The act of rigorous forgiving

[T.G.]

I thought about posting this in the main forum because I think it's relevant to how we react to "scandal" in major league baseball... but decided to post it here instead.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/opinion/david-brooks-the-act-of-rigorous-forgiving.html?smid=tw-share

 

[Spirit]

I'm anxious to see David Brooks apply this just forgive the lie and move on approach to the next election cycle.  I'm sure that whatever politicians get caught lying will be given the same "heal the relationship" approach that he applied here.

 

Williams didn't come clean ... he was caught.  He was called out by the military guys that were there.

 

Everyone knows the cable news channels and their anchors/hosts are full of crap, so the bar is much lower for them.  But when you are the main guy on one of the nightly news shows for the major networks, you've got to be someone people feel they can trust.  You have to be Cronkite-like.  Brooks said, "Williams’s transgressions were not part of his primary job responsibilities."  Brooks is wrong.  If you're in that role and you're knowingly manipulating the truth (or just flat out making stuff up), you're transgressing against your primary job responsibilities. 

 

I love me some Brian Williams.  I think his hosting performance on SNL years back was outstanding.  I thought his appearances on The Daily Show were great.  This whole thing really bummed me out.  But he had to step down as "the main guy."  

 

I do look forward to what his next chapter in life as in store though. 

Edited February 11, 2015 by Geoff

[Blarg]

Politics, obviously.

[eaterfan]

Someone tweeted yesterday "Brian Williams is the first person ever punished for lying about the Iraq War". Props if it was one of you who I follow on Twitter.

[TobiasFunke]

Here here Geoff

[deepdrive]

The guy's a joke. He should play it up and replace Stewart on the Daily Show.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

The civic fabric would be stronger if, instead of trying to sever relationships with those who have done wrong, we tried to repair them, if we tried forgiveness instead of exiling.

 

I can think of many occupations in which doing this would be inadvisable, if not catastrophic. My own profession of nursing has often been accused of being unforgiving, but sometimes when we make mistakes people die. There is a reason that sloppy practice and embellishment of details and personal skills are not tolerated. Some things can be dealt with less severely if they are not central to the profession.

 

One thing that is central to Williams' profession is the maintenance of public trust. He was caught in a blatant lie, one that he has retold many times in order to add credibility to himself that he did not earn. He was called on it, and the public reaction has been both predictable and reasonable IMO.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Vegas Halo Fan