Now that Megyn Kelly has announced she’ll be leaving Fox News for NBC, let’s review some examples of her new network’s legacy of publishing fake news.
From contrived exposes to malicious editing and mischaracterized comments, NBC has earned a reputation for journalistic bias and baloney that might be hard for even Kelly to overcome. Here are just five examples.
#1 – Brian Williams Invents Outrageous War Story
“NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams disgraces himself and NBC when he’s caught telling a whopper about his death-defying exploits in Iraq:
“By the time he arrived at the Letterman show in 2013, it was mythology on steroids. His helicopter somehow managed to go further north than the northern-most coalition forces, thus placing him behind enemy lines. His craft took small arms fire. They were hit by an RPG. Their pilot was wounded behind the ear and subsequently was awarded a Purple Heart. They were forced to make a hard landing in the desert, where they sat out a two-day sandstorm. It was “like ‘Black Hawk Down’ meets ‘Saving Private Ryan,’” he declared on MSNBC in 2003.
“The sandstorm was real. Everything else was fabricated.”
#2 – “Dateline NBC” Rigs Truck Fire to Smear GM
To convince viewers that GM trucks are dangerously defective, “Dateline NBC” employed “incendiary devices” to cause a GM CK truck to catch on fire. Only after GM announced a lawsuit did NBC’s Jane Pauley own up to the fake news story:
“The next day, at the conclusion of the February 9 Dateline NBC, the story changed. Jane Pauley conceded "that what we characterized in the November Dateline segment as an unscientific demonstration was inappropriate and does not support the position that GM CK trucks are defective. Specifically, NBC's contractor did put incendiary devices under the trucks to insure that there would be a fire if gasoline were released from the truck's gas tank." Added co-anchor Stone Phillips: "We deeply regret that we included the inappropriate demonstration in our Dateline report. We apologize to our viewers and to General Motors." This concession occurred 84 days after the November 17 segment aired, and a day after GM held a news conference to show NBC's fabrications and to announce a lawsuit against NBC.”
#3 NBC Maliciously Edits 9-1-1 Audio to Imply Racism by George Zimmerman
Not one, but two, NBC shows used doctored audio of George Zimmerman’s 9-1-1 call to make Zimmerman sound racist as he reported the suspicious behavior of Trayvon Martin, whom he subsequently shot and killed in self-defense.
“For a full week in March, 2012 NBC “Nightly News” and “Today,” along with its local Miami affiliate ran audio tape of George Zimmerman’s 911 call the night he fatally shot Trayvon Martin. NBC viewers learned that Zimmerman had said to the 911 dispatcher, ‘This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.’
“That was pretty damning evidence of racial profiling. It was also an entirely false representation of the 911 conversation. Someone at NBC had edited the tape to make Zimmerman appear racist.”
#4 - NBC Declares Clinton Rape Accuser ‘Discredited,’ Then Edits Claim Out of Video
Not only did NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell call Juanita Broaddrick’s claim that Bill Clinton raped her “discredited,” but NBC also went back and edited out Mitchell’s claim when it posted the segment online.
The Washington Free Beacon explains:
NBC News has stealth-edited an Andrea Mitchell segment where she called Bill Clinton’s rape accuser Juanita Broaddrick “discredited,” deleting the line entirely, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.”
“Donald Trump using that word [rape] unprompted during an interview last night with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, bringing up a discredited and long-denied accusation against former president Bill Clinton, dating back to 1978 when he was Arkansas Attorney General,” Mitchell says in a voice over for the original segment.
The segment is still available on NBC News and lists a May 19 dateline. However, Mitchell’s remark that Broaddrick’s accusation is “discredited” has been deleted. Mitchell only says the rape has been “long denied” by the Clintons. The audio jumps forward awkwardly, indicating that it was edited.
#5 – NBC Misleads Public on Priebus Comment About Muslim Registry
When President-elect Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” NBC pounced on the opportunity to ignore one part of Priebus’ answer in order to sensationalize another in an effort to mislead the public regarding Trump’s intentions.
NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Priebus if he would “rule out a registry for Muslims,” to which Priebus answered:
“Look, I’m not going to rule anything out. But, we are not going to have a registry based on religion.”
NBC chose to hype Priebus first sentence, implying that a Muslim registry is, indeed, a possibility – even though Priebus’ full statement unequivocally declares the exact opposite.
What’s more, the NBC story with the misleading headline is still available for viewing on the network’s website –without even a “clarification” following the ensuing backlash over the network’s fake news.
