Williams Suspended From Nightly News
NBC is negotiating the return of former news chief Andrew Lack in the wake of the Brian Williams fiasco. NBC ‘Nightly News’ suspended long time chief anchor and managing editor Brian Williams in the midst of a reporting scandal and a drop of over 700,000 viewers.
Williams was officially suspended on Feb. 10. The suspension was a response to false reporting by Williams in 2003 after a visit to Iraq. Williams reported that the military helicopter he was a passenger in had been forced down by enemy fire.
Scandal erupted when a clip of Williams reporting at the time in 2003 was posted onto the official Facebook page of the network. Veteran Lance Reynolds commented, “Sorry, dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.”
Upon seeing this disclosure, Brian Williams issued an apology.
Upon Williams’s suspension, which will last six months, NBC tapped Lester Holt to fill the chief anchors seat. Since the implementation of Holt as the new anchor, NBC averaged 10.1 million views this past week, an almost 500,000 viewer leader over competitor ABC’s World News with David Muir. The network is expected to make a statement on Lack’s return in the coming week.
ISIS Militant Identified
Last Thursday the previously anonymous speaker with an English accent in several ISIS beheading propaganda clips was identified.
Two U.S. officials and two U.S congressional sources briefed the public on the man with an English accent discovered to be Mohammad Emwazi. Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Lononder, was known as “Jihadi John” because of his accent and unknown identity until now.
The Muslim-led human rights association CAGE had been in contact with Emwazi. CAGE offered in a statement that there were “striking similarities” between the 26-year-old Emwazi and the man seen in the videos of the beheadings of Westerners.
CAGE released information about Emwazi on their website. Born in Kuwait in 1988, he relocated to the United Kingdom at the age of six. He went on to study computer programming at the University of Westminster and graduated in 2009.
The consensuses among reports are that Emwazi’s radicalism was spurred by the alienation of his identity within society. Many Muslims feel targeted and profiled in the UK. In 2010 Emwazi was detained from flying to Kuwait, one of many racially charged acts he had faced.
Until his recent identification, the anonymity of “Jihadi John” provided celebrity and potency for the ISIS group.
Zoo Moves Last Elephants
On Feb. 27, Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo announced that they would be sending their last two elephants, Chai and Bamboo, to the Oklahoma City Zoo. This decision to move the elephants has sparked much controversy within the animal rights community.
PETA, an organization that promotes animal rights, urged locals to act against this move in a statement on their website. The statement cited Oklahoma City Zoo’s “lack of adequate space to hold them[the elephants] and [a] history for animal-welfare violations and premature animals’ deaths.”
The decision was announced by Woodland Park Zoo CEO Deborah Jensen, who stated that both elephants would be sent together to their new location. They intend to seek out the best location with plenty of other elephants.
Jensen is confident that moving the elephants to a larger and more social herd is the best step to take. “We remain committed to putting the welfare of our elephants first.” And “it is a difficult decision to move these animals who have longed played an important role as ambassadors for their species in the wild.”
Mayor Ed Murray supports this move by the zoo, believing it will better the lives of the elephants.
Elephants have been a part of the Woodland Park Zoo attractions and wildlife for 93 years.
Leonard Nimoy dies
On Friday Feb. 27, Leonard Nimoy, known to millions of Star Trek fans as Mr. Spock, passed away at his home in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles. He was 83-years-old.
Nimoy announced last year that his health had waned due to obstructive pulmonary disease. Earlier this week complications sent him to the hospital. The disease had been attributed to smoking earlier in his life, a habit he had moved on from some thirty years earlier.
Nimoy’s wife, Susan Bay Nimoy, announced the news of his death on Feb. 27. The actor had passed away earlier that morning.
Nimoy was best known for his role as Mr. Spock in the Star Trek franchise, which garnered him a “folk hero” to the masses of “Trekies” the world over.
Playing the half-human and half-alien was Nimoy’s most signature role as an actor, but it wasn’t his most significant work as an artist. An accomplished poet, photographer, musician and director, Nimoy struggled with the autonomy of his success as an actor. Nimoy had recorded several albums, directed several films and produced photography exhibits nationally.
