I feel like one of my purposes in writing this blog is to stand up for truth and honesty. So that is why I am writing this post. Mr. Williams had claimed a story years ago and has repeated it often, and it turns out the story was fabricated. He claimed he was on a helicopter that was shot down and the helicopter he actually flew in on came an in an hour after the fun had ended. It's not just the initial lie either. His phony apology made this seem like like all a mistake, that he just misremembered something that happened years ago. Let's be honest, though, he first stated this whopper more than a decade ago. Do we really believe that the man could not remember the fact that the chopper he was in was not shot down in Iraq only a short time earlier? Does that make sense? Not to me, it doesn't. Now everything the man has said is being called into question.
Why would a respected news man like Brian Williams start lying like this? I don't know why obviously. Only Brian and God himself know the answer to that one, but I have some Ideas. First, it was a really exciting incident that happened an hour before they got there. It just seemed so much better to say he was in the chopper that was shot down and not an in a chopper that got there an hour later. Then, after he told the lie the first time, he just got trapped by the lie. The lie was so interesting and exciting that everyone else was probably like, "Hey Brian do you remember the time you were in that helicopter crash?" How was he supposed to answer that? "Well, actually I lied about that to get better ratings." Um no, he's not going to say that. That could end his career so he had to continue the lie.
Now they are looking at other statements he made that could have stretched the truth or obliterated it entirely. His reputation has been shattered by a desire for sensationalism. It is so sad. As he started telling lies, he was eventually trapped by them. I do think he is a basically good man that caught up in a dangerous destructive practice.
So what do we learn from this whole sordid affair. The old cliches are true. One lie does in fact lead to another, and honest is the best policy. There is a time where one might be able to defend lies or the obfuscation of truth. If I psychopath was looking for one of my children while caressing a bloody knife, I probably would not tell them the truth. In World War Two, we made it look like the D-day invasions were going to happen on different beaches than they actually occurred. But there is no excuse to lie just to make your story sound better. We have to hold each-other to higher standards than we usually do. This is why we each have to stand up against people like Brian Williams when something like this happens.
We all need to stand up for honesty and say, "Brian, it's time you go."