NBC News' Brian Williams admits he wasn't on aircraft in Iraq

[mick silver]

NBC News' Brian Williams admits he wasn't on aircraft in IraqBy Caitlin Dickson (http://news.yahoo.com/author/caitlin-dickson/) 16 hours ago Yahoo News






NBC News’ Brian Williams was not, as he has previously claimed, aboard a U.S. Air Force helicopter that was hit by two rockets and grounded during the 2003 Iraq invasion.
In what was surely a moment of vindication for those who were actually aboard the grounded aircraft, the Nightly News anchor admitted Wednesday that the harrowing story he and NBC had been perpetuating since 2003 was false.

View photo
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http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/uv1TddYyKO_wTaDW7bKLzg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/news/2015-02-04/7fa7ac20-acc4-11e4-8ec1-9d585b7a1102_williams_sq.jpgBrian Williams' coverage of New York Rangers tribute to Retired Command Sgt. Major Tim Terpak.




“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams told the military publication Stars and Stripes (http://www.stripes.com/news/us/nbc-s-brian-williams-recants-iraq-story-after-soldiers-protest-1.327792), Wednesday. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
The confession came at a New York Rangers game last week, after Williams reiterated his skewed version of events. The occasion was a tribute to retired Command Sgt. Major Tim Terpak, who’d provided security for the grounded helicopters Williams claimed to have been aboard.
In a comment on NBC Nightly News' Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153110016813689&fref=nf), under the video of Williams’ coverage of the tribute, Flight Engineer Lance Reynolds wrote “Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened. Then I remember you guys taking back off in a different flight of Chinooks from another unit and heading to Kuwait to report your 'war story' to the Nightly News. The whole time we were still stuck in Iraq trying to repair the aircraft and pulling our own Security.”
Reynolds told Stars and Stripes, “It was something personal for us that was kind of life-changing for me. I’ve know how lucky I was to survive it. It felt like a personal experience that someone else wanted to participate in and didn’t deserve to participate in.”
Williams responded to Reynold’s comment and apologized.

“To Joseph, Lance, Jonathan, Pate, Michael and all those who have posted: You are absolutely right and I was wrong. In fact, I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in '08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp. Because I have no desire to fictionalize my experience (we all saw it happened the first time) and no need to dramatize events as they actually happened, I think the constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area — and the fog of memory over 12 years — made me conflate the two, and I apologize. I certainly remember the armored mech platoon, meeting Capt. Eric Nye and of course Tim Terpak. Shortly after they arrived, so did the Orange Crush sandstorm, making virtually all outdoor functions impossible. I honestly don't remember which of the three choppers Gen. Downing and I slept in, but we spent two nights on the stowable web bench seats in one of the three birds. Later in the invasion when Gen. Downing and I reached Baghdad, I remember searching the parade grounds for Tim's Bradley to no avail. My attempt to pay tribute to CSM Terpak was to honor his 23+ years in service to our nation, and it had been 12 years since I saw him. The ultimate irony is: In writing up the synopsis of the 2 nights and 3 days I spent with him in the desert, I managed to switch aircraft. Nobody's trying to steal anyone's valor. Quite the contrary: I was and remain a civilian journalist covering the stories of those who volunteered for duty. This was simply an attempt to thank Tim, our military and Veterans everywhere -- those who have served while I did not.”
Williams covered the Rangers' tribute in a segment of the Nightly News.






