Instead of delivering the news on NBC each night, Brian Williams is at the center of a developing story. He's being punished and investigated by his bosses for telling exaggerated or made-up stories about himself. The network last week suspended its star anchor for six months without pay while it looks into the matter and figures out whether he'll come back.

It all started with an on-air admission Feb. 4 about a false description recently of a 2003 experience while covering the Iraq War. "I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fire. I was instead in a following aircraft," Williams told viewers. New reports question his truthfulness on other events, including New Orleans hurricane coverage in 2005.

Discussions of the situation include explanations about unreliable recall and how storytellers may bend events. Scientific studies show that memories can fade, shift and distort over time. In addition to alterations to real memories, completely new "false memories" can be embedded so firmly that we feel they happened. "Are they just stories that get better in the retelling, as humans tend to do?" Kathleen Parker writes in the Washington Post about Williams’ case. "Whether one is hit or not, surely the terror of flying where rockets are near can magnify and distort events." A harsher theory comes from author Bernie Goldberg on Fox News: "Celebrities . . . make up stories because in the United States of entertainment, being uninteresting is the greatest sin."

Brian Williams apology: "This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not. I hope they know they have my greatest respect and also now my apology." – Feb. 4 newscast

Network says: "We have a team dedicated to gathering the facts to help us make sense of all that has transpired. We’re working on what the best next steps are." -- Deborah Turness, NBC News president

Columnist says: "A person may honestly misremember eating at a certain restaurant or seeing a given movie. But you’d think you’d be pretty clear on whether or not somebody almost killed you." – Leonard Pitts