MICHAEL COLLINS
Editor
We have all done it. You’ve begun telling a cool story about your past experiences, and suddenly, your brain decides that maybe the truth just wasn’t quite interesting enough. So you begin to weave in and out of fiction to craft an extravagant and exciting new story that never really happened. Sure, maybe it was based on a true story; and sure, maybe you only exaggerated just a bit. No one needs to find out, right? Well, professional tip here: if you chase the tall tale long enough, someone’s going to notice you, especially on social media.
This brings us to today’s lesson folks. I have ten words for you: “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft.” Those ten words were left as a comment on a Facebook post by NBC’s popular “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams. A week after those ten words came out, Williams was suspended for six months without pay from NBC.
But how could those ten words lead to such a hammer being dropped? Well, here’s another pro tip for you: if you’re going to exaggerate a story, don’t do it about the military and don’t be an anchor on one of the largest news networks in the world. It’s pretty straight forward.
That comment was left by Lance Reynolds, a former Army flight engineer, on a post that Williams made retelling a story about how a U.S. military helicopter he was on came under fire in Iraq in 2003. Looks like someone noticed the tall tale.
As it later turned out in a report by Stars and Stripes.com, Williams was a bit less than truthful with his original story. He admitted that he had exaggerated his experience to include a firefight on a different helicopter. According to the crew members, Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing. You’re telling me you made up being on a completely different helicopter nowhere even close by?!
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
As I said, don’t ever exaggerate a story that involves the military. That’s no man’s land. People fight for their lives and ours by being out there on the front lines. Choosing to ride the coat tails of others’ sacrifice is just pretty low anyway, never mind the culture of overwhelming pride we have in our military as a nation. For shame, Brian Williams, for shame.
So now, Williams, one of the most recognized national journalists, is exiled from his seat at the “Nightly News” desk with little hope in redeeming himself. So let that serve a lesson to all in both the power of our nation to rip down those who are dishonest, and in social media for being the grand stage for the rest of us to watch it happen.
Next time you want to make up a story about yourself, cover all the bases. There must be no ties that can trace back to your lies. Just lie about how many girls you’ve dated, no one really cares about that.