Williams' story isn't just a fish story, an exaggeration of a set of facts that grows each time its repeated. It has no relation to the reality behind it. And its one thing to make something up at a cocktail party, or when bragging to your friends, or trying to look good around strangers, this is a deliberate violation of journalistic ethics. It smells of careful and deliberate calculation.

But I suspect he eventually came to believe it himself. We know people lie for personal gain, to build themselves up, but they normally don't leave a trail behind them this easy to follow. Its a miracle this scandal didn't break out a long time ago. He left himself wide open.