Family reunions always feature deliberately distorted recollections of relatives' behaviors.
And always include "fish tales" or "war stories" told with tongues firmly in cheeks.
Tellers enjoy the narratives as much as the listeners. It's in good fun, after all.
NBC News anchor/managing editor Brian Williams was suspended--and probably doomed--for telling "war stories" without tongue in cheek.
His stories took on lives of their own, gathering more fictions with each telling. It's as if Williams believed every word.
Here's what's so tragic about the circumstances that led to his professional downfall: His credentials as a broadcast journalist were rock solid without the exaggerations.
Williams follows another flawless professional into oblivion: CBS anchor Dan Rather, who let his personal bias blind him to the truth. (22 FEBRUARY 2015)