Everybody lies. Yes, you lie, too. We lie about what we’re doing, feeling, not doing, and not feeling. We lie to others and we lie to ourselves. That’s perfectly okay. As thinking, reasoning adults, we can gauge the relative social importance of one lie to another. When you don’t want to tell a co-worker that you’ve got a massive headache, you answer, “Fine,” to his, “How you doin’?” in the hall. However, when your wife asks you how your day went and you give her the same “Fine,” even though you were just fired for writing company checks to pay for your mistress’s Invisalign treatments, that’s extremely bad. We all know this, but I had to set the table so we could eat.
NBC journalist Brian Williams lied. A lot. About a number of things. It’s clear that the deeper one digs, the more lies will be uncovered, but it’s equally clear that the full extent of his untruths will never be revealed. Even though we all lie, his lies are especially egregious because as a journalist, he has the duty to tell the truth about what’s happening where. So it’s only right and proper that we question how often he has lied and about what. Whether these questions are rooted in schadenfreude over a partisan journalist’s deserved comeuppance or a true desire to get to the truth is immaterial: journalists are offered specific protections under the U.S. Constitution, and have a duty to earn those protections. Just as your free speech rights don’t include falsely yelling “Fire!” in a crowded Kanye concert, freedom of the press should not be extended to individuals who intend to report falsehoods under the guise of real news. Part of being comfortable in your own skin is establishing comfort with your own experiences, no matter how prosaic. Save the resume enhancement for a job interview.
