U.S. news anchor Brian Williams recants on coming under fire in Iraq

I like Williams....very disappointing.

Sadly, no matter the country, these kinds of stories no longer surprise me.

I don't remember; I was drunk at the time....

Not cool, dude.

I don't remember; I was drunk at the time....

Worse yet. Evidently this guy is claiming he get the aircraft confused...Yeah, right.

Heh, heh,heh: Reminds me of some maggot I worked with at FOB Pasab. Our base was Suicide Attacked & he wasn't even on the base, but said HE would get a Citation for being a Civilian Worker there, he was back in Alabama when it happened...lol.

Pathetic. This can't possibly be excused as an honest mistake, a half truth, or misunderstanding resulting from a bad choice of words. This was nothing more than a complete fabrication that was recounted numerous times very publicly. Why Williams, an already established and respected journalist, felt that he needed to lie like this is beyond me. I'm sure many, including me, have lost a great deal of respect for him.

Williams should resign. He has no credibility as a journalist. He is a liar.

How does one "misremember" being involved in a helicopter crash, anyway?? Either you were or you weren't: if you weren't but then claim that you were, again and again, that's not "misrembering." That's LYING.

By any chance has Williams ever been with Hillary Clinton on assignment?

More Walter Mitty than Walter Cronkite

“I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” Williams said on the broadcast. - article

Bush should try that one, Williams' story dates from 2003, just like Bush's.

Daily Mail UK, February 5, 2015 reports:

"Since the 2003 incident, Williams’ Chinook story has been recounted countless times and gradually the reporter's role seems to have grown.

NBC reported the incident on March 26, 2003, with the headline, 'Target Iraq: Helicopter NBC’s Brian Williams Was Riding In Comes Under Fire.'"

“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 instead arrived an hour later in a separate helicopter, which landed due to an oncoming sandstorm.

Like SuperLib, I like Briam Williams, and, in fact, was watching his broadcast last night. And now I am even more offended. He is playing semantic games -- "in a following aircraft" implies his aircraft was in close proximity to the one fired upon. In reality, he was over one hour behind. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” Williams said on the broadcast.

You meant "you made a mistake in lying about those events"!

Williams is an Ok journalist, by no means near one of the best, but this story is a bit surprising out of everyone at the peacock network in the cable department, he seemed the one with the least amount of ego maniac baggage.

If you want to get even more upset, here's his explanation:

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.

My God, he sounds just like Dick Cheney and his expression "viewed through the prism of 9/11" to try to explain lying about WMD in Iraq, or Mark McGwire's phrase "mis-remembering". Unfortunately he has really hurt his credibility as a journalist, and is now just a highly paid mouth-piece as far as I am concerned.

What a POS. Always seemed scummy to me.... just proved it.

Brian Williams' harrowing experience reminds one of a similar story told by Hillary Clinton. Her plane landed at a Bosnian airport under heavy sniper fire. She daringly darted out from the cover of the aircraft and ducked every oncoming bullet like an old pro (make that a very old pro). I'm not sure about this but she may have even picked off one of the snipers from the backseat of her limo using a snub-nosed handgun she barrowed from one of her secret service agents. It was a truly unbelievable story.

"Lance Reynolds, the flight engineer on the helicopter that was hit, told Stars and Stripes “it was something personal for us that was kind of life-changing for me. I 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.” - article

While Mr. Williams now admits his repeated lies, Veterans present in 2003 have pointed out they were false for twelve years.

Military leadership under Bush didn't think it was important enough to clarify Williams' statement and allowed the repeated lie because it served their "mission"?

The events of March 2003, not unlike the controversial death of Cpl. Pat Tillman of April 2004, were part of a nearly pathological insistence on deception to sanitize the Wars of Iraq and Afghanistan.

(note: CNN reported in 2007 of censures related to the Tillman cover up. See reference: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/31/tillman.probe/index.html)

Where's Cpl. Pat Tillman's Motion Picture?

He brought shame to himself and his network. A typical liberal criteria of plenty image with compromise substance.

Williams should resign. He has no credibility as a journalist. He is a liar.

Doubtful that he'll resign or be suspended. Log after his infamous "fog of war" incident in Afghanistan, Geraldo Rivera is still around. Currently on a couple of network shows.

It would be great if at least some people take this as a reason to question their childish believe in the media...

Nowadays, if you like your job as a "journalist" and you want to keep it, then you better toe the line. For many years now, your job has no longer been to report informations, your job is to form, implant and shape opinions. Your employer will not tell you what they are, that would be unethical. You will have to figure them out by yourself. If you cannot do that, then you are not suitable for the job. Censorship is out, self-censorship, scissors in your head, are in.

Here you had a guy, who was following a plane that could easily have been shot down. A journalist in the old times would have been scared and reported that moment truthfully. Not this one, he gets paid big bucks for maximum effect, so he delivers.

Try to remember, this is NOT an exception. And have n illusions, it is like that everywhere!

NBC evidently considers lying as acceptable. I do not.

Williams should resign, and if he does not, the heavy baggage he himself has created will follow him until he does. I am very disappointed in him, and will no longer watch him.

Williams visited the special forces base where I was as a civilian in Afghanistan in 2009 and filed an inaccurate report from our base. He had been sitting with some of the SF guys at a table after they came in from a mission and said during his report later that he had been seated with a group of SF fighters who were all "solemnly eating their meals reflecting on the losses that had occurred during their mission that day." The problem with this was that it had only been a routine mission, there had been no loss of life or even injuries, and everyone was in pretty good spirits telling jokes and generally enjoying their meal. When the report aired on AFN and the SF guys saw it they were pretty pissed at the made-up story. It looks like Brian Williams has a need to embellish at a minimum if not lie outright when it comes to his reporting...