I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, having experienced a few “plastic” episodes myself where, to this day, I “remember” something happening that proveably didn’t.
Considering he presumably hasn’t claimed other undeserved war experiences, and he was there in a following helicopter, in a tense situation, I could easily see a memory warping taking place. It happens, and unless new evidence comes up to show he’s done it before or “knew” what he said was not factual, I’m amazed at the vitriol being spewed at the guy.
How is this news? Rather, how is this news for longer than a day, covered by so many news channels?
What about all the other lies during the Iraq war? Why aren’t those reporters, newscasters, on-air pretty boys, their bosses, … being hounded so that they feel the need to ‘take some personal time’, and then we can promote all of the people who actually did or tried to report the truth, eh?
Don’t forget what Dave McRaney of the YANSS podcast (here on boing boing) would probably point to the fact that our memories are horrible. There’ve been a few episodes about that. And the more you tell a story, the more warped it gets.
Well, the difference is that Williams is a journalist that millions of people rely on for factual accounts of world events. It’s his job to tell the truth, as close as possible. Embellishing stories, for what appears to be stroking his ego, makes him pretty much useless as a reporter. You can rank it with Fox, whatever, still most intelligent people are going to disregard him from now on.
What bothers me the most is can you imagine sitting in front of Letterman, and making up a story in front of a national audience? He had to know he wasn’t going to get away with this much longer. I don’t buy any “plastic memory” bullshit. If I was shot at 10 years ago, or not, I’m pretty sure I could tell the difference. Or, I could go back to my original documented account in case it was fuzzy for some reason. But, if I found myself remembering an event materially different from the way it actually happened, I would be very worried about the health of my memory.
I probably didn’t write my opinion to clearly. I trust the science, and I’m not trying to say that memory isn’t fallible.
My point is that his job is to get the facts straight. If he’s going to repeat this story, especially to an audience, he should fact check it. This is plenty easy to do.
I’m sure Brian Williams is a nice guy, probably well meaning, etc, but he gets paid more than most people and receives a lot recognition based on his credibility.
Is Williams the most egregious lying journalist? I don’t think so, but I don’t think that gives him a pass either.
