When first we practice to deceive

As the old saying goes, Brian Williams, NBC's Nightly News anchor, has stepped in crap and fallen back in it. He has many times over the past several years told and re-told the story about being on a helicopter that was forced down by enemy fire in 2003. This week he finally came clean, saying that he 'misremembered' the event and chalked it up to 'the fog of memory over 12 years."

I don't buy his excuses. We always remember the big things in our lives. I remember where I was and what I was doing on November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was shot and killed. I remember all the deaths of all my family members and all the specifics surrounding those deaths. I remember the only time a gun was pulled on me when I was on the police department; what he did and what I did. I don't vaguely remember these things; I remember every detail about them because they were significant events in my life.

Now I would imagine that being on an American helicopter during the early days of the Iraq War and remembering that helicopter was forced down by enemy fire would be seared into the memory of Brian Williams. So imagine the shock of many people, most notably veteran's groups, when Williams said he had 'misremembered' that event. I don't know how you can remember being forced down by enemy fire when you WEREN'T forced down by enemy fire. That's like a person claiming to have been shot at, only for it to be determined later that he WASN'T shot at. And we have situations like that happening all the time. People make up stories about where they were or what they were doing to either cover their tracks or embellish their experience. Obviously Williams recounting of his story was the latter instead of the former.

The American Legion found his behavior 'reprehensible' and the VFW said "his embellishment shows he has no idea what the term 'direct fire' really means."

On the other hand, one key veterans group came to Williams's defense. Paul Rieckhoff, CEO and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America wrote in a Facebook post that "Brian Williams made a mistake. He has apologized and I accept his apology."

I have to take exception to Mr. Rieckhoff's statement. Brian Williams 'mistake' was that he lied and most people don't call lying a mistake. He knew he wasn't on a helicopter forced down by enemy fire and yet he claimed to be, maybe to improve his credibility with vets who he has unilaterally supported for the past several years or to improve the public's perception of him when it comes to wartime reporting since he never served in uniform himself.

By the same token, I've known more than one veteran who lied about where they were and what they were doing while other soldiers were killing and being killed. Lying cuts both ways!

Whatever the reason for it, lying is wrong. We've all been lied to and none of us like it because it destroys trust. If you find out someone's been lying to you, it's hard to ever trust them again because you'll always have those doubts that he or she might be lying to you again. I feel sorry for those poor souls who stick their heads in the sand and pretend they've never been lied to when they've been lied to frequently and will continue to be lied to because the liar knows they can get away with it.

I'm not going to suggest what Brian Williams should do with his career. That will obviously be determined either by him, the management of NBC News or the American people over the next few days. I DO know that Walter Cronkite was revered as a news anchor because we trusted him to tell us the truth.

We can't trust Brian Williams to do that anymore.