maly, too: TV Anchor Brian Williams Isn't the First Incompetent News Guy Told To Take a Hike By NBC. In 1993, Des Moines' Own Mike Gartner Was the First Casualty Of the Fiery 'Dateline NBC' Debacle Involving a Rigged General Motors Truck Crash.

Friday, February 13, 2015

TV Anchor Brian Williams Isn't the First Incompetent News Guy Told To Take a Hike By NBC. In 1993, Des Moines' Own Mike Gartner Was the First Casualty Of the Fiery 'Dateline NBC' Debacle Involving a Rigged General Motors Truck Crash.

By RON MALY

Most of you know by now that NBC has suspended TV anchor Brian Williams for six months without pay because of his persistent lying [both on and off the air] about being aboard a Chinook helicopter that went down during the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Brian Williams

My guess is that TV viewers have seen the last of Williams on NBC's 5:30 p.m. news shows, as well as his late-night appearances on other networks.

Williams has lost all credibility, and his bosses no doubt hope he'll drift away to some log cabin in remote Vermont, and never be heard from again.

While in Vermont, he can wear bib overalls, grow a beard, smoke a pipe and tell phony stories about his make-believe war exploits to the squirrels and chipmunks that come by with notes tied to their walnuts that ask, "Anything good happening, Brian?"

In Williams' case, a six-month NBC suspension will likely turn into a lifetime ban.

After all, the folks at NBC know how to handle things like this.

Indeed, they've had to do it before.

Williams is not the first employee of the NBC news division to get the ax. A guy a lot of us know was ordered to get out nearly 22 years ago.

Many of you no doubt recall that Des Moines' own Mike Gartner was, in 1993, told that he was no longer welcome in the NBC news offices.

There was one major difference in the Brian Williams and Mike Gartner situations.

Williams was suspended. Gartner was fired.

In 1993, NBC officials and other people probably hoped Gartner would drift away to remote Vermont, too, so he could wear some tiny bib overalls, and play with the squirrels, chipmunks and his little walnuts.

Unfortunately for the state of Iowa, Gartner wound up in Des Moines, where he has become the longtime winner of the Official Asshole Award presented by my websites and columns.

Official Asshole

For those of you who may have forgotten how Gartner dug himself a hole he couldn't escape at NBC, or were too young to know about it, here's a copy of the March 3, 1993 Associated Press story that told the embarrassing story about the little man:

NBC ousted Michael Gartner as president of the news division Tuesday, making him the first casualty of the fiery "Dateline NBC" debacle.

Gartner, 54, a former Wall Street Journal editor and owner of several Iowa newspapers, said he would resign as president and leave the network on Aug. 1.

The resignation was also announced briefly on the network's "Today" show.

"Given the publicity of late, I think it best to announce it now in hopes that this will take the spotlight off of all of us and enable us to concentrate fully on our business," Gartner wrote in a memorandum to his staff.

Despite that memo and news accounts that Gartner was resigning, NBC President and Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Wright had demanded Gartner's resignation over the weekend, according to an NBC source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The truth of the matter is that Michael did have discussions with both Bob (Wright) and (Executive Vice President for Employee Relations) Ed Scanlon, where he was asking "Should I stay or should I go?'

"The answer was, "You go.' "

Don Browne, executive vice president of NBC News, will take over Gartner's responsibilities and a search for Gartner's successor will begin immediately, NBC said.

Browne insisted that Gartner's resignation wasn't a consequence of the rigged General Motors truck crash staged by "Dateline NBC," which prompted a GM lawsuit and NBC's on-air apology to settle it.

"I think Michael stepped up to this himself," Browne said.

"He felt that in order for NBC News to keep moving, he was going to have to decide. It was too distracting to the organization...."

NBC executives, meanwhile, expect to receive the results of an internal investigation of the GM fiasco later this week.

As president of NBC's news division for five years, Gartner was criticized for slashing its budget, naming the alleged victim in the William Kennedy Smith rape trial and mishandling the "Today" show change from Jane Pauley to Deborah Norville.

But Gartner's career apparently was finally undone by NBC's ill-fated "Dateline NBC" report Nov. 17 on the alleged dangers of GM pickup trucks with side-mounted fuel tanks.

NBC issued an on-air apology last month for rigging a fiery test crash with tiny model rocket engines. The apology came after GM slapped the network with a defamation lawsuit.

Gartner publicly defended the news division after he knew just a few details of the setup....

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.