Williams Deserves Benefit of the Doubt: Opposing View

By Lanny Davis – 02/13/15
Let’s not rush to judgment; memories can play tricks.

NBC certainly had its legitimate business reasons to try to stop the PR hemorrhage by suspending Brian Williams for six months just one week after the story broke. But that struck me as a rush to judgment — with a suspension too long and a financial penalty too high ($5 million, one-half his annual salary) if the mistake was an innocent one.

As so many others have done, I don’t jump so quickly to the conclusion that Williams lied. I need more evidence to prove that was intentional.

In fact, there is substantial memory research that supports Williams’ version of an innocent mistake. For example, memory researcher Lawrence Patihis of the University of California-Irvine recently told the New Republic about a study he conducted in which participants were told there was video footage of Flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. One out of five said they had seen the crash. In fact, no such footage exists. “We should take care before assuming deliberate deception,” Patihis said.

And there was the helicopter pilot, Richard Krell, who told CNN last Thursday that he had piloted Williams and that their chopper had come under small arms fire. But, after reading that other pilots said they had piloted Williams, Krell recanted and texted CNN the next day: “The information I gave you was true based on my memories, but at this point I am questioning my memories.”

The news media have largely ignored this. If we accept Krell’s honest memory mistake (which I do), why not do the same for Williams? Is this a double standard?

I think that Williams deserves the benefit of the doubt. If no other evidence surfaces of Williams lying, I hope he returns after six months. He has been a great journalist and anchor over the years. As NBC management has stated, he deserves a second chance.

Lanny Davis, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in crisis management, is executive vice president of Levick Communications.

Davis served as special counsel to former President Clinton and is principal in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Lanny J. Davis & Associates, and is Executive Vice President of the strategic communications firm, LEVICK. He is the author of a recently published book, Crisis Tales: Five Rules for Coping with Crises in Business, Politics, and Life.

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