Hollywood may eventually make a movie about Brian Williams and his various adventures as journalist, fictional and otherwise. Then again, Hollywood already has, as Rush Limbaugh pointed out on his radio show today.
Nearly three decades before troubles for the NBC anchor came to a head, the 1987 film Broadcast News was eerily prophetic in depicting "the Brian Williams story," Limbaugh told his listeners, while urging them to dust off the flick to see for themselves.
The superficial character played by William Hurt in Broadcast News could easily pass for Williams, Limbaugh said (audio) --
Now keep in mind, this is 1987, and I'm going to give you a spoiler alert here, still watch it even though I'm going to give something away here. This enterprising young, local TV sports anchor, ambitious but not all that bright, hired to be a national news reporter, first assignment commits what used to be an unforgivable ethical breach. He interviews a young woman about her heart-wrenching experience with date rape. Now don't get the wrong idea. This date rape was not considered real news when this movie was made, it's not about that, but I'm just giving you the details here.
In the segment, this is the news, in the segment where this enterprising young reporter with his first big national news assignment, in this segment he commits a journalistic no-no. The reporter is shown crying, tearing up as the woman tells her story. Now what that does is insert him in the story. Now I'm mentioning this because Brian Williams has said he has to take himself off the news because he has become the news and I'm here to tell you that that's a bogus reason to get off the, that's silly anymore. These people have been making the news about them ever since this movie!
But in 1987 it was an ethical breach to make yourself part of the story. It was an ethical breach to have any emotional reaction at all to what you were seeing or to what somebody was telling you. The reporter is shown tearing up. That inserts him in the story, but the ethical breach was not just that. The ethical breach is discovered after the footage airs because the reporter in the real interview had not cried. The enterprising new reporter had not teared up. He told the cameraman to roll separate footage to capture him in the act of making himself cry and they edit that footage in with the footage of the original interview. So he not only inserted himself in the story, he faked his initial reaction to dramatize the moment.
Remember, this ambitious guy, he's trying to stand out, he's trying to get ahead fast, he's really ambitious, it's his first big assignment, he's got this woman telling a story about date rape, all during the original interview he didn't crack a smile, he didn't crack a frown, he didn't cry, but afterwards he cried for the camera in private and they inserted that in the story. And it made for great TV news for the viewers in this movie. In the movie the viewers ate it up, my God, the reporter was touched! He was crying. It was all, in fact, made up, it was BS. He cried after the fact.
But in the movie, you love the anchor. He sold his narrative. It may have been a true story but the facts were not allowed to speak for themselves. That's the point, the facts were not allowed, they had to be embellished. The woman telling her tale of date rape had to be embellished by a reporter inserting himself in the story, crying, but he really hadn't. That was inserted later. And what the hell, who cares if it was true anyway, it was good TV, it was compelling television. And the rating, and this guy became a huge star right off the bat and more assignments, big ratings bring in much needed revenue.
The movie, Broadcast News, made it clear this ethical breach was a journalistic nuclear bomb. Yet at the end of the movie the reporter who faked the tears was made anchor of a national network. In other words, folks, the movie Broadcast News in 1987 is the story of Brian Williams in one fictitious episode, a date rape victim describing her details, a reporter, ambitious, young sports anchor getting his first big gig as a national news reporter, nods his head, does all the requisite things but doesn't cry. Fakes the tears later, inserts them, much like they altered the 911 call in the Trayvon Martin case. The movie is prescient. It is a must-see to fully appreciate what (producer) James Brooks foresaw happening to network news all the way back in the 1980s.
To which Limbaugh added, after a break --
I think the movie Broadcast News is to journalism what Wag the Dog is to politics.
I'll take El Rushbo up on his suggestion and watch Broadcast News, which I haven't seen in several years. Limbaugh described the character played by Hurt, Tom Grunick, as getting promoted to anchor by the end of the movie, but as I recall Grunick landed the plum job of foreign correspondent assigned to London, not realizing that he was being groomed for anchor.
Limbaugh isn't the only observer to see the parallels between Williams and Broadcast News. So did Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds, who cites an exchange from the movie that deftly conveys why Grunick would turn out to be bad news. The scene involves an argument between Albert Brooks' schleppy but substantive Aaron Altman and Holly Hunter's hard-driven television producer Jane Craig. Altman is in love with Craig but she loves Grunick and sees Altman as journalist soulmate. Angered by disdain for Grunick and aching from unrequited love, Altman compares Grunick to Satan --
AARON ALTMAN: What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he's around?
JANE CRAIG: God!
AARON ALTMAN: Come on! Nobody is going to be taken in by a guy with a long, red, pointy tail! What's he going to sound like? (hisses) No, I'm semi-serious here.
JANE CRAIG: You're seriously ...AARON ALTMAN: He will be attractive! He'll be nice and helpful. He'll get a job where he'll influence a great God-fearing nation. He'll never do an evil thing! He'll never deliberately hurt a living thing ... he will just bit by little bit lower our standards where they are important. Just a tiny little bit. Just coax flash over substance. Just a tiny little bit. And he'll talk about all of us being salesmen. And he'll get all the great women.
And he'll spend many a midnight hour on late-night television shows humble bragging about his exploits.
