A Victim of False Memory, Article Critique Example

Introduction

The article written by Bill O’Reilly (2015)” Was Brian Williams a Victim of False Memory?” The primary purpose of this article discusses whether Brian Williams’s inconsistent story about the 2003 helicopter incident in Iraq was based on his false memory. The public and media perception is Brian Williams tells the truth versus telling half-truths to the public for sensationalism and entertainment. The author is utilizing the Brian Williams incident as a way to present the media’s propensity to retell stories and whether Brian Williams was truly guilty of a false memory lapse. His peers who have condemned his behavior yet almost every year the  story was retold differently.

In the news arena, everyone should know the Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. Almost every region of the world has seen the news delivered by the anchor Brian Williams, however, for those they may not be familiar with Brain Williams, here is a brief introduction. Brian Williams is a well-known and respected American journalist and news anchor of the NBC Nightly News. He has brought the news to families around the globe for over 30 years. Brian’s reputation for delivery the news with accuracy, honor, and integrity has never been question during his entire career. However, Brain Williams recounting of the 2003 events of riding in a one of the two helicopters that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. These events happen over 2 years ago which Brian Williams has told the story many times with the events changing each time. The primary goal of the article was to provide the information concerning Brian Williams’s lapse in memory while presenting a closer look at how a false memory is a possible reason. The author did an excellent job of presenting both sides of the public views that his is a liar and the other side that he truly had a false memory. The author presents some very interesting theories including other celebrities, government officials, and actors that had false memory episodes.

Past Stories

The subject not covered in the article was how many other stories in the past have been fabricated, false memory or just for the entertainment value. Brian Williams past history of any story needs to valid all his reporting stories. The public has the right to know did the broadcast station know that Brian Williams took liberties. The investigation must be done for credibility of Brian Williams working in the news media for the future. There are only a few stories that do not proved that Brian Williams took liberties but any newscast can be subjective to false memory or retelling an incident. The same method for rechecking the New York Post writer that fabricated stories should be the foundation for checking Brian Williams past NBC broadcast. It would be very easy for the NBC or independent party to review maybe 30 stories to determine if Brian William habitually had retold news stories for sensationalism of the story.

Importance of Article

The article is important because an American anchor career is on the line because of his changing of the 2003 helicopter events. It is a look into the society in which we live that maybe the news media takes liberties in reporting their version of stories for entertainment. This is an indictment of the news media by the pubic because they take many liberties that later are found not to be true. The story about Brian Williams is opening the door at the credibility of the media and how they can take a story that hurt people or help people depending how they choose to deliver the story. This is important because the article touches on how the media loves to indulge a story to distort and destroy a public government official. The Daily Source (2015) reported that it is about the medias thirst for sensationalism and tendency to play up stories especially when public officials. It is reported that 78% of the public believes journalists/media enjoy reporting personal failure of public figures.

The importance to the media has some probable implications on society about media trust. The world has become concerned with punishing those who make a mistake in the public eye. The social media moves information so quickly that the story is altered, changed, or adding information. The society has made the demand for 24-hour news, news on local, national, and global issues. This is important because Brian Williams has been bringing the news to society for three decades and this is the first time anyone has really questioned his stories. The society’s trust factor has went down because everyone from his co-workers, fans, faithful television groups and globally. This issue is important because there are national and local stories that were in the news such as Hurricane Katrina that documented story about gangs and Brian Williams. The public needs to receive some kind of investigation to see who takes accountable for fact finding regardless of the news anchor.

False Memory-Article

The article indicated that false memory does deceive most people as the events become a little fuzzy over a long period. The author suggested that the human memory is not always reliable. Most people believe that the memory is like a video camera that records everything we see and we have the ability to retrieve this information later. However, our memories can distort the truth as those memories become vague and distorted over time. The article was clear about how our memories can be embellished because our mind believes that every version of the story is true. The best example a room of 15 people that are told the same story, the first person is told the story. The second person is told and the third person is told until reaching 15. It has been proven that the story will never be the same by the time it reaches the 15 person. However, every person will swear his or her version of the story is accurate. According to Dudukovic,Marsh, & Tversky(2004) found that the participants that wrote information in a diary the retelling of the events from memory still has 61% error in the different versions of the events.

The article discussed the number of times Brian Williams distorted his story to either include himself in the story or further sensualized the event for prime time television. The news media industry even doubted the reliability of Brian Williams because he was known for interjecting himself into a story just to report the news. The article example was when Brian Williams covered Hurricane Katrina while discussing how gang members in the area attacked him. However, the hotel manager in an interview clearly verified no gangs existed during the time of Brian Williams stay. The article made it clear that Brian Williams had told half-truths or untruths on other news and his working peers had begun to exposure the small lies. The author has credibility because they presented the positive side first before suggesting the negative. The article was not bias in discussing Brian Williams lying about the helicopter event in 2003.

