The news for the past few days have been about Brian Williams exagerrating his part, in news stories. As a news watcher, I see Brian Williams reporting facts. He doesn't, no one does, have time to elaborate. However, on other media sources, he has exagerated the role he has played. He lied.
As a storyteller, I know that everytime I tell a story, I change it to suit my audience. If I feel I'm losing my audience, I'll say something to draw the people back. If people say they like certain parts of my story, I'll embellish those parts. In other words, I can easily see how every time Brian Williams told the story, the story was crafted differently.
Some people don't understand that. I'm a storyteller. I've written stories on this blog. Some of my stories have been published. I'm always surprised when someone who has read a story thinks that it is true. Worse, I have had a few people turn their backs on me and walk away, because they said I was gossiping. Gossiping?
You know what I was doing? I wanted to make that person feel better. So I made up a story about a friend of mine who was going through the same trouble, or who was worse off, and everything came out fine. They said something to the effect that they didn't appreciate that I was gossiping and walked away.
The story was made up! I crafted the story to encourage them. I was thinking of them. I wanted to help.
Coming from this perspective, do you see why I empathize with Brian Williams? Reporting the news is facts. Talking about the news is just that, talking about it.
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Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone...John 8: 7.
As a storyteller, I know that everytime I tell a story, I change it to suit my audience. If I feel I'm losing my audience, I'll say something to draw the people back. If people say they like certain parts of my story, I'll embellish those parts. In other words, I can easily see how every time Brian Williams told the story, the story was crafted differently.
Some people don't understand that. I'm a storyteller. I've written stories on this blog. Some of my stories have been published. I'm always surprised when someone who has read a story thinks that it is true. Worse, I have had a few people turn their backs on me and walk away, because they said I was gossiping. Gossiping?
You know what I was doing? I wanted to make that person feel better. So I made up a story about a friend of mine who was going through the same trouble, or who was worse off, and everything came out fine. They said something to the effect that they didn't appreciate that I was gossiping and walked away.
The story was made up! I crafted the story to encourage them. I was thinking of them. I wanted to help.
Coming from this perspective, do you see why I empathize with Brian Williams? Reporting the news is facts. Talking about the news is just that, talking about it.
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