It's not been a good past few days for NBC new anchor Brian Williams. It all started with him recalling an incident while embedded with troops in Iraq where the chopper he was in took on heavy enemy fire from an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade).
Except...no, it didn't happen that way.
A soldier who had been on the helicopter with Williams called him out, saying their chopper wasn't hit by an RPG that day. Apparently what happened was the chopper flying in front of the one that Williams was on was fired upon by the RPG.
Williams apologized, saying he had conflated in his memory of the chopper he was on with the one in front of him.
Except no one is buying that. How can anyone misremember someone else getting shot at as yourself being shot at?
Actually, Williams' chopper was fired upon but by gunfire, not an RPG. OK, not the same thing but why would Brian Williams lie about a thing like that? What is there to gain that he didn't already have? And surely no one would deliberately put for a blatantly false story that occurred within the living memory of so many people who could punch holes in such a story? This lends some credence to that concept that Brian Williams really did misremember what happened on that fateful day in Iraq.
Still...
Comedian Norm McDonald once observed, "Have you ever lied about something and you had absolutely nothing to gain from it? 'Did you see that new Meryl Streep movie?' And you say, 'Yes, I did' even though you didn't and there's nothing to be gained for lying about it."
The point being is that sometimes people will be less than honest and there really isn't any purpose to it.
For the most part, in terms of public opinion about Brian Williams, the wind is blowing from the direction of the septic plant. Particularly offended are veterans of the Iraq War, several of whom were really, truly and most sincerely shot at.
As with most things that hits the zeitgeist on any given day, this kerfluffle over Brian William's fractured recollections prompted a hashtag to start trending on Twitter:
#BrianWilliamsMisremembers
And, as is my want, here are my contributions to this topic.
Except...no, it didn't happen that way.
A soldier who had been on the helicopter with Williams called him out, saying their chopper wasn't hit by an RPG that day. Apparently what happened was the chopper flying in front of the one that Williams was on was fired upon by the RPG.
Williams apologized, saying he had conflated in his memory of the chopper he was on with the one in front of him.
Except no one is buying that. How can anyone misremember someone else getting shot at as yourself being shot at?
Actually, Williams' chopper was fired upon but by gunfire, not an RPG. OK, not the same thing but why would Brian Williams lie about a thing like that? What is there to gain that he didn't already have? And surely no one would deliberately put for a blatantly false story that occurred within the living memory of so many people who could punch holes in such a story? This lends some credence to that concept that Brian Williams really did misremember what happened on that fateful day in Iraq.
Still...
Comedian Norm McDonald once observed, "Have you ever lied about something and you had absolutely nothing to gain from it? 'Did you see that new Meryl Streep movie?' And you say, 'Yes, I did' even though you didn't and there's nothing to be gained for lying about it."
The point being is that sometimes people will be less than honest and there really isn't any purpose to it.
For the most part, in terms of public opinion about Brian Williams, the wind is blowing from the direction of the septic plant. Particularly offended are veterans of the Iraq War, several of whom were really, truly and most sincerely shot at.
As with most things that hits the zeitgeist on any given day, this kerfluffle over Brian William's fractured recollections prompted a hashtag to start trending on Twitter:
And, as is my want, here are my contributions to this topic.
- "I built this city on rock 'n' roll!"
- "I snarled, 'Say hello to Satan, you bastard', then I squeezed the trigger and blew Bin Laden's head clean off!"
- "And that's how I became the first black President of the United States!"
- "And I said, 'Dammit, Ben Franklin, you're going to get electrocuted if you keep doing that!'"
- "Since the girls of Pink Lady didn't speak much English, I was asked to co-host their variety show."
- "The day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was a really bad day for me."
- "Even though he was an annoying character, I sought to portray Screech with a sense of pathos."
- "Even though I was fighting a really bad flu bug, I was able help the Bulls to another NBA Championship."
- "The day I married Kate Middleton was the happiest day of my life!"
In a way, I do feel sorry for Brian Williams. It is possible to tell a story so often, you don't remember the event, just the story about the event. Writer Douglas Adams used to ascribe the creation of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to finding himself lying drunk in a field in Innsbrook one night. Adams later admitted that he had told the story so much that he really didn't recall the event, just the story of the event. Adams noted that in reality any part of that story could conceivably be not true and he wouldn't know the difference.
I'm not saying that's the case with Brian Williams. But I know I have some stories like that, where I know the stories better than the events they're based on. So maybe we should cut Brian a little slack. He has publicly apologized this and as far as we know, it's just this one story. Still, maybe for the near future, when Brian Williams does the NBC Nightly News, he should be wired to a lie detector.
Just in case.
Post amended: Sunday, 02/08/2015, 6:20 AM
Since I first posted this, a couple of developments:
- I've seen accounts that Brian Williams has been telling this version of events for years. There have been other accounts, however, that show Brian's telling of this story has changed over the years and earlier versions were closer to the reality. People's accounts of incidents in their lives change over time.
- The helicopter that was struck by an RPG and was NOT carrying Brian Williams was about an hour ahead of William's chopper, not immediately within view as I first assumed.
- Brian has taken himself off the air and Lester Holt will be filling in. Giving the slow drip of bad news in the wake of this story, I think Lester might wind up doing more than "filling in". If so, well, that would be one piece of good news in a mess filled with precious little for NBC, Lester Holt would be great for the job. Unless Lester's been telling people he once stabbed Saddam Hussein in the neck with a spork.
Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You
Hey, if you're looking for a Doctor Who post, one is coming up tomorrow (Sunday).
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