NBC urged to “come clean” on analyst’s ethics problems

Yesterday I posted Viewers challenge NBC & Williams' silence on McCaffrey's conflicts.

The short of it: NBC execs and NBC News anchor Brian Williams are refusing to comment on NY Times’ stories exposing NBC military analyst Barry McCaffrey’s glaring conflicts of interests stemming from his financial involvements with defense contractors. NBC viewers are slamming Williams at an MSNBC blog where he posts.

I said in the Internet Age NBC and Williams will be forced to stopped stonewalling and offer viewers some kind of explanation, however lame.

NBC and Williams are still stonewalling.

Media Matters for America blog County Fair, which self-describes as” a media blog featuring news links and progressive media criticism from around the web,” today posted - "Brian Williams can't escape the NBC military analyst controversy on his blog."

It begins:

Media Matters' David Brock isn't the only one urging NBC execs to come clean regarding their role in the pressing Pentagon Pundit scandal.

That’s followed by examples of sharp criticisms from commenters at MSNBC’s blog.

County Fair’s post ends asking:

Will Williams ever acknowledge his readers concerns? Or is his blog just a p.r. vehicle to drum up viewers?

I’ve already given my answer to the first question.

As to the purpose of his blog, if Williams keeps stonewalling he’ll drive away viewers just as the Raleigh News & Observer’s stonewalling of readers questioning its biased, racially inflammatory and often false Duke lacrosse coverage has led many of those readers to lose interest in the N&O and seek out more reliable news sources.

The Internet makes that possible just as its made it harder for news orgs to mislead the public.

But, Lord knows, many news orgs are still trying.