Brian Williams told NPR he looked down the tube of a rocket-propelled grenade. He's not misremembering. He's fabricating. To make himself look better.
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/318195/brian-williams-2007-interview-i-looked-down-the-tube-of-an-rpg/ Sent from Blue Mail On Feb 7, 2015, 8:50 PM, at 8:50 PM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: >On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 5:50 PM, JW <[email protected]> wrote: > >> First, I appreciate that I'm discussing this with someone who >actually >> knows what he's talking about. >> >> > Misremembering a dramatic and traumatic event is a >> > function of the same memory processes as >> > misremembering who got off the funniest line at the >> > dinner party you were at last week, or who scored the >> > winning touchdown in your high school homecoming >> > football game 20 years ago. >> >> They may be the same processes, but I find it hard to believe that >we're >> as likely to misremember what Mom was wearing last time we saw her as >we >> are to misremember whether or not she's still alive. >> >> Regarding anchors, even if we're just talking innocent memory lapses >> before introducing tape pieces, what happens if he or she >misremembers that >> Israel started the war in Syria? >> > > >Well, I don't think you are quite setting this up appropriately. My >point >really is not about putting a probability on how likely it is that >Williams >is lying vs honestly misremembering (I have noted several times now >that I >have no way of knowing if he has been consciously lying). My point is >that >there is nothing in his version of this incident (that he conflated the >two >helicopters, even with such dramatic details needing to be invented) >that >makes the claim that he was honestly misremembering implausible. >Moreover, >while dramatic memory distortions are probably not as common as trivial >memory failures, it is not doubt true that everyone reading this post >has >experienced more than one fairly significant and comprehensive memory >illusion, which they nevertheless had (and likely continue to have) >almost >100% confidence in. Of course most of us would not falsely remember >being >in a helicopter that was shot down, but then for most of us this would >be >an implausible event. I lived through a fairly large earthquake when I >was >a kid, and have told the story with some frequency over the years >(maybe >once every three years). I would hate to compare my current best memory >of >that day with a video record of what actually happened - I doubt that >more >than a third of it would be accurate. > >Again, Brian Williams may be a pathological liar, but to establish that >we >would need a lot more evidence than simply the misremembered helicopter >incident, which simply makes him human. > >As to your last question, that goes to what I have been saying since >the >start of this thread. The real criticism of Williams is not that he >misremembered the event, but that he relied on his uncorroborated >memory in >repeating it on television several times. He might argue that he was >not >actually reporting the news when he did so, but it does relate to a >story >that he was covering as a journalist, and his careless and feckless >approach to double-checking his facts in this case can legitimately be >used >to raise questions about how careful and responsible he is when >reporting >other facts. As I have also noted, as has Kevin in his own inimitable >style, Williams deficiencies in this area (being careful with the >accuracy >of his facts) pale in comparison to most of his current peers in >television >news, and I don't think at this point rise to the level of justifying >that >he be fired. If we find that he has reported other facts that are >untrue >(as in the Katrina allegations) and not just personal anecdotes that >may be >plausibly misremembered, that would be quite another thing. >Additionally, >if the internet culture makes him such a joke that, deservedly so or >not, >he can no longer function as the voice of NBC News, I suppose they may >have >no choice but to fire him as well. > >-- >-- >TV or Not TV .... 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