We are all, at times, tempted to stretch the truth further than is reasonable to serve our own purposes. People like Brian Williams, those who position themselves in such a way that their word is worth more, and heard more, than the average man or woman can only be held to a higher standard. These celebrities, or metahumans to borrow from The Flash, are still human but have been imbued by the media with a power to effect change and shift behavior on a scale far grander than most of us will ever be able to reach. And yet, they are still tempted in the ways we are all tempted, and they still, on occasion, fall victim to that temptation.

As I began to write about the ongoing Brian Williams investigation, I found myself echoing a piece that I wrote about Somaly Mam and Greg Mortenson last May. Both strong humans who created positive change, both caught in a web of lies that caused the institutions they had built to have to distance themselves from their founders.

Just as professional athletes take steroids, it seems as if embellishing or even fabricating stories has become the stimulant of choice for non-profit leaders looking to gain a competitive edge. There is a push to show that you’ve been challenged, and overcome more than anyone else…The pressure to live up to this ideal is, ironically, incentivizing falsehoods.

Replace “non-profit leaders” with “news anchors” and it reads just about the same.

But what does it mean when those who are held up as purveyors of all things good in this world are also liars? How did you explain to your kids that their favorite baseball player was on steroids? How do you tell your friends that their non-profit idols have gained an unfair advantage through some creative storytelling?

And while Brian Williams is not the charity-fundraising juggernaut that Greg Mortenson once was, I have come to a similar conclusion.

I know that what he did was wrong, but I also know first-hand the immense pressure that exists to tell the most compelling and riveting story possible. In a world where what I write has only minutes to be at the top of your newsfeed, I have often been tempted to twist the truth to make for a more click-worthy piece. Have I done it yet? No. But I’ve thought about it.

What does that say about me? Equally importantly, what does that say about what we value?

Read the rest of We’re All Liars.

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