Another Massive Fail From Chuck C. Johnson: Attacks Lester Holt, Says Holt Was ‘Lying’ - He Wasn’t
Yes, our stalker friend Chuck C. Johnson is at it again. You’ve probably heard that NBC anchor Brian Williams is taking a leave of absence (that may or may not be permanent) from the NBC Nightly News, and his replacement is African American newsman Lester Holt. Holt is well-respected and admired in the news business (and a bass player to boot), but you can probably guess what Chuck Johnson’s reaction was: yes, he immediately began looking for a way to smear Holt, because that, after all, is what Chuck C. Johnson does.
And here’s the result: BREAKING: Brian Williams’s Replacement Lester Holt Falsely Claims He Flew 9 Gs, “Had Bombs Fall Around Him” in NBC Post.
Gotnews has confirmed that embattled NBC anchor Brian Williams’s replacement, Lester Holt, has also exaggerated his past exploits.
In an October 2006 blog post for NBC News Holt described conquering his fear of snakes and how he wasn’t afraid of doing dangerous things.
“I am not a whimp [sic]. I have done stories dangling 90 floors above Chicago in a window-washing rig on the Sears Tower. I have pulled 9-Gs and done loops and rolls with the Thunderbirds and Blue Angles. Heck, I had bombs falling around me in Lebanon a few months ago,” Holt wrote.
In fact, Holt did not do 9-Gs with the Blue Angels. Nor did he have bombs falling all around him in Lebanon.
We know this from Holt’s own reporting where he says he only did 7-Gs.
Your first clue that this story is bogus comes in the first sentence, where Chuck says he “confirmed” this reckless accusation. Actually, his confirmation is nothing more than a short video clip in which Holt says his plane did “7G turns.” Chuck distorts this statement into something that Holt didn’t say — that he only did 7Gs.
The section Chuck pulled out of context and distorted begins at about 2:50 into this video:
But let’s look more closely, and do the research Chuck C. Johnson couldn’t be bothered to do before making his wild accusation. Guess what we find?
According to a transcript of another segment that aired on NBC News on December 13, 2003, it’s absolutely true that Holt did “pull 9Gs” during a flight with the USAF Thunderbirds. This transcript is only available in XML form, but I wrote a quick script to pull out the relevant section:
HOLT: And then there are the G-forces, the harder and faster a plane turns or pulls, the more G-forces the pilot experiences.
MAJ. CARLSON: On this next turn, we’re going to go ahead and pull up to four to five G’s. Going to keep coming left, here. All right. So this next one will probably feel a little bit more. Do you feel your G-suit inflating?
HOLT: I feel it inflating.
MAJ. CARLSON: You got it?
HOLT: I got it now. I can’t even lift my arms.
MAJ. CARLSON: Five G’s right there. You were five times your body weight.
HOLT: I’m trying to lift my arms, and they’re not coming up. Anyone who has seen the Thunderbirds perform knows their solo pilots pull a lot more G’s than that. I guess you can best describe it as a big elephant on your chest. The more G’s you pull, the more my body effectively weighs. This plane can go nine G’s. That’s as much as you can go. Nine times the force of gravity. There’s no more maneuverable plane out there. And, Danno, I’m going to ask you to give that to me here. Nine G’s. Can you do it?
MAJ. CARLSON: All right, Lester, let’s get on up there.
HOLT: Let’s go!
MAJ. CARLSON: We got it! Nine point five, we got nine G’s right there.
There you have it, folks. Lester Holt didn’t lie about this at all. In fact, he understated how many Gs he withstood on this flight; it was actually 9.5Gs.
Chuck C. Johnson fails again, in a truly spectacular fashion. When will the media stop affording this clown more credibility than he deserves — i.e., zero?
(h/t: @ProgressGA.)
Here’s the same transcript in PDF form. (h/t: Sergey.)
Chuck responds to having his smears debunked: RISE of the HOLT TRUTHERS: How Likely Is It That #LesterHolt Pulled 9Gs? - GotNews
Gotnews debunked NBC anchor Lester Holt’s claim of doing 9Gs with the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds earlier today.
He also falsely claimed to have “bombs falling around him” in Lebanon.
Naturally our work has led to more truthers — like disgraced lesser Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs — coming out of the woodwork once again. (We previously humiliated him after he claimed that there had been massive flooding in the French Quarter as he was trying to spin Brian Williams’s claim that he saw (or was it heard?) a body floating by his hotel room).
Even if this 2003 report of doing 9Gs with the Blue Angels is true — and we doubt very much that it is — Holt claimed he did it with both the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels. He didn’t.