Please don’t take this as a defense of Brian Williams about whom I, not being much of a TV news consumer, probably know less than you.
But if I had been on that second helicopter, there is no way I in the retelling wouldn't move up to the first. And it would have less to do with trying to look like a hero or stealing unearned glory and more to do with telling a good story. Listeners don't want you on the second helicopter; they need you in the middle of the action.
This kerfuffle reminded me of something I heard the comedian Jay Mohr tell Mark Maron on his WTF podcast. Mohr had a great, true-to-life anecdote he often told onstage involving other celebrities whom he imitated. The only problem is that, while the anecdote was true, it had actually happened to someone else.
Eventually owing up to it, Mohr explained he used to tell the story in the third person, but he felt the audience wanted it to be him, needed the storyteller to be in the middle of the action.
Of course Mohr is a comedian and not a newsman, but who hasn’t ever appropriated a story from a friend? Frankly, I do it all the time. Keith, it wasn’t me at the urinal next to Jacques Derrida at Hopkins, it was my friend at Yale. Still a great story, still true; just not me.
Which is why, according to a New York Times timeline of events, newsman Brian Williams originally told the story accurately, before story teller Williams started lying.
Remember, Williams is the funny anchor, the one who makes Letterman laugh and sends out witty tweets. The guy trying to make you laugh is always the most desperate man in the room, trust me. I wouldn't be surprised if it was conscious. If he thought: "When it happened I told the truth; now I'm going to tell a story." It was our wide eyes whenever he said, "We had to land that bird," which became too much to resist.
Which is why, in the end, I think we all owe him an apology.
I'm Dan Libman, and that's my perspective
