True. Not a high bar indeed, but apparently a difficult bar to stay above for many.

I get you guy's points and agree.
Also, Lager make some interesting comments about Williams' appearances on entertainment shows, and his beccoming a "celebrity newscaster".
In light of this, NBC and other news outlets should really visit this issue. If they are going to pay a guy millions to be a newscaster/reporter, the outlet should keep them from doing things that make them bigger than the news while under contract.. It seems the desire to be larger than life leads them astray.

I always liked Brian Williams. But you can't be a credible news anchor while you are embellishing stories to suit your personal agenda. Cronkite must be rolling over in disgust.

The problem is that news reporters have morphed into showbiz personalities, on air contributors, etc for entertainment purposes. The so-called 24 hour "news" channels have only exacerbated the situation by reporting the same biased stories over and over and over again. The only way to keep the audience watching is to have the ad nauseum reports presented by different entertainers. From my perspective, this has further degraded the credibility factor of the news reported. Heck, even the local news is merely a reading of the police logs interspersed with some banter among the news readers chirping about how they are keeping us safe and well informed on the latest fire, auto accident, break-in or shooting, plus the latest weather report tempered with a huge disclaimer about their prediction.

I really have to laugh about Fox "news" absolutely giddy reporting of NBC and Williams' lack of credibility due to this incident. They've already drawn a parallel (somehow) to Hillary Clinton's lack of credibility and therefore her suitability as a viable presidential candidate. They're trying to figure out how to link Williams stretching the truth to some kind of Obama failure. This all coming from the network packed full of on air personalities and contributors with a total disregard of factual reporting, especially when it gets in the way of their biased messinging they try to pass off as news reporting.

I'm waiting for the second coming of Walter and will take the bozos currently on air with a grain of salt . . .

And a stiff drink.

Good discussion going on here.  I asked a question about a quote from my previous post #9.  The answer is Bill O'Reilly.  Not only was he not in a combat zone, he wasn't even in the military.  I'm not sure what punishment he received from Fox News.

Flowergirl, Here's the story:

Back in 2006, O'Reilly took an extended book promotion tour to Kuwait where he visited with soldiers and signed copies of his book. Reports at the time described how "servicemembers asked O'Reilly about his own tour of duty in Kuwait during Desert Storm." That might have been an interesting story except for the fact that O'Reilly never did a tour of duty in Kuwait during Desert Storm, or anywhere else since he never served in the military at all.

More recently, O'Reilly told his radio listeners about how he would have coaxed information out of an enemy soldier based on his personal experiences in combat:

"I tell you what, I've been in combat. I've seen it. I've been close to it. And if my unit is in danger and I got a captured guy and the guy knows where the enemy is and I'm looking him in the eye, the guy better tell me. That's all I'm gonna tell you. If it's life or death, he's going first."

As noted above, and contrary to his statement, O'Reilly has never been in combat. Consequently, he has never commanded a unit or had to contemplate how he would deal with an enemy prisoner. His pretend bluster and machismo is all just a bunch of fantasizing of himself as a hero. So how is that any different than the offenses for which Williams is being pilloried?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I do not know what sort of reprimand or punishment he received from Fox.  I believe Geraldo Rivera did something similar and blamed it on "the fog of war."