NBC “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams was suspended for six months without pay on February 10 when it was revealed that many of his claims concerning field work done in Iraq in 2003 were false.

Williams accounted that his helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, when it was the helicopter behind him that was shot at.  Williams referenced this story several times in his career, including on an appearance on the “Late Show” with David Letterman.

Williams has been broadcasting since 1981.  Why at the climax of his career did he consciously fabricate his experience?  A news anchor is considered a credible source, but with recent events, Williams leaves us with the question — Who can we trust?

Obviously, we can’t believe everything we see on the internet, television or in magazines. However, a news show — especially an award winning show airing since 1948 — should not require extensive questioning.

The United States was originally founded upon the premise that people are entitled with the freedom of speech and press.  Of course, as with any liberty, there are responsibilities that news must convey and uphold credibility and trustworthiness.

Clearly, what Williams did was unethical and certainly conflicts with the code of professional journalistic ethics. The question remains, why did he do it?

With news so easily accessible via news agencies, social media, and other news outlets, have we, as a society, become accustomed to believing everything we see, hear, and read, rarely questioning what those in higher echelons tell us?

This is not a matter of questioning the authenticity of authority, as we may question a teacher’s motives for forcing us to write a five page paper on a book we don’t even understand. This is a basic questioning of the facts, always in black and white — with no gray area.

Historians deal with fact and fiction on a daily basis.  We see a fine line between history and storytelling illustrated in the Bible. Just because the writings of an ancient, wizened, bearded man scrawled on a crumbling tablet are discovered, does not necessarily mean the evidence is true.

Herodotus, the Greek historian dubbed “the father of history” by Cicero, did extensive reporting on the Egyptian pyramids in the fifth century BCE.  In his writing, he exclaimed, “I myself measured them!”

It would have been difficult for Herodotus to travel from Greece to Egypt, let alone, single-handedly measure the pyramids.  Regardless of historians’ debate as to whether or not Herodotus did actually make the journey to Egypt, there is similarity between Herodotus and Williams: both insist on saving some spotlight for their own glorification.

Herodotus didn’t build the pyramids — why did he think that  lying about measuring them would hold a candle to the feat of construction? He was already highly accredited in Greece and Rome for his historical reports.

Similarly, Williams may just as well have received credit for traveling to the war-torn lands of Iraq regardless of whether or not his helicopter was shot at while he was in it.

Peter Kann, a journalist who received the Pulitzer Prize for war coverage in 2007, wrote of Williams and war correspondents “The correspondent surely knows that fellow correspondents had faced the same dangers or worse. More important, they knew that the GIs or Marines they were on patrol with or with whom they were sharing an outpost faced these and greater dangers every day.  The troops obviously were the story; not the reporter.”

Why was Williams so adamant on centering himself in the story?  He did not briefly mention the incident; he appeared on talk shows and referenced it several times.  Perhaps, if it were true, it would be appropriate to humbly account the event, but it was not true and Williams was not injured.  Despite his reputation that was — up to this point — stellar, this was quite an egotistical move on Williams’ part.

At least readers and viewers can be assured that society’s thirst and demand for truth has not been weakened. Millions were outraged by Williams’ lie, feeling betrayed by such a commendable news host. NBC’s suspension following his resignation retained the credibility of the news show.

Many viewers took their bafflement to Twitter with the #BrainWilliamsMemories hashtag.

photo credit: Twitter.com

Though it’s easy to poke fun at Williams, the whole ordeal is rather dismal.  He could have continued a successful career had his lie not been discovered, and, more importantly, if he had not lied in the first place.

Williams went 12 years without being confronted about lying. As despicable as that is for a journalist, it is impressive that he had such a strong reputation so that no one questioned him. This type of questioning of news figures is not something Americans are accustomed to. We are used to questioning our parents’ early curfews, or the scandals and corruption of political figures, but questioning the news itself rattles us.  The hard news is where we go to learn about all those scandals.

The merciless irony of Williams’ situation is that it is the profession of journalism that both created and destroyed him. It is not reasonable to suggest that we thoroughly investigate every detail a news anchor tells us. But it is necessary to think critically — maybe we should have wondered why Williams was talking so much about himself back in 2003.

Nevertheless, rather than being paranoid and distrusting of every news source, let us be open minded to the possibility that corruption can lurk where we least expect it, and as a moral society we are responsible for clipping it at its root.