Brian Williams - why lie?

The guy who saw this moment coming with astonishing clarity was Neil Postman. In 1985, Postman, a disciple of the media theorist Marshall McLuhan, published a remarkable book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” If you haven’t read it (and most people haven’t), you should.

Postman’s central thesis was that whatever media technology dominates a moment determines the way in which we relay and receive information. And since television, as the dominant medium of the late 20th century, was all about storytelling and visual delight, increasingly we could pay attention to information only if it came with appealing characters and riveting story arcs.

Here’s what Postman had to say about the evening anchor’s common refrain to “join us tomorrow” for another show: “We accept the newscasters’ invitation because we know that the ‘news’ is not to be taken seriously, that it is all in fun, so to say. Everything about a news show tells us this — the good looks and amiability of the cast, their pleasant banter, the exciting music that opens and closes the show, the vivid film footage, the attractive commercials…”

Somewhere I noted that there is a claim that at an event williams said that he, not brokaw, was at the fall of the Berlin wall. Brokaw was there, williams was there the day after. This if true is disturbing, and calls into doubt my analysis that these lies were not ego driven.

Gotta agree with you Frank. It was ego driven and all lies are ego driven.

hawkeye10 wrote:

Somewhere I noted that there is a claim that at an event williams said that he, not brokaw, was at the fall of the Berlin wall. Brokaw was there, williams was there the day after. This if true is disturbing, and calls into doubt my analysis that these lies were not ego driven.

Why would you, or anyone, think that these lies or distortions were NOT "ego driven?"

Follow the link for sound analysis for what part MEGACORP played in the undoing of Williams.

Clearly Brian Williams and I play very different roles. He is a famous broadcaster who moonlights on SNL and slow-jams the news. I’m a storyteller and monologist who works in the theater. But I recognize that in many ways what Brian Williams has done is the same thing I did: adding the first person, inserting yourself into stories in order to heighten and intensify their telling. This is dramatization, and it’s an integral component in great storytelling. Where it becomes a problem all depends what kind of narrative authority the storyteller wants to claim.

Right now Brian Williams is receiving the scorn and contempt of the world at large, which, I can tell you, feels like thousands of bloodthirsty strangers cutting you with tiny invisible knives. I know it has to hurt. I remember clearly how tempting it was to hide. I didn’t, and from the other side of it, all I can say is that it is one of the first good decisions I made.

So I am going to add to the counsel he’s getting from many corners, since I have the distinct advantage of having stood in a similar fire.

First and foremost, apologize. Fully and directly.

In my experience, audiences are pragmatic and wiser than performers will ever be. People are angry at Williams in part because his explanation of how his story came to pass is ridiculous. “Misremembered”? Come on, man. People want to be treated with respect—they don’t buy that the life-threatening episode event he described was a product of mistaken remembering.

they're both personalities who read a Teleprompter, nothing more, nothing less