporting — without meeting with Mr. Williams — in a clarifying article, A psychiatrist’s view: Why would Brian Williams make up stories? Dr. Ablow describes a need for ‘praise’ and ‘admiration’ as motivation for the addition of action-packed details, but not necessarily true, incidents.

“One potential answer is that some people must do everything they can to camouflage deep feelings of weakness and unworthiness. If you were a bullied kid who suspects himself of cowardice, or an abused kid who suspects himself of being unlovable, or a short or asthmatic kid who suspects himself of being weak, and if you never deal with those underlying fears, then you can end up trying to camouflage them with one tall tale after another,” Dr. Ablow analyzes.

Dr. Ablow compares the need for continued enhancement of personal image to ‘addiction’ and explains, “People very often cast themselves as one thing to avoid being seen as the opposite. . . . Casting oneself as heroic and powerful and fearless, when it is done to stave off buried feelings of being vulnerable and frightened, is no different than using any drug.”

Several other national news stories have also been questioned regarding accuracy during recent years. One controversial report is from NBC Reporter Savannah Guthrie on April 27, 2011, describing a ‘raised seal’ on Barack Obama’s birth certificate, which had been previously released on that same day. According to reports, Savannah Guthrie was the only person allowed to view, touch or photograph the certificate. Since the document has remained out-of-view from everyone else, questions remain. The online photo of the certificate which was released from the White House apears to have no ‘raised seal.’

Numerous articles and videos have analyzed and debated the authenticity of information presented by Guthrie in April, 2011, including the June 11, 2012, article, What did Savannah Guthrie really see?

Questioning the validity of Savannah Guthrie’s April 27, 2011, report at NBC, Attorney Orly Taitz filed aDemand for Investigation on February 9, 2015, with Richard Esposito, Sr. Executive Producer, NBCinvestigations@NBCInvestigates, asking for an investigation of the report. Taitz requested that her complaint be investigated along with the current Brian Williams’ investigation.

The daily news is expected to be consistently accurate. . . . . . But is it really?

Must citizens come home from work and research the validity of the nightly news?

https://www.examiner.com/article/can-americans-trust-the-daily-news