Newsman Brian Williams was unfairly suspended

February 11, 2015 • 10:20 am

NBC News’s evening anchorman, Brian Williams, has been suspended without pay for 6 months. The punishment comes for embroidering his experiences in the Iraq war. I was watching NBC news when he recounted the incident that led to his suspension: he said that he had flown into Iraq in a helicopter that was hit and forced down by a rocket-propelled grenade. It turns out that his helicopter was not in fact hit, but the one in front of him was. He told this false story several times over the last couple of years.

It’s not clear what effect this will have on his career. NBC emphasized the damage to the “trust” that the news division had acquired, and, after 6 months, during which Williams will be replaced by someone else, he may not regain his chair. This “scandal” may well follow him around for the rest of his life.

Williams was excoriated by the media for supposedly exaggerating his experience, the implication being that he was trying to portray himself as being in more danger than he really was.  But his punishment is unfair, and for several reasons.

First, how do we know that he was deliberately lying about what happened, rather than that he simply forgot? After all, the incident happened 12 years ago, and psychologists tell us that we can indeed construct false memories about such incidents—and believe them to be true. 

Remember in 2008 when Hillary Clinton said that she came under fire in Bosnia at an airport? That was just as false as (and similar to) Williams’s misstep. But she suffered very little for that. Now you can argue that Williams is a newsperson, and he simply cannot say stuff that’s wrong. But remember too that Hillary Clinton was running for President. Do we hold potential Presidents to a lower standard of credibility than we do news anchors?

Second, there’s the issue of trust. I’ve watched Williams ever since he replaced Peter Jennings, who died of lung cancer. I still trust Williams. Do I think he’d lie about stuff in the news that didn’t involve his personal experiences? No. Do I think he even lied about the Iraq incident? I dont know, because false memories, as Elizabeth Loftus tells us, are common. The “damaging trust in NBC” issue is a canard. If Williams had had a long history of falsifying other matters (the Katrina episode has not been substantiated), that would be a different issue. This is a one-off thing. It is not like the repeated falsehoods of journalists like Jonah Lehrer (who, by the way, appears to have landed on his feet).

Finally, what has come to our society when we demand someone’s head on a plate when they make one error or tell one falsehood? Who among us has not done that? The entire G. W. Bush administration lied through its teeth, and we do nothing about that.

A six-month suspension of Williams without pay, and possible ruination of his career, is simply too harsh a punishment—and remember that many people even called for his firing. Have we abandoned the concept of forgiveness in these times? When someone apologizes, can’t we accept the apology, let them continue on, and perhaps be a bit wary for a while? It’s likely, after all, that after this incident Williams will be extremely careful about always telling the truth.

Something has happened to Americans to make them harsh and unforgiving, and I’m not sure what it is.

UPDATE: Let me clarify that I agree that he should have been sanctioned, and perhaps suspended for a few weeks, but 6 months (and with the possible ending of his tenure at NBC after that) seems too harsh to me.

 

A new movie claims that gay rights will criminalize and destroy American Christianity

February 11, 2015 • 9:25 am

From Right Wing Watch (courtesy of reader Heather), we learn that the Christian right has produced a new film, Light Wins: How To Overcome The Criminalization of Christianity. Its thesis is that the gay “agenda”, including gay marriage, will result in the destruction—indeed, the criminalization—of Christianity. You can watch the trailer below, and a bigger parade of idiots I’ve never seen.  They are espousing a conspiracy theory that is about as ludicrous as the Arab theory (see previous post) that Israel is behind the Charlie Hebdo murders. Here’s RWW’s summary:

Scheduled to premier at the National Religious Broadcaster’s Convention on Feb. 23-26 in Nashville, TN, the cast for this creepy, melodramatic, and hilariously over-the-top anti-gay video extravaganza reads like a gathering of evangelical and GOP A-listers, including:

Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Huckabee (pastor and past governor of Arkansas), David Barton (Wallbuilders), James Dobson (Focus on the Family founder), Phyllis Schlafly (founder of the Eagle forum), Scott Lively (scary pastor), and Brian Camenker (president of the anti-gay MassResistance).

