What's Worse? Lying or Lying about Lying?

The news is anywhere and everywhere - phones, television, computers, the radio, and newspapers. Any medium can report news, obviously television still being the larger outlet since it’s the oldest and everyone has a TV. No matter how little each one of us watches the news, it affects our lives. It’s inevitable. There may not be a clear-cut line that connects the latest breaking news story and our daily lives of work, but if you reflect on it hard enough, you will find a connection, almost always nationwide.

Bottom line is it affects every single one of us.

So what happens when you tweak the news, or say misremember it?

It automatically becomes unreliable, no matter who is reporting it. Even when long-time anchor and journalist Brian Williams provides us with it.

For those of you who are actually oblivious to the news, which I usually am, American journalist and anchor of NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams (If you don’t know him by name - don’t worry, I didn’t either – I was kind enough to provide a picture.) has admitted that the helicopter that he was riding in when covering a story from Iraq, was not in fact hit by a grenade. Though he claimed it had been for the past 12 years.

http://www.nbcnews.com

So what’s worse than lying about that oh-so-tiny detail? Hmm, maybe lying about the fact that you lied about it by insisting that you misremembered it.

Now, personally, I’m someone who gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. Seriously. It’s easy to get certain details confused and intertwined, but… I don’t see the confusion here. Either the helicopter you were in was targeted and got hit, or it didn’t.

As of now, it has been confirmed that the helicopter hit was not carrying Brian Williams, but it was the helicopter in front him. Okay, so it was a mix-up. I get that it’s an extremely hectic and on-edge, dangerous environment. Minds are going in a thousand different directions, regardless of grenades being a factor. However, I’m sure the incredibly smart, experienced Williams could remember being hit, as that would just add to the tension and be a something that is not forgotten.

Again, say he simply doesn’t remember how it all went down. What is overly suspicious to me is this information was only ironed out after veterans involved back in 2003 called the NBC icon out on it. If no one said a word, America would still believe that Williams plane was hit by grenades. What I don’t understand is that Brian Williams is clearly respected and has a reputation to protect – he is expected to be unbiased and reliable, it comes with the job –so if details were a bit fuzzy for him remember, why wouldn’t he simply say he doesn’t remember and leave the blurry part out? Instead he goes on with the story and provides American with false information.

So what’s happened since this whole debacle? Williams has been suspended from NBC without pay for six months. Do I agree with these consequences? Yes. Do I feel it’s too harsh? No. Do I think it’s not harsh enough? Again, no.

I started by saying news affects each one of us. In this case, it obvious has affected Brian Williams the most, however, it was 12 years ago and if this error wasn’t brought to America’s attention, yes it’s a big deal, but it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t change the outcomes of any other news stories of the past, or any historical events that have taken place in America or overseas since 2003. This information just affects viewer’s trust with Mr. Williams; it doesn’t affect us as citizens and living humans in this world.

While everyone grows up being told lying is bad, it’s even worse in the media age. However, when it comes down to it, no matter what the circumstances are, lying or truly misremembering, we are all human and all are learning, and with that comes error. We face it and move on.