Brian Williams
NBC


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[mick silver]

if you were on helicopter when it is hit with an RPG is something you don't forget or get mixed up

[mick silver]

people are starting to ask for him to step down ... what else has he lied about , but we all know that's there job to lie

[mick silver]

Brian Williams’ Hurricane Katrina coverage scrutinized after apology for Iraq War story
http://news.yahoo.com/brian-williams--hurricane-katrina-coverage-scrutinized-after-apology-for-iraq-war-story-141800566.html But there were no corpses floating through the French Quarter because it — being on higher ground — was spared the overwhelming floodwaters that devastated other neighborhoods when the levees broke ... NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams did not take a hit in Iraq, but his credibility sure is under fire.The embattled journalist’s other reports are being called into question after he admitted Wednesday to not being aboard a U.S. Air Force helicopter that was struck by rockets (http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-news--brian-williams-recants-story-iraq-helicopter-after-soldiers-protest-231038729.html) in 2003, as he had claimed for over a decade.
Skeptical bloggers are now scrutinizing his award-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and subsequent interviews.
Williams, 55, claims to have seen a dead body float past the window of the five-star hotel where he was staying in the French Quarter.
“When you look out of your hotel room 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,” he said in a 2006 interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVXAxHFjiOk).
But there were no corpses floating through the French Quarter because it — being on higher ground — was spared the overwhelming floodwaters that devastated other neighborhoods when the levees broke.

In the same interview, Williams said, “I beat that storm. I was there before it arrived. I rode it out with people who later died in the Superdome.”
But Williams did not exactly suffer the same plight as the locals trapped inside.
A former producer for the CBS Evening News — who was in the Superdome on Aug. 29, 2005 — verified for Yahoo News that Williams rode out Katrina in the stadium; however, Williams, like most members of the media, left that afternoon to file his stories.
He did not endure the mayhem that evacuees went through overnight and days afterward, as supplies ran short.
In the immediate days after the storm, the producer said, NBC News had an RV compound on Canal Street with food, drinks and military-trained security.
Just last year, in an interview with his “Nightly News” predecessor Tom Brokaw, Williams claimed he had fallen sick with dysentery after accidentally drinking floodwater.
“My week, two weeks there was not helped by the fact that I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery,” he said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBoyOGu6Gt8#t=80).

But Dr. Brobson Lutz, an infectious disease specialist who operated an EMS station during Katrina, told The New Orleans Advocate (http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/11526453-148/nbc-news-anchor-brian-williams) that he doubts Williams’ claim.
“I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” he said to the local paper.
Brokaw, 75, apparently knew Williams’ Iraq claim was false for a long time and wants him fired, according to the New York Post (http://pagesix.com/2015/02/05/tom-brokaw-wants-brian-williams-fired/?_ga=1.100450013.2112201267.1367933170).
“Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter,” a source at NBC told the tabloid. “He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”
Williams recanted his story about the Iraq War after the U.S. troops who were actually fired upon spoke out. In fact, he was aboard a different helicopter.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” he told Stars & Stripes. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Twitter users started the humorous hashtag #BrianWilliamsMisremembers (http://news.yahoo.com/brian-williams-iraq-war-story-twitter-remembers-135917143.html) to superimpose the anchor’s face onto scenes of historical events that he clearly did not witness.
Some say that Williams outright lied (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/brian-williams-lie-114950.html#.VNTPTsbeODk) while others believe he may have “misremembered,” (https://www.yahoo.com/health/this-may-be-why-brian-williams-thought-he-was-in-110169727007.html) citing the “basic unreliability of memory (http://news.yahoo.com/brian-williams-iraq-war-story-twitter-remembers-135917143.html).”
And, he is not the only person doubting his recollections.
On Thursday, pilot Rich Krell told CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/06/media/stelter-iraq-pilots/index.html) that he was flying the helicopter Williams was aboard and that it came under “small arms fire.” But the next day he retracted his story.
“The information I gave you was true based on my memories,” he said, “but at this point I am questioning my memories.”


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[mick silver]

this is showing the world how all the news people are telling lies to get the story out and what they want you and I to see . this is why the internet will come under the hand of the government. people will catch onto this

[palani]

So Hilary has claimed to have come under sniper fire when it didn't happen. The mind is active. It tends to think about things when asleep and those things almost seem real when awake. Those in the public eye are not immune and probably are more prone to making the imaginary more real. Not excusing the phenomena but ....

I am pretty sure 'Bama actually thinks that is money he is spending. If so he is more delusional than even Bill Gates.