And of course, there are plenty of B- and C-listers too. The preview shows these anti-gay luminaries and semi-luminaries attempting to scare the crap out of God-fearing Americans.

How many fallacies can you spot in this short segment?

If Christianity wanes in this country, as it surely will, it won’t be due to gays. It will be due to the spread of Enlightenment values that are opposed to Christian “values.”

Speaking of Republican notables who are anti-gay, remember Ben Carson, the ex-neurosurgeon and creationist who has Presidential ambitions? He’s repeatedly made invidious statements about gays, including the “poisoned cake” remark you can find at the previous link. In response to an interviewer’s question about gay marriage, he added that gays “don’t get to change the definition [of marriage].”  Well, the Supreme Court is going to do that this fall, as is pretty evident from their recent refusal—minus the assent of Scalia and Thomas—to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that Alabama must issue licenses for same-sex marriage. Why would the court have refused to step in unless they felt that their upcoming decision was going to make gay marriage constitutional? If they thought otherwise, they would have put a moratorium on the federal judge’s decision pending their own ruling.

At any rate, The Age of Blasphemy reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center has added Carson to their Extremist Watch List because of his incessant and misguided attacks on gays.  He even compares gays to pedophiles, as you can see in this video. A quote from Carson:

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He also said this:

“I mean, [our society is] very much like Nazi Germany,” Carson told Breitbart News, after declaring that we were living in a “Gestapo age.” “And I know you’re not supposed to say ‘Nazi Germany,’ but I don’t care about political correctness. You know, you had a government using its tools to intimidate the population. We now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe.”

Carson, an African-American, joins the panoply of white supremacists, bigots, neo-Nazis, Holocaust denialists, and gay-haters that populate the SPLC’s  list. He is, as far as I know, the first serious Presidential candidate to be listed as one of those extremists. Republicans!

h/t: Heather Hastie

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ Mehdi

February 11, 2015 • 8:25 am

Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called, “ISIS,” came with a rare editorial comment in the email (I subscribe). To wit (I added the link to Hasan’s Wikipedia bio):

What dark forces lie behind the fact that Mehdi Hasan wrote something quite good
here?

Or, at least, *appeared* to write something quite good…

And the cartoon is quite good:

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Wikipedia (which I will cite when needed until Greg Mayer posts his promised piece on why it’s unreliable), has an article on Arab conspiracy theories, which are numerous and often completely cockeyed. The charter of Hamas, for instance, still cites the old anti-semitic forgery “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” which purports to be a document written by Jews laying out a plan to take over the world.

I must say that I haven’t been a big fan of Hasan (see here, for instance), but in this case what he has to say is good. Whether he believes it, given his history of Muslim apologetics, is a different question, but about that I don’t much care, for it’s what appears in print—not what’s in his head—that’s important. Below is an excerpt from his piece, which is on the mark though it doesn’t answer the question of why conspiracy theories are rife in the Arab world.

Nor is this about ignorance or illiteracy. Those who promulgate a paranoid, conspiratorial world-view within Muslim communities include the highly educated and highly qualified, the rulers as well as the ruled. A recent conspiracy theory blaming the rise of Islamic State on the US government, based on fabricated quotes from Hillary Clinton’s new memoir, was publicly endorsed by Lebanon’s foreign minister and Egypt’s culture minister.

Where will it end? When will credulous Muslims stop leaning on the conspiracy crutch? We blame sinister outside powers for all our problems – extremism, despotism, corruption and the rest – and paint ourselves as helpless victims rather than indepen­dent agents. After all, why take responsibility for our actions when it’s far easier to point the finger at the CIA/Mossad/the Jews/the Hindus/fill-in-your-villain-of-choice?

As the Egyptian intellectual Abd al-Munim Said once observed, “The biggest problem with conspiracy theories is that they keep us not only from the truth, but also from confronting our faults and problems.” They also make us look like loons. Can we give it a rest, please?

