Most people seem to agree that Brian Williams has been a good journalist, at least in terms of his adventurous spirit, articulate manner, sense of humor, and diplomatic sensibility. He does interviews in a way that makes and keeps us curious. At The Forum, we like him, and we’ve been debating internally about how to view his six-month suspension from NBC. The question we keep coming back to is: do we really think that there was ill intent involved in his misrepresentation of events that occurred (in his own portrayed experience) years ago?
We decided to jump OFF the bandwagon, the one from which everyone is damning Brian Williams for embellishing a few personal stories. He might have more of an ego than we used to think he had, and that’s disappointing. Does being a braggart belie one’s ability to be a fair newsman or even a journalist with integrity?
Let’s play devil’s advocate with his claim of “misremembering” some things he experienced. Our brains are fallible machines. Time, among other things, makes them less oiled, and major life events can cause our focuses to shift, our priorities to change. Have you ever had a memory you then questioned or been uncertain whether something had really happened or you had dreamed it? Sometimes dreams seem so realistic, we wake up still caught inside them, confused as to why we’re lying down, groggy, with a cat in our armpit — versus walking naked with Gilles Marini through the Andes Mountains.
We’re not saying Brian Williams has been dreaming about Gilles Marini, or that he’s been dreaming at all. If you look at what he said in the beginning of his accounting of his experience in an Israeli helicopter, and you look closely at the way the accounts changed over time, Brian Williams begins to look remarkably human and imperfect. After a couple of accounts, he describes a view he’d never himself seen, as he’s presenting the image to his friend Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. His account changes based on this new perspective, which feeds his memory. And the food turns out to be junk. Time passes, more memories occur, and the account changes again.
Whether Brian’s brain flubbed or he simply lied to make himself look good (ultimately failing, might we add), we keep thinking about our own mistakes and fallibilities, try as we might to be exact and to remember things (silly or monumental) with absolute, camera-like accuracy and no additional information (or junk food) added in. The thing is, Brian Williams seemed kind of perfect before, didn’t he? He rolled with the punches, answered and asked questions smoothly and with seeming earnest, and he looks great in a suit. Doesn’t that make this misremembering, or embellishment, or lies even more painful for his viewers? We get that Brian Williams should be held to a high standard and that millions of people have relied on his integrity. But if what it comes down to is someone saying, “The fish I caught was 10 feet long!” when it was really five, we’re not sure that we ultimately care, or that we should.
As journalists, we are obligated, to the best of our abilities, to present our readers or viewers with honest depictions of reality. But if we present only pure fact with no human perspective, no opinion, no mistakes — and therefore, no self-deprecation or apologies – what do you really need us for? Maybe the answer is “a lot.” Maybe the answer is “nothing.” Again, we’re not sure. But we’re going to miss Brian Williams over the next six months, and we do hope he’ll be given another chance to be perfect upon his return.