[Santa]

“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams told the military publication Stars and Stripes, Wednesday. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”

See, it wasn't Brian Jennings fault. Can't blame him for something his screwed up mind did. :)

[mick silver]

if you read this one you can see he not telling the truth again ... Brian Williams’ Hurricane Katrina coverage scrutinized

[Neuro]

Not strange he gets reality mixed up now and then as his entire career has been dedicated to selling pure fantasies to an unsuspecting public...

[mick silver]

Accusations mount against US anchor over war 'lie'
New York (AFP) - One of America's most prominent TV anchors, Brian Williams, faced calls for his resignation Friday for embellishing an Iraq war story from 2003.
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NBC News starts inquiry into Brian Williams comments (http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=A78ABB6A-AE40-11E4-8347-43255D5D378B&siteid=yhoof2) MarketWatch







Williams, 55, who reportedly earns $10 million a year and is watched by an estimated nine million Americans a night, admitted that a story he often repeated on air about coming under fire was not true.
"I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago," Williams said in an apology broadcast live Wednesday on the "NBC Nightly News" program he hosts each evening.
"I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."
He apologized to colleagues again on Friday morning, according to a leaked memo purportedly from NBC News president Deborah Turness.
The memo said NBC has appointed a team to investigate the facts and "help us make sense of all that has transpired."
On Facebook, Williams said that he had "conflated" the two events, which happened while he was covering the US invasion of Iraq.
A hugely respected journalist in the United States, he has anchored "NBC Nightly News" since 2004.
Williams is a former chief White House correspondent, was celebrated for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has collected more than two dozen industry awards.
The embellished tale dates back at least to an interview with US chat show king David Letterman in 2013.
At the time of the incident in 2003, Williams said it was the Chinook ahead that was "almost blown out of the sky."
He repeated the story on television as recently as last Friday, in an elaborate tribute to a retired soldier who helped provide ground security for the grounded aircraft and crew.
But crew members of the Chinook helicopter and Williams's aircraft told Stars and Stripes, a US publication that covers the armed forces, that the anchor had been nowhere near the helicopter that was fired upon or other Chinooks in its formation.
He instead arrived later in a separate helicopter, which landed due to an oncoming sandstorm.
- Credibility under fire -
But instead of calming the controversy, Williams's on-air apology appears to have inflamed critics speaking on rival TV channels, who refuse to accept it was an honest mistake.
He also faces further scrutiny for his coverage of Katrina, in particular an account of seeing a body float face down in the French Quarter, the historic district of New Orleans.
On Friday, the Iraq story was splashed across the front pages of The New York Times, New York Post and USA Today, the latter with the headline "Brian Williams loses credibility with 'mistake.'"
"Hard to see how anchor will survive as face of NBC News," USA Today sniffed on the front page.
On NBC's rival channel Fox News, media commentator Howard Kurtz said: "The admission raises serious questions about his credibility in a business that values that quality above all else."
CNN television journalist Chris Cuomo stressed that "memory is either right or it is wrong and we are in the business of being righ." He predicted that the Internet would "eat him alive."
Williams was a near-constant fixture on TV as America's world turned upside down in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. He reported frequently from Iraq during the invasion.
Besides Katrina, he covered the devastating tsunami in Asia in 2004 and last year got the scoop with the first US television interview with whistleblower Edward Snowden in Russia.
In December, he renewed his contract with NBC for five years. But critics have now rounded on his on-air apology, also posted on his Facebook page.
"I'm a C-130 pilot who had a surface-to-air missile shot at me in Iraq. Trust me. You will never EVER forget being shot at or 'misremember the events,'" wrote John Jacob Hunt.
Another, Mike Violette, said: "He's an out and out liar. How NBC can keep him on air is beyond me."
But prominent allies also leapt to the television star's defense.
"Revealing how some journalists, like a pack of wolves, are trying to take down Brian Williams. He apologized and set the record straight," wrote actress Mia Farrow on Twitter.
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather agreed.
"He is a superb pro and a gutsy one," he said.


