Bashing Brian Williams Shows the Infallible Perfection of Media Bullies

Media commentators who have been bashing Brian Williams right and left are showing their own perfection: of being infallible bullies. Williams came under scrutiny recently for several so-called “lies” he told over the years regarding a helicopter he was in being shot down by enemy fire, as well as seeing a body float by his hotel window in the French Quarter of New Orleans. There are also lingering questions about his account of watching a man commit suicide and of accidentally drinking flood water which caused him to become ill with dysentery.

Firstly, most of the stories told by Williams may or may not have happened, and if they did not, no one knows whether he was purposely lying or whether he may have had false memories, which might be the case in the helicopter account, among others.

When Williams first reported on the helicopter convoy taking on enemy fire and being forced down, he relayed the incident correctly on-air. He said that one copter in his group got hit and that he was in a following helicopter. This was recorded on camera and there was nothing inaccurate about it.

Later, when relaying the story, Williams did state that the helicopter in which he was traveling was hit and forced down. He has apologized for this misrepresentation of the facts. However, there is no proof that he was purposely lying to promote his own image. As an article in the New York Times points out, experts say that Williams might not be lying at all. Instead, his memory could have been distorted; a distortion that is routine, perfectly natural and unavoidable for nearly all people. False memories are the reason why multiple witnesses to the same crime scene tell vastly different stories, and why siblings experiencing the same parenting events tell dramatically varying versions when recounting incidences from their childhoods.

Professor Christopher Chabris at Union College says that most people are unaware how common false memories are and how fluid human recollection can be. “I think a lot of people don’t appreciate the extent to which false memories can happen even when we are extremely confident in the memory,” he says.

False memories are not always the stuff of dramatic brain-washing techniques, although they can be. The majority of the time, false memories occur naturally. When they do, the person recounting the story fully believes he or she is telling the truth. False memories are so commonplace that studies have shown they happen to everyone almost without exception.

Maybe people expect reporters to be super human or immune to the common phenomena of the healthy human brain. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Journalists are human and as such, make mistakes. The only perfection happening in the Brian Williams case is the absolute infallibility of media bullies who want to tear down a respected reporter to make themselves feel better. It is schadenfreude at its worst. The members of the media participating in this witch hunt have acted as perfect accusers, convicting someone with no evidence.

Since an investigation has been launched to sort out all of Williams’ claims, we do not yet know if Williams was purposely lying. We do not know if a body was floating in the French Quarter. We do not yet know if Williams actually had dysentery. The one thing we do know for sure, though, is that we can always count on media bullies to tear down one of their own at any given opportunity.

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