 

Readers’ wildlife photographs

February 11, 2015 • 7:30 am
We have arthropods and birds today. First, some caterpillars shot by reader Ken Phelps on Vancouver Island (I don’t know the species, but perhaps some readers do):
A bit of a leonine look to this guy:
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Recurring theme on B.C. coast:  a raindrop. Interesting reminder of how different it is to live at the scale where surface tension can be more important than gravity.
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 Spanning a couple gear teeth on the inevitable (for Vancouver Island) piece of rusted logging equipment.
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Diana MacPherson sent three bird photos which, as usual, she’s anthropomorphized:
Here are some photos of three different birds. The dove would creep out anyone afraid of birds as there were a bunch sitting on the deck and barbecue during Monday’s snow storm. I think the black of the cover on the barbecue was warm but the way the birds look at you suspiciously would unnerve an ornithophobe (here I picture only one among many).
A Suspicious Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura):
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This chickadee picture isn’t so good but I’ve never seen the bottom side of a chickadee before and the markings are interesting—he looks like he has a seam! I also like how he is so fluffy in the wind and that he is swinging by that one spindly leg!
Black Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) Hangs by One Foot:
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I like the expression on this nuthatch’s face. Very much appears to sternly warn other birds that this is his fat!
Red-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta canadensis) Looks for Those That Would Steal His Fat:
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Update: Matthew’s new kitten

February 11, 2015 • 6:13 am

Harry, Mattew Cobb’s new kitten, is proving both a boon and an annoyance, as kittens are wont to be. He is cute and affectionate, but also hyperactive, scratchy, and bite-y.

The good news is that he’s getting along well with one of the adult cats, Ollie. Here they are re-enacting the prophecy of Isaiah. (I don’t know a lot about cat genetics, but Harry’s pattern of being white but with blotches of pure mackerel tabby strikes me as really unusual.)

Harry and Ollie

But Pepper, the other cat, is being driven to distraction. Here Harry, through his importuning, has driven an annoyed Pepper into the wastebasket. (I am not making this up.)

Pepper drive to distraction

Wednesday: Hili dialogue

February 11, 2015 • 4:43 am

It’s Hump Day, and tomorrow I’m off to Mississippi to lecture about evolution in the South. If I don’t return alive, it’s been nice knowing you! Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili gets reproved for her intellectual pretensions. (I’m told that Andrzej was using the basket to fetch firewood, and Hili refused to get out of it.)

A: I have a feeling that this basket is half empty.
Hili: A basket is not a glass, and platitudes are not philosophy. Let’s go.
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In Polish:
Ja: Mam wrażenie, że ten koszyk jest na wpół pusty.
Hili: Koszyk nie szklanka, a banały to nie filozofia. Idziemy dalej.

 

Jon Stewart steps down

February 10, 2015 • 6:32 pm

First Colbert, now Jon Stewart: who is left to make wicked fun of Republicans and their follies? This just in from my CNN News feed:

Jon Stewart, whose wit defined “The Daily Show” for more than 15 years, will sign off the iconic Comedy Central program later this year, the cable channel said.

Stewart is expected to speak about his decision to step down on Tuesday night’s program.

Although I don’t get cable, I’ve watched him on the internet many, many times, usually with a chuckle and sometimes with a horselaugh. I hope he’s just tired of the show and wants to do other things rather than having any personal problems. Regardless, as a fellow alumnus of William and Mary, I wish him well.

Those of you who do watch the show, please post below the reasons he gives for retiring.

UPDATE: Comedy Central has issued this notice, suggesting obliquely that the show will continue sans Stewart. But who can replace him? He was the greatest double-taker since Jack Benny.

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My Back Pages

February 10, 2015 • 3:50 pm

Here’s ensemble of rock greats at Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert in 1992 (!). The split screen is annoying, but this is the best version I can embed. No twerking, no flames, no flashing lights, no dancing M&Ms:  just fantastic music—and great solos by Clapton and Young.

If you don’t know who everyone is, you need to bone up. The song, of course, was written by Dylan but made famous by the Byrds, one of whom sings here.