Well this is awkward. Apparently NBC’s Brian Williams has been pitching an admittedly inspiring story about being under attack in Iraq and being saved by our military. He’s been telling the story for twelve years, but there’s a problem – it never happened.
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years.
Williams repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters, a game to which Williams accompanied him. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry.
The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Here’s the story he’s been tossing around:
In 2003, this soldier saved Brian Williams' life. 12 years later, they were reunited at a hockey game. http://t.co/k53ouZLeiO
— NBC Nightly News (@NBCNightlyNews) January 31, 2015
When the video was posted on NBC’s Facebook page for Brian Williams’ show, many soldiers came out of the woodwork to accuse him of fabricating his presence at the event. Here’s one such accusation:
Eventually, Brian Williams came clean:
UPDATE!
Brian Williams apologized on his show tonight:
This kinda reminds me of a certain Democrat presidential hopeful who lied about being under sniper fire herself. That’s right, Hillary Clinton!