Brian Williams has canceled a scheduled appearance with David Letterman for this Thursday. I don't care a whole lot whether the man retains his exalted status as the voice of NBC News or not. I mean, if he stays and tells us one evening that the Dow Jones average dropped, I won't assume that's not true because he was once caught exaggerating some war stories. Only two things really interest me about this whole matter…
One is the way he's getting pilloried for falsehoods by people who overlook them in those they like. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — to pick one from Column A and one from Column B — were forgiven for worse by those who were happy with what those gents were doing for (or maybe to) the country. I don't think it's much of an excuse for Williams' defenders — I assume he has some even if they aren't very loud — to point this out. It's just interesting how being outraged about lying can be so selective. Frankly, I think Williams should just go out and assure America he didn't trade arms for hostages.
The other thing is to wonder just what NBC can do with him if anchoring is not, at least for a while, an option. He just signed a new five-year contract @ ten million bananas a year. Do you bench a guy like that? I think he'd do great with a talk show in the old Larry King Live! timeslot but on MSNBC. He might even get someone to watch MSNBC…but both he and NBC Corporate probably fear that a Basic Cable gig of that sort would demote him from future anchoring status. I dunno what anyone has in mind for him but the problem his network has is that even as damaged goods, he's still too, too valuable to throw away.
In other news: Bill Cosby has another accuser and he canceled two concerts this weekend in Boston, officially because of bad weather. There's been quite a cold snap around Mr. Cosby lately and I'm wondering if very many people still believe he didn't do what all those women said he did. I do still see occasional comments from folks who think what he was accused of was lechery and infidelity. There's that…but slipping something in someone's beverage (a crime all by itself) and then raping them is not quite the same thing as being horny and cheating on your spouse. I am amazed that human beings who ought to know better don't know better.