Have You Ever ‘Misremembered’ Something?

I have to admit, I'm rather addicted to the continuing story of NBC Nightly News anchor, Brian Williams, and how he recanted a story he'd been previously telling about having been in a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq.

He said he "misremembered" things, and "conflated" (whatever THAT means) the helicopter that did take on enemy fire with the one his was riding in, which didn't. After telling this story numerous times since in incident occurred back in 2003, a service member who was actually on the helicopter that was hit called Williams out on Facebook last week.

Williams responded online, and also issued an apology on the air Wednesday. Things continued to blow up over the weekend, and Williams announced he's taking some time off the air, so NBC can assess the situation. (They've since started a fact-checking investigation into his reports.)

To me, Williams' story seems like a typical "fish tale"-- a story one tells over and over, and embellishes a little bit each time to make the story seem even better. Doesn't seem too serious, if you're just talking with your coworkers over a cup of coffee. But if you're the anchor, and managing editor, of the most-watched newscast in the country? Seems to me you probably ought not to add bogus elements of the story that can be easily proven false. In the world of journalism, if you don't have your credibility, you don't have much.

But while all this have been going on, the Internet has been having a field day creating all sorts of other scenarios that Brian Williams might also have "misremembered" being involved in. This cartoon also kind of sums it up...