Statement Analysis of Brian Williams and Katrina

Regarding Hurricane Katrina, Brian Williams said he "accidentally drank flood water" and got dysentery.  He also said a "gang" was after him and he was rescued by a police officer with whom he is life long friends since.  

A medical doctor from the area which Williams stayed refuted his claims.  

Here is one statement from Williams about the dead bodies.  

We look for him to tie himself to the event using the pronoun "I" and the past tense verbs.  This is a signal of commitment in Statement Analysis.  The context is seeing dead bodies floating in the French Quarter, something that is not a usual or normal occurrence, making it 'personal' and riveting to the memory.


“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” 

Here is the same statement again, with emphasis added:

“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” 

Others report that the area in which Willams was staying was not flooded, nor were there dead bodies.  We, however, do not need the testimony of others here:  we follow the pronouns.

Here, in such an extreme event, he is unable to say "I looked our my hotel window..." and consistently uses the distancing second person; something that is used when one shares a common experience with others. 

This is why context is key.  

I might say, "When you drive your car in the snow, you slip sometimes", yet, if I was in an accident, or even a near accident, and wished to be truthful, I would say or write, "I drove my car in the snow and I slid towards a truck and..."

The former is for anyone, in a common experience.  The latter is specific to me.  


Since Brian Williams is unable or unwilling to say that he saw dead bodies floating, we shall not say it for him.   He distances himself from the event via his pronouns.  This is what deceptive people often do.  They wish to be seen as "in the midst of the action", but the outright lie is internally stressful.  

We will review his language, in some of the statements he made about being shot down, and how he repeated the story since 2003, to portray himself as "in the midst of the action" in future posts.  
Medis is now questioning any of his "heroic" or dramatic accounts of news he reported over the years. 

Some media outlets report a backlash over his apology.  We saw that in his apology, he was not only ascribing noble motives to his deception, but blamed circumstances outside himself.  This is what we see in pathological liars who are caught:  the mea culpa is light on the mea.  

Recall Richard Blumenthal who claimed his feet were on the ground in Viet Nam, when, in fact, he had never left the United States. He used the story to make him more endearing to Viet Nam veterans in the vote.  When confronted with evidence that he was not in Viet Nam, he said he "may have misspoken."



This indicates an unwillingness to take responsibility and is a strong signal that, as a prosecutor, it is very likely that he has lied habitually, which may have impacted justice for those whom were prosecuted by him.  Liars often bully and always put themselves before the needs of others, including the public, or the material needs of the business that employs them.  Statistically, they are likely to bring problems, rather than solve problems.  In his control, were the lives of many, accused of crimes.  For this, society must have honest men and women.  Analysis of his statements show a pathological liar, that is, one who was 'trained in deception' from childhood.  

In spite of this, he was reelected.  

http://statement-analysis.blogspot.com/2014/03/deception-and-arrogance.html

“I saw fear, I saw death, I saw depravity, I saw firearms being brandished, I saw looting,” he told the Los Angeles Times a year after Katrina made landfall.

“We had to have men with guns behind me one night because I was the only source of light downtown, was the lights that were illuminating the broadcast,” Williams said. “We were told not to drink our bottled water in front of people because we could get killed for it.”