by Dan Oswald
A few weeks ago, I wrote about integrity—the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Then last week we learned that NBC News chief anchor Brian Williams appears to have been stretching the truth. His employer has confirmed that it is investigating Williams’ statement that he was in a helicopter in Iraq in 2003 that was hit by enemy fire and forced out of the air.
It seems that, much like a good fish story, Williams’ story about the helicopter ride in Iraq got better with each telling. He was indeed embedded with a U.S. military unit at the beginning of the Iraq War. While there, a Chinook helicopter was hit by an RPG. Williams was traveling in a different Chinook. At the time, Stars and Stripes reported that “the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire.” It went on to say, “Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing.”
A couple days later, on an NBC News program, Williams reported on the helicopter incident, saying, “On the ground, we learned the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky.”
A couple of years later, in 2005, the story had improved. In this telling on CNBC, Williams said, “The helicopter in front of us was hit. A pickup truck stopped on the road, pulled a tarp back; a guy got up, fired an RPG, rocket-propelled grenade. These were farmers, or so they seemed. And it beautifully pierced the tail rotor of the Chinook in front of us.” There was no mention of learning about it while “on the ground” or that he “arrived in the area about an hour later.” This time it sounded like he was an eyewitness.
But it didn’t stop there. A couple more years passed, and Williams was still talking about the attack on the helicopters. And the story continued to evolve. In 2007, Williams told a student reporter from Fairfield University that he had “looked down the tube of an RPG that had been fired at us and had hit the chopper in front of ours.”
In 2013, 10 years after the attack on the helicopters, Williams was still talking about it. In a conversation with Alec Baldwin for his podcast Here’s the Thing, he told Baldwin about the attack. When asked if he thought he might die, Williams replied, “Briefly, sure.” How things have changed over the years.
Finally, the fish story turned into a real doozy when just a few weeks ago, Williams said, “The helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG.”
Some of the soldiers who were part of that convoy publicly questioned Williams’ account of the story. Last week, Williams recanted his story on air. “I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground-fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert,” he said.
The problem is that when you tell a whopper like this, people start to question other stories you’ve told over the years. Now people are raising doubts about other stories Williams has recounted, including statements he made about seeing a body floating through the French Quarter after New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina and how he contracted dysentery after he swallowed some floodwater there.
Williams should have heeded the words of Will Rogers, who once said, “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.”
Williams has put his employer in quite a quandary. He has anchored NBC Nightly News since 2004. For much of that time, it has been the top-rated evening newscast, regularly besting its competition on the other two networks. On Friday, NBC News President Deborah Turness said that an internal investigation had been launched after questions arose over Williams’ false on-air statements.
In any business, trust with your customers is imperative. And when you’re in the news business, people want to know they can believe what you’re telling them. This entire episode raises a lot of questions. What happens if it’s confirmed that Williams indeed let the truth get away from him? Does NBC risk its top news rating and dismiss him? Can the network put a man confirmed to play fast and loose with the facts back on the air and expect viewers to trust him? Does it matter if it’s just this one story that has been embellished, or would it take other examples to discredit the anchor?
If Williams was indeed less than honest in his recounting of the helicopter attack, it’s going to be really difficult for him to regain the trust of viewers. This story again reminds us how one mistake can call into question a person’s integrity and undo what it took a lifetime to build. We’d all be wise to heed the words of Will Rogers.
Wonderful article. You are perfectly right.
Thanks for your wisdom. Finally, the best strategy in life is simply to be honest.
Thanks
Brian Williams is in a position of public trust and integrity. He failed on both accounts. I’ve heard others say, “Everyone makes mistakes”. This wasn’t a mistake mentioned in casual conversation. He needs to restore the integrity of his employer by stepping down. His apology was horrible.
the point brought home seems to be more that we are so overwhelmed with reality TV that most of us have stopped paying much attention to and we do not even recall a slip in story line by a historically reliable journalist, like Brian Williams.
a satisfactory acknowledgement of error made was provided and I think it can be definitely stated that the positive point made is that listening and watching reports even from mostly reliable sources we obtain additional information to confirm what would or should have been a serious occurrence and accept responsibility for our level if trust.
an error was made and in my opinion it was originally a slightly incorrect report was enhanced maybe because that is what most of us lean towards wanting to hear Or maybe recall was inhanced by types of questions asked of BW by a Movue Star many if us, maybe even the reporter in this story, was hearing from a person we associate with catchy war stories many of which include a good number of Truths, so much so that our military uses those fictions in some training in our war colleges.
How quickly a LIE can destroy a LONG career of trust! But he did it to himself.
Great article, I have so enjoyed watching Brian Williams over the years, and at the end of his news ,he brought the good news.. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge, with all this publicity against him he’d never come back to face his viewers for the shame he more than has himself. But people do forgive and forget, and I personally would watch him once again, we all have made mistakes, we all have told ” white lies” and we all move on
Yesterday NBC announced that it would be suspending Brian Williams for six months without pay. I’m curious to hear what people think of that decision. Was that the appropriate punishment? Will 6 months out of the public eye help viewers forget what Williams did? Will he return to the anchor desk and, once again, have the public’s trust?
I’ve never been in a combat zone, but I think it’s pretty easy to distinguish almost being shot out of the sky opposed to being an hour behind a chopper that was hit by enemy fire – even after 10 years. It’s not like the fish that got away that keeps getting bigger with every telling of the story.
Yes, everyone does make mistakes, but there’s a difference between an honest mistake and an outright lie, especially when you’re in the public eye. For example, everyone thinks back to a pivotal moment in history on anniversaries – JFK and MLK assasinations, the day Reagan was shot, 9/11, etc. On 9/11, I was at work in the Philadelphia area and an employee came in and said a plane hit one of the towers. We were concerned because we had offices in both towers and didn’t know which one was hit. We then learned the other one was hit. Everyone knows the rest. What if today, I started telling people I didn’t know back then that I had been in one of the towers when they were hit. Wow, what a story. If these people then found out that I lied about this, they would lose respect for me and start doubting a lot of other things I said.
I don’t know what to think about the suspension. May be a little harsh, maybe not. I don’t think, however, that people will forget. Once he’s ready to come back, he’ll be back in the news again as everyone reports the date he’s returning and goes on to state why he wasn’t on the air.
I’m not particularly upset about Mr. Williams lying or embellishing as it were his involvement in this incident. I take just about anything anyone from the media says with a grain of salt – local, national, international. Not much of it is truly accurate. Give the guy a break! I think the 6 month suspension is way over the top and it has not changed my feelings about Mr. Williams in the least bit. In the big scheme of things that are important in life or that impact most of us, what difference did it make?
From his beginning as anchor for NBC, I never trusted that bent nose liberal. He acted in a position that he was better than anyone. His smooth talking voice turned me to ABC and there I stay!!