The Truth About Brian Williams — and the Truth

[By Howard Fencl, APR]

I love Brian Williams. He’s my go-to guy for my daily network news fix. Has been for years. When I helped run the newsroom at WKYC-TV in Cleveland, he’d work the room whenever he was in town covering news, enduring an endless stream of gushing praise from star-struck newsroom staff. For me, it made his star shine even brighter.

So what happened? How could Brian Williams, the very face of NBC News, of all people, tell such a galling lie about his 2003 reporting experience in a U.S. military helicopter flying over Iraq? According to NBC News, in 2003, Williams accurately reported that a Chinook helicopter was forced down by enemy fire flying an hour ahead of three other choppers, including one in which Williams was riding. But his story apparently morphed over the ensuing years. The military publication Stars and Stripes reports that in 2013, Williams was on the David Letterman Show saying “…two of the four helicopters were hit, by ground fire, including the one I was in.” Williams was eventually called out on Facebook by veterans who participated in the mission. Yesterday on NBC Nightly News, Williams did a mea culpa and apologized, blaming “…the fog of memory over 12 years.”

NBC is left dealing with an enormous credibility issue. It’s compounded by the recent revelation that the network’s Chief Medical Editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, violated her self-imposed quarantine, sneaking out to a restaurant after covering the Ebola outbreak in Africa. Dr. Snyderman was at first vague and evasive about the incident, but later admitted her transgression and apologized.

Whether you’re a network anchor, a CEO, a local politician or a school administrator, telling the truth is of paramount importance as is the care and feeding of your reputation. If you prevaricate on any issue, you will lose the reputation you have worked so hard to build. Getting it back will be a long and very humbling process.

You can’t just send apologize, send an e-mail, issue a media release or post a tweet and expect to earn it back. You you must make a long-term commitment to open, frank, one-on-one conversations with the people and stakeholders important in your life. Listen to them closely. Take your lumps in-person and in social media. And though it is counter-intuitive, you must keep talking about your transgression to continually demonstrate your contrition, what you’ve learned from the episode and what you’re doing to improve. Do it with grace. And it’s OK to share your very human embarrassment (who among us has never fudged a fact?).

When do you stop? That’s dependent on how big a whopper you told. In the end, as Mark Twain said, there are “…lies [and] damned lies.” Either can implode your reputation. But in America, with time, hard work and a dose of humility, redemption is possible.

Photo Credit:  NBC.com