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NBC Nightly News

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[mick silver]

NBC launches internal probe on Brian Williams claims
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC News has assigned the head of its own investigative unit to look into statements that anchor Brian Williams made about his reporting in Iraq a dozen years ago, an episode that's ballooned into a full-blown credibility crisis for the network.
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NBC to investigate anchor Williams' Iraq War reporting (http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-launches-internal-probe-anchor-brian-williams-memo-213453532--finance.html) Reuters
NBC News starts inquiry into Brian Williams comments (http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=A78ABB6A-AE40-11E4-8347-43255D5D378B&siteid=yhoof2) MarketWatch
Brian Williams’ Hurricane Katrina coverage scrutinized after apology for Iraq War story (http://news.yahoo.com/brian-williams--hurricane-katrina-coverage-scrutinized-after-apology-for-iraq-war-story-141800566.html) Yahoo News
Brian Williams' credibility questioned after fake Iraq story (http://news.yahoo.com/nbcs-williams-fighting-reputation-212950375.html) Associated Press
NBC News President Deborah Turness' memo on Brian Williams (http://news.yahoo.com/nbc-news-president-deborah-turness-memo-employees-212408256.html) Associated Press







NBC News President Deborah Turness announced the probe in an internal memo on Friday. Williams has apologized for falsely saying on the air that he was in a helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while in Iraq in 2003, and Turness said Friday the anchor expressed his regrets to his colleagues for the impact the episode has had.
"As you would expect, we have a team dedicated to gathering the facts to help us make sense of all that has transpired," Turness wrote. "We're working on what the best next steps are."
Richard Esposito, who has worked at the New York Daily News, New York Newsday and ABC and is now at NBC, is leading the investigation.
Williams anchored "Nightly News" from New York on Friday, making no mention of the criticisms of his work.
Questions were also raised about statements Williams made on coverage of Hurricane Katrina, which was one of his proudest moments at NBC. In a 2006 interview with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Williams twice referenced seeing a body float down a street in New Orleans.
Pilot from Helicopter Crash Breaks Silence on Bria … Play video
http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Oiu0YDShLRk_55faLfUjJA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE2OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.cbstv.com/f4adf267284a8d95baec679925a0a8d6
(http://news.yahoo.com/video/pilot-helicopter-crash-breaks-silence-222037594-cbs.html)
"When you look out of your hotel room 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," Williams said.
Several minutes later, Williams again talked about seeing the body as he discussed how it felt to cover the storm.
"I felt something get dislodged that changes the usual arm's length relationship between me and the stories I cover. These are Americans. These are my brothers and sisters. And one of them was floating by."
The remarks drew suspicion because during Katrina, there was relatively little flooding in New Orleans' French Quarter.
Williams was staying at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in New Orleans, according to an NBC source who requested anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak on personnel matters.
Brian Williams Apologizes for Iraq War Story Mista … Play video
http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/GXdp86mbgPEb8t.vOW6dig--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE2OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.abcnewsplus.com/c43c23fd7b4be0a64dfa91ed0fa25838
(http://news.yahoo.com/video/brian-williams-apologizes-iraq-war-125931002.html)
Capt. James Scott, who was a police commander in the downtown area at the time of Katrina, said he saw a body floating along Rampart Street on the edge of the French Quarter. "It was floating with the water," he said.
The body Scott saw was about four blocks from the Ritz-Carlton, which was surrounded by up to three feet of water, he said.
Alex Brandon, a Washington-based photographer for The Associated Press, was working in New Orleans during Katrina and said there was enough water to launch a flat-bottomed boat from in front of the Ritz. He also said he photographed a dead body floating on Canal Street a few blocks from the Ritz.
The story originally called into question about Williams' wartime reporting experience has made him a subject of mockery, including a New York Post front cover that depicted him with a long Pinocchio's nose, over the headline "A Nose for News."
He's the leading man at the network's news division, whose nightly newscast has topped its rivals in ratings for the better part of a decade. As a frequent talk show guest and one-time "Saturday Night Live" host, his celebrity transcended the news division.
NBC anchor Brian Williams' apology fails to si … Play video
http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nobHzfPTHc_Dr3tICHRUqw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTE2OTtxPTc1O3c9MzAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.cbstv.com/cff84598a136f499c6bf5b9e75b23094
(http://news.yahoo.com/video/nbc-anchor-brian-williams-apology-123235888-cbs.html)
He apologized on the air Wednesday for telling his story about the supposed grenade attack as recently as last Friday on "Nightly News." He admitted that his helicopter was not hit by a grenade after war veterans had come forward to question the account, some even disputing whether Williams' helicopter was in a group that came under direct attack.
NBC News needs to look at not only Williams' story about the helicopter, which has changed in details as he's talked about it over the years, but whether anybody else at the network knew that he was spreading a falsehood and did anything about it, said Kelly McBride, an expert on ethics for the journalism think tank the Poynter Institute.
"He is the front man of 'Nightly News' and is seen as the primary arbiter of the facts," McBride said. "For him to get something wrong on something he was involved in casts doubt on his ability to get any facts right."
NBC News must also weigh his importance to the news division and the work he has done since taking over as top anchor from Tom Brokaw in 2004, she said. Brokaw, for his part, on Friday denied a published report that he had suggested Williams be dismissed.
"Brian's future will be decided by him and the executives of NBC News," Brokaw said.
That would be Turness and her immediate supervisor, Pat Fili-Krushel, who had seen "Nightly News" as a bright spot for the network as they tried to correct ratings problems at the "Today" show and "Meet the Press." NBC's corporate parents at Comcast would likely weigh in as well.
Meanwhile Friday, CNN said it was stepping back from its own report Thursday, quoting Rich Krell, a veteran who claimed to pilot Williams' helicopter in Iraq. Krell had said Thursday that the helicopter had taken small arms fire — if not a grenade attack — but said Friday that he was questioning his own recollections after being contradicted by other veterans.
____
Associated Press writer Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this story.


