Why Trump’s helicopter tale is an important story
A journalist lost his job over a similar tall tale
Donald Trump’s false statement that he was in a helicopter with former California House speaker Willie Brown that made an emergency landing is an important story for several reasons.
Trump made the comment at a Thursday news conference where a reporter asked him a friendly question about Kamala Harris’ relationship with Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and California House speaker, and whether that relationship helped Harris’ political career.
Trump’s complete lie of an answer is important because he used that question to say he knows Willie Brown very well, that they had come close to dying in an emergency helicopter landing, and that Brown had told him “terrible things” about Kamala Harris.
It turns out Willie Brown says he was never in a helicopter with Trump. Trump DID take a 2018 helicopter ride with former California governor JERRY Brown, but that helicopter made no such emergency landing. And the fact that Jerry Brown is white, and Willie Brown is black would almost make the entire episode laughable except for the light it shines on how Trump makes stuff up.
Since the story first broke, another California politician who is black, Nate Holden, says he was in a helicopter with Trump that made an emergency landing in New Jersey way back in 1990.
Which is worse?
Trump either can’t tell two Black politicians apart, or he can’t tell a black California politician named Brown from a white California politician named Brown. I’m not sure which one is worse.
The truth is that Trump made the whole thing up and is angry that he got caught in a provable lie. He’s now threatening to sue the New York Times for reporting the facts of the story.
The episode could be chalked up as yet another example of how Trump lies, except for two things.
Making up stories about Harris
He used the story to trash Vice-president Kamala Harris by making vague allegations that Willie Brown told him “terrible things” about her. Willie Brown says he never made negative comments about her to Trump or anyone else. The point is that rather than attacking Harris on her positions – which is perfectly fair game – Trump clearly will invent personal things about her. All journalists need to keep that in mind for the remainder of this campaign. If Trump is willing to make up this story, he’s likely to make up more stories that never happened. It’s incumbent on journalists to check out everything he says about her. And it’s one more reason why journalists should never put Trump on live TV. Every single appearance should be recorded and checked so he can’t use live interviews to broadcast more falsehoods.
The journalist who lost his job over a helicopter story
The other reason this helicopter tall tale is important is that it speaks to the credibility of people in the public eye. I’m reminded about Brian Williams, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, who lost that job over his telling of a tale about being in a US military helicopter that was shot down in Iraq. Williams had related the story a number of times during interviews – but it never happened. Williams HAD been in a helicopter over Iraq when another helicopter about an hour ahead of him was shot down.
Despite a stellar career telling thousands of stories accurately, Williams lost his anchor job because he told ONE false anecdote. He later apologized for it, saying he had “conflated” two stories in his mind.
NBC News valued its credibility so highly that it could no longer keep Brian Williams as its main anchor, so they removed him. They knew that viewers would rightly ask, “If Williams made up THAT story, what ELSE is he making up?” NBC News found it untenable to keep him as their standard bearer.
What does that say about Trump supporters and the Republican party, that they’re willing to keep Trump as their standard bearer? That they’re willing to put him in the most important job in the world when he has lost all credibility? Americans are right to ask themselves, “What ELSE is he making up? Can this guy be trusted?”
This is not normal
All politicians spin, but Trump’s lies go far beyond normal spin. He is a fundamentally untruthful person. What reader of this column would want to work for a boss who lies all the time? You could always quit that job and go find another. But if Trump is elected, we’re stuck with a lyin’ boss and there’s nothing we can do about it.
A completely unrelated anecdote about Brian Williams, but it’s really about my wife, Laura, who has read way more good books than me but can be charmingly oblivious about mass media. She was a loyal viewer of the station where I worked, KCCI and its network, CBS News, but otherwise unaware about other networks and their stars.
About 20 years ago, I served a term as chairman of the national association of TV and radio news directors, which was holding its annual awards ceremony in New York. I had a speaking role off the top and Laura and I arrived a bit early to an empty auditorium.
Brian Williams, then the anchor of NBC Nightly News, had graciously agreed to be a presenter. He also arrived early and sat next to us in the front row of this empty auditorium. We struck up a pleasant conversation. He had spent a lot of time in Iowa covering the caucuses. We talked about raising kids in Des Moines vs. New York. He could not have been nicer.
Upon our return to Iowa, friends asked us how we enjoyed our trip to NYC. Laura, said it was great, and explained how we’d had a nice long chat with Brian WILSON. “Brian Wilson?” our friends exclaimed with excitement. “That’s amazing! We LOVE him! How did he seem? What did you talk about?”
I, the ever-present reporter and buzz kill, jumped in to say, “Not Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Brian WILLIAMS - you know - the anchor of NBC Nightly News.”
Our friends did a poor job masking their disappointment.
At another such affair, Laura sat next to the legendary ABC newswoman Carole Simpson.
They hit it off talking about each other’s dresses, where to shop in New York, etc. Once back home, I would overhear Laura on the phone telling a friend about her pleasant chat with that nice lady Carol SAMPSON.
Laura really had no idea who these people were. Part of her charm.
Happy birthday to my loyal, wonderful, well-read wife.
I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, bringing perspective on life and issues from across the state. Here’s the current roster of writers.
Happy birthday to Laura! This was a great read with a fun conclusion.
I also thought about Brian Williams when I first heard that story. A cynical point, I’d bet most of the MAGA crowd has never heard about the helicopter story (or at least the untruths). That’s part of my frustration with the Trump cult and Fox News/conservative talk radio; there are good people completely in the dark about facts and issues that would be deemed inconvenient for their cause. That would include my own family in Iowa. If you laid out the conduct, the lies, the crimes and the ethics without attaching a name or political party to it, my family would never vote for such a candidate. But they live in a world of right-wing media and so do their neighbors so its useless trying to explain anything otherwise.