Thomas Fiffer believes that when it comes to memory, we hold politicians and celebrities to an impossible standard.
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I can tell you that I remember a lot of things about my first marriage and subsequent divorce differently from the way my ex-wife remembers them.
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People are busy today spewing hate at Brian Williams for claiming he was on a helicopter that got shot down over Iraq. Personally, I’m not upset with Brian Williams at all, because I think that’s what he actually remembered, even though it was inaccurate. And when corrected by soldiers who were there, he changed his story and apologized, without being ashamed of his mistake. I also believe ducking for cover from sniper fire was what Hillary Clinton remembered when she landed in Bosnia, even though her memory didn’t square with the camera footage. I can tell you that I remember a lot of things about my first marriage and subsequent divorce differently from the way my ex-wife remembers them. In fact, our differing perception of events throughout the marriage was one of the factors in our divorce. To a large degree, this memory divergence is normal and exists not only because any two people will perceive a moment in time differently, but also because the emotions we experience in a moment influence and ultimately determine the version of that moment that we store and recall.
To achieve total perfect recall, we would each need our own personal cloud with a few yottabytes of storage. A yottabyte is the largest unit of data storage we have so far—something like a googolplex of gigabytes, only exponentially bigger.
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It helps to begin with a working understanding of how memory. Our brains don’t have the capacity to store a complete instant replay of every second of time we experience. To achieve total perfect recall, we would each need our own personal cloud with a few yottabytes of storage. A yottabyte is the largest unit of data storage we have so far—something like a googolplex of gigabytes, only exponentially bigger. Given our limited storage space, and the need, if you will, to keep overwriting the tapes, we retain what the brain identifies as key nuggets of our experience and, believe it or not, actually invent the rest by drawing from similar experiences and the range of what we know is probable. The nuggets that get stored, and the reconstituted story we form around them are strongly influenced by our state of mind. In the book, The Invisible Gorilla, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, the authors explore and explain the mystery of what we notice, what we don’t, and why. On the role of emotion in memory they write:
Beware of memories accompanied by strong emotions and vivid details—they are just as likely to be wrong as mundane memories, but you’re far less likely to realize it.
In his eye-opening TED Talk, The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory, nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman draws a critical distinction between our experiencing selves and our remembering selves and identifies factors that affect not only how we remember but also how we perceive happiness.
Other research suggests that emotional arousal sometimes enhances and sometimes impairs memory.
The reality—and something I know and confess as a professional storyteller—is that every story we tell includes elements of fiction, whether we’re aware of them or not.
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Think of the movie Truman, which, though it was the ultimate reality show, wasn’t real. Or take a look at Dara Horn’s novel, A Guide for the Perplexed, in which the main character invents a software program that records everything its users do and allows them to go back and review it. This is the stuff of fiction, or science fiction. The reality—and something I know and confess as a professional storyteller—is that every story we tell includes elements of fiction, whether we’re aware of them or not. Think of all the times you’ve shared a childhood memory with your parents, and they’ve come back at you with a wholly different version. The key is to understand the difference between “That’s not what happened,” and “That’s not what I remember.”
Just as we expect our political leaders and cultural icons to be fit and well-groomed with salon-styled hair and perfect white teeth … we also expect them to possess perfect recall when it comes to their memories.
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Just as we expect our political leaders and cultural icons to be fit and well-groomed with salon-styled hair and perfect white teeth, as well as endowed with incorruptible morals and unerring judgment—and we gasp collectively when they inevitably fall from grace before shifting quickly into “I suspected it all along” mode, we also expect them to possess perfect recall when it comes to their memories. Yet as humans, they are no more capable of it than we are.
An intentional, purposeful, fabricated lie for personal or professional benefit is one thing and must not be tolerated or condoned. But an honest mistake, the kind where we believed that what we brought forth was our true experience even though it wasn’t, is something humans make every single day, and I believe we should be both tolerant and forgiving and take a close look at our own glass houses before we start casting stones.
Photo—David Shankbone/Flickr
Related article: Why I Believe Brian Williams Is Not Lying
From what I understand there are some other situations he claimed may be coming to light and are being looked into. One of them being his comments “Williams’ account of seeing a body float by in the French Quarter — which remained largely dry” He said ““When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, … ” He also said ““My week, two weeks there was not helped by the fact that I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. ” Dr. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director…. “As… Read more »
I can’t help but wonder if you would so willing to try this spin if Williams worked for Fox News or if Hilliary was a Republician?
That’s so much BS. That’s like saying “I was in a really bad car accident ten years ago” when it was actually a car that drove down the highway 60 minutes before you did, that you heard about from someone else who drove by it. You don’t “misremember” being in a bad car accident, and you don’t “misremember” when a helicopter you are in gets shot down. Period.
I understand your point, and agree with most of what you say here. However, Williams is a journalist, not a storyteller or memoirist. His job is to report news, not to insert himself into the story. Yes, it can be argued that journalists are storytellers however the point is that they tell the story with facts; they don’t rely on half-remembered details or situations, and when they’re called out on discrepancies they return to the source and get the facts again. Williams could have gone back to the soldiers he was with, the pilots and his own crew to help… Read more »
I believe his credibility is gone or at least seriously impaired. He needs to go.
When George W. Bush went to war with Saddam Hussein and Iraq he was roundly and mercilessly criticized for reasonably believing Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) where were the liberal apologists for him. This guy tells a bold faced lie — doesn’t NBC advertise that Brian Williams is trustworthy? — and you are falling all over yourself to explain his deception. Liberals are reprehensible. Recognize your bias and check for it before you criticize those intending to keep us safe and protected.
Sorry Tom, you sum up the situation here. “An intentional, purposeful, fabricated lie for personal or professional benefit is one thing and must not be tolerated or condoned.” Any other view of the story is a distraction.
Dan Rather was crucified for documents that he didn’t create. Mr. Williams told a bold-faced lie. He has now been caught red-handed, and shown to have told the story numerous times. And this Mediaite survey tends shows 65% of the 2,800+ respondents think he should be fired. I agree.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/poll-do-you-think-nbc-should-fire-brian-williams/
Perfect memory? You would NEVER forget being shot down in a ‘copter. Nor would you or a psychologically healthy human EVER mistakenly remember that if it didn’t happen. This is more than a mistaken or foggy memory, it is simply an ongoing and egregious lie. This is indefensible and the apology/excuse wasn’t/isn’t!
So true. I am a journalist and saw the bravado of news guys going into embedded war. Google the name of Jimmy Massey, a marine who suffered unimaginable horror. You will read about embed reporter Ron Harris who fabricated a horrific event as war. I worked with Harris. Have never met a shadier, nor more untruthful person in my newsroom career. They forget situations? Nah. They create their own drama for news glory. Trading a different kind of “war story.”
Thank you, Diane. This area is a whole universe which seems to avoid any critical or self-critical review. And Mr. Williams seems to have more hyperbole in his past. It’s more like a way of life for him versus an issue of memory.