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[palani]

Williams twice referenced seeing a body float down a street in New Orleans.
When I lived in the Vieux Carre in the '70s I routinely spotted expired people. I can't recall any floaters though. Most of the ones I observed were merely walking undead.

[osoab]

Is he taking the fall so his daughter can make more ass munching scenes or to make up for the Peter Pan live show?

[mick silver]

if he telling lies are they all doing the same , we here know the answer to that don't we

[Hatha Sunahara]

It's his job to read the script--which is written by the CIA news 'spinners'. All the talking heads get paid big bucks to read that script persuasively, credibly. Anybody who demonstrated an ability to think for himself, or question what is in the script wouldn't show up again after that. I don't think the news anchor people are so stupid that they don't know that the scripts they are reading are lies and propaganda. Their skill is to present this bullshit in a way that it doesn't cause you to doubt it. Sometimes they slip up--like the report of WTC 7 collapsing 20 minutes before the event. They never explain these slip-ups. I think it's perfectly understandable that a news anchor might lose track of what's real and what isn't real--considering how much of the stuff they read in their scripts deviate from ordinary reality. Brian Williams's bug error isn't lying about his experience in Iraq, but in doing it poorly and getting caught. NBC is more concerned with the credibility of their operation than they are about the truth. If people doubt for an instant what the NBC news anchor is teling them, then NBC will implode--and will cause a chain reaction of implosions throughout the 'ministry of propaganda'. The last thing the MSM wants is the "Baghdad Bob Moment on national TV.

i found a bit of advice about how to react to this institutional tendency to lead you away from the truth here: http://mileswmathis.com/guru.pdf


Hatha

[Hatha Sunahara]

Here's more Brian Williams BS on seal team 6:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJd54lJ-f0


Hatha