Pete Williams Becomes The Reporting Hero Of The Boston Bombings

[onehandle]

NBC's Pete Williams has emerged as the reporter out in front of all the rest during the coverage of the Boston bombing.

Williams famously stuck to his guns when rival reporters--most prominently CNN's John King--said on Wednesday that there had been an arrest in the case. He was proved correct; the suspects in the case were not revealed until a day later.

Early Friday morning, as the suspects killed a police officer, stole a car and engaged in a deadly shootout with police, Williams broke news again and again. He was one of the first to say that a suspect had been killed; the first to report that the men may have had overseas connections; the first to report that they told the man whose car they stole that they had carried out the bombing attack; and the first to report that the men were brothers.

At one point in the night, "NBC's Pete Williams" was trending overnight on Twitter.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/pete-williams-boston-reporting-nbc_n_3114880.html

He seemed to have all of the information.

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. He absolutely refused to report anything he didn't know for an ABSOLUTE FACT

Every other reporter needs to take a lesson from NBC news and Pete Williams.

CNN: we have a remedial course y'all can take 8 weeks over the summer.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Old fashion reporting.

The right way.

[ProudProgressiveNow]

22. +1 nt

[TeamPooka]

25. refreshing

[ananda]

2. Yes, he was very good.

The best of the three networks I skipped around to watch.

[City Lights]

3. I was very impressed with his professionalism.

[JI7]

4. he also disputed the missing college student being one of the suspects

i think he is different because he just cares about reporting the news and being accurate and not about being the first one to break the news or some other sensationalist crap to try to get attention for himself.

[Tx4obama]

5. He got the report on the Miranda rights WRONG tonight.

Earlier tonight:

Pete Williams on NBC says federal authorities read Dzhokhar his Miranda rights on the boat.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/19/boston-marathon-bombing-manhunt_n_3115239.html#185_mass-police-significant-amount-of-homemade-explosives-recovered

Now it is being reported that there were NO miranda rights given to suspect number two.

[chillfactor]

9. Williams is human..and deals with information as his sources feed him

sometimes THEY are wrong....he never claimed to be God......are you mistake free?

then there is John King.........

[City Lights]

13. No one is perfect.

From what I've seen and heard, he was more accurate than anyone else.

[Wednesdays]

20. Indeed. And before anyone chimes in, "Then he's just like the others"

Note that Williams' error about Miranda didn't ruin some stranger's reputation and made his and his family's lives a living hell.

[kenny blankenship]

6. He seemed to have all of the information.

Pete Williams as we should all remember was once Pentagon Spokesman. Draw your own conclusions.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. OP Mockingbird?

Ok

[chillfactor]

7. I agree wholeheartedly.......

Pete Williams has proven his worth time and time again. He would never report anything unless he checked and checked again.

I argued with another poster earlier who said Williams gave wrong information about the brothers being trained overseas and that they had only been in the US one year....try an explain to a dim bulb that that was the information that was being given out to begin with as always happens in fluid, rapildy evolving events..and misinformation is the norm..sheesh!

[Honeycombe8]

12. I've always liked him. He's factual and low key. Unusual for a tv newsguy these days.nt

[Baitball Blogger]

8. I ended up on NBC in the end.

[moondust]

11. Me too.

Solid.

[Triana]

14. I've seen a lot of tweets that NBC was the best at reporting this story.

Pete Williams must be the reason why. Good job. Others (CNN, Fox) could take lessons.

[glowing]

15. Maybe someone in the scene did? But they are "waiving" that now.

Or the kid was completely out of it needing medical attention and it wouldn't matter what was said?

[Cha]

17. John Miller tweet thinks the local Boston news media deserves commendation..

john miller @deaconmill

Can we please have all the local Boston news media replace all the blowhards at the national networks? We might see real journalism.

Good to know Pete Williams did a good job. thanks onehandle

[warrior1]

18. I'll bet Pete would say it's not about him

He's just that good

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. He repeated the claim they had overseas military training.

[brett_jv]

21. Do we know for sure they (either one) did not?

I don't know myself, just askin'

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. He said himself it was an assumption.

[MADem]

27. The older brother did spend six months in Russia--but NBC did parse, see the link below.

I think there is some speculation that older brother was radicalized in one of those halfassed training camps. That's not fully sourced, though, I do not think, so take it as supposition at this stage.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2311686/Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-Slain-Boston-bomber-promising-Golden-Gloves-boxer-turned-radical-Islam.html

Both he and his brothers are believed to have military experience. NBC News learned that counterterrorism officials were examining possible links between them and the Islamic Jihad Union of central Asia.

They are citing NBC too, but NBC only reported it as a possible link and sourced it to "counterterrorism officials." Slightly better than "Some people say..." since they name the basic bunch of "some people," sorta, kinda.

That said, this Daily Mail report is loaded with small inaccuracies.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

28. ANYTHING is being jumped on by Neocons to polish their turd of a legacy....

Tweety even had Rudy on today as if he's an "expert".

[MADem]

30. All the neocons seem to do is blather and shake their fists.

Don't impress me one bit, frankly!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

31. Me neither, but I just HATE the fact that they feed on fear.

[MADem]

32. That's how they try to control people. They wore out that dance card during the Nahn Wun Wun era,

though--people are sick of fear, it pisses them off, now. Kinda ruins that GOP gig!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. Still, the news media love to sell fear...

Damn shame they can't get it through their heads there is more to life than sex and violence.

[MADem]

35. Yes, they do. If it bleeds, it leads, as they say! nt

[AsahinaKimi]

24. Pete Williams used to work in San Francisco

I remember when he was on the air here.

[MADem]

26. I had the benefit of local reporters. I watched WHDH and WBZ and they did a good job.

They stuck to facts and if they were reporting a supposition, they made it plain that it was unsourced.

The Williams I liked was Jack Williams, who said "I'll probably get in trouble for this, but that sounds like a bomb" or words to that effect, when the bomb went off. And then he said something like "I hope they catch the SOBs..."

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. remember when he was the Pentagon spokesman during the first Gulf War in Jan/Feb 1991?

Pete Williams as Assistant Secretary of Defense at a press briefing, 1991

And there was the controversy of him being outed as gay way back 1991 - At a time when not even Don't Ask/Don't Tell was enacted yet and he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense

[BREMPRO]

33. agreed NBC was well sourced and accurate without wild speculations or personal opinion

very professional. THE model of good journalism on this story..\\\\\

now if nbc/comcast could just get their entertainment division working as well they might be back in business!

[Gravitycollapse]

36. He's not a hero. He simply got less things wrong than the others.

He said they were trained overseas and moved to the US less than 1 year ago. Which isn't true at all.

[Shrek]

37. He was a mouthpiece for the Bush administration

And worked for Dick Cheney.