False Memory-Book

The author Laura King suggested that the false memory is a valid argument because most people retell events that are not accurate, bias, and distorted. According to King (2012), memory retrieval for an eyewitness has three parts the primary, middle, and end of the event. It is difficult to pull old memories from the five retrieval methods: autobiographical memory, emotional memory, memory from trauma, repressed memory, and eyewitness memory. The author Laura King suggested that eyewitness testimony is not reliable because there is so much distortion that after time has elapsed the memories are not accurate. This means that Brian Williams could have distorted the story because he was in the helicopter that was behind the helicopter that was hit and they were under hostile fire. In addition, Brian Williams was traumatized from the helicopter event because he was easily could have been killed during the attacks in Iraq.

Compare and Contrast

In both the article and the book had similar thoughts about Brian Williams having a real memory lapse over the last 10 years. It was explained that all human beings over a long period have faulty recall that is inaccurate. The media and the public did not believe that Brian Williams had false memory because it happened on several other occasions. However, both articles supported that those events are not related because the helicopter event was a life-threatening event. The primary difference between the book and the article was the book supported the possibility of false memory but the article concluded with Brian Williams was guilty of lying. In contrast the book took a psychological approach to Brian Williams false memory while the article cleverly discuss both sides whether it was truly false memory. The article purposely made some assumptions while the book did not make as many assumptions about his guilt or innocence.

Eyewitness-Article

The news media and the public believe the eyewitness testimony. The article talks about Brian Williams taking liberties to exaggerate his portion of the story for sensationalism. The article indicated that the eyewitness in the real world is too unreliable because the same 10 people can see the same Asian robber but will have different descriptions. The longer the court date the longer the witness loses their ability to become a credible eyewitness. The article talks about research that found that the eyewitness verbs could determine what they may have seen. The moral of this story is five different eyewitnesses can have five different versions of a crime yet, they are all telling the truth. However, 10 months later when in court, they have false memory about the height, size, shape, and color of the assailant. The article was stressing the point that as time expires all human beings began to have false memory and Brian Williams incident happen 10 years ago.

Eyewitness Book

The book by Laura King addressed the psychological aspect of the mind of a witness that believes what they truly witnessed three days. The book suggested that a person’s mind overtime can change their story concerning an accident and as time expires, the details become more and more vague leaving out or adding details. The eyewitness definition by the author Laura King is the same premise that Brian Williams false memory and changing details. The eyewitness section in the book indicated that people make mistakes not because they do not have intelligence; it is the amount of time your brain decides assimilate the information. The book was more clinical in nature explaining the natural phenomenon of people having false memory based on what they believed they saw or did over a period of time.

Compare and Contrast

The article and the book has the same point of view that eyewitness are unreliable because over time they alter the story because they have false memory of what happen. The eyewitness in the article talked about the witness as unreliable because their own perceptions of what happen. The book indicated that harm has come from faulty witnesses that sent innocent men to jail or hospital. However, the author pointed out that sometimes the bias comes from each other. In a restaurant, a man came to each lunch but rob the store. The best example by author is the Hispanic man could not identify the Chinese assailant because the man believed that all Asians look at like.

Reconstructive Process-Article

The reconstructive memory as describe in the article as a process in which a person draws from the information in the minds. The basic recall from a person such as Brian Williams who the article clearly supports was false memory because over time. The article indicates that reconstructive process would be a good explanation why Brain Williams facts continued to change with the more people he talked with. The article showed the differences and similarities on both sides of the coin. At the end of the article, the author said the reconstructive memory had one more reasons Brian Williams did not recall the issues. The article was very specific about the memory lapse or retelling the story was actual true to storyteller.

Reconstructive Process-Book

The book as the same definition of the reconstructive process however, the deliver is a little different. The book delivers the reconstructive theory as a good reason how Brian’s Williams memory eroded during his career. The book clearly supported the issues about Brian Williams’s false memory because the book believes that the mind can play tricks as long periods of times.

Contrast and Compare

The article talk about the reconstruction process at the end of the story suggesting that Brian Williams over time could have experience false memory. In contrast, the book describes the functions of the brain and how the memory recalled is used. The book clearly explains that the false memory by Brian Williams has a clinical explanation but distinctions were made between leaving out details and changing them all together.  The more the book talked about reconstructive process, the more the clinical explanation did not support Brian Williams’s incident as a false memory during the reconstruction of the story.

References

Dudukovic, N., Marsh, E. & Tversky (2004).Telling a story or telling it straight: The effects of entertaining versus accurate retelling on memory. Retrieved March 27, 2015 from http://psych.stanford.edu/~bt/memory/papers/dudukovic-marsh-tversky.pdf

King, L. Experience psychology, 2d ed. (2012).New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill Higher Education.

O’Reilly, Bob. Bill O’Reilly. (2015) Why the Brian Williams story is important for America. Retrieved March 27, 2015 from http://www.foxnews.com/transcript/2015/02/12/bill-oreilly-why-brian-williams-story-is-important-for-america/

The Daily Source. (2015).Current problems in the media. Retrieved March 27, 2015 from http://www.dailysource.org/about/problems#.VRhfJektGUk