I haven't been following the Brian Williams ordeal as closely as I wish I was, however, it's still fascinating.
If this is new to you, here's my basic understanding. He lied about being on a helicopter that was shot down. The weird thing is that it was shot down over 10 years ago... how it's taken this long to come out that he was lying is beyond me.
Now he's on a 3 month suspension from NBC and most of his "personal stories" are being called into question.
It reminds me a lot of Steven Glass. He's a guy that fabricated 27 out of 41 articles he wrote for the news magazine The New Republic. Imagine that... you make up over half of your NEWS articles!
It's crazy. It's also a great reminder to be careful what we say.
Obviously, it takes a lot of trying to get into a situation like Williams or Glass, however we still have to give an account of what we say.
A white lie might not seem as bad as claiming to be on a helicopter that was shot down. It's still a lie though.
Eventually, even the smallest most unnoticeable lie will catch up with you. And that will hurt your reputation. News anchor or not. Once your credibility is smashed, it's pretty hard to put back together too.
For Glass, he had to start writing fiction. Probably what he should have been doing from the start. For Williams, I guess time will tell.
The truth hurts, but lying can be fatal.
No comments:
Post a Comment