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Williams under investigation by NBC News:
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.
A source at the network who requested anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak on personnel matters confirmed the investigation 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.
Brian Williams' credibility questioned after fake Iraq story
Brian Williams' credibility questioned after fake Iraq story
Questions about another statement made by Williams, that he saw a body floating by his hotel while reporting on Hurricane Katrina, have also come to light in wake of the episode.
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. There was no immediate word on whether Williams would anchor NBC's "Nightly News" on Friday.
Williams' story about his wartime reporting experience 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."
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Williams also became an online punching bag overnight. Tweets with the hashtag #BrianWilliamsMemories joked that he blew up the Death Star, saved someone from a polar bear and flew with Wonder Woman in her invisible helicopter. Photoshopped pictures showed him reporting from the moon and riding shotgun with O.J. Simpson in his Ford Bronco.
"How could you expect anyone who served in the military to ever see this guy onscreen again and not feel contempt?" wrote critic David Zurawik, of the Baltimore Sun. "How could you expect anyone to believe he or the broadcast he leads has any credibility?"
Brian Williams retells Iraq story on program
On Friday, Brian Williams repeated a story about being on a helicopter that came under enemy fire while he was reporting in Iraq in 2003. On Wednesday, he admitted the story was false.
Williams is 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.
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.
He speculated online that constant viewing of video showing him inspecting the damaged helicopter "and the fog of memory over 12 years, made me conflate the two, and I apologize."
His story had morphed through the years.
cComments
Internal investigation? The results re already in. They will pay the investigators to say what NBC wants them to say. Can anyone explain why a script reader is so important? It is not like he is a real journalist or reporter. He puts on bespoke clothes, make up, gets his hair styled, and...
PETERBELLA
AT 3:25 PM FEBRUARY 06, 2015
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Shortly after the incident, Williams had described on NBC how he was traveling in a group of helicopters forced down in the Iraq desert. On the ground, he learned the Chinook in front of him "had almost been blown out of the sky"; he showed a photo of it with a gash from a rocket-propelled grenade.
The NBC crew and military officials accompanying them spent three days in the desert, kept aground by a sandstorm.
But in a 2008 blog post, Williams said his helicopter had come under fire from what appeared to be Iraqi farmers with RPGs. He said a helicopter in front of his had been hit.
Then, in a 2013 appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show," Williams said that two of the four helicopters he was traveling with had been hit by ground fire "including the one I was in."
"No kidding?" Letterman interjected.
Williams described making a quick, hard landing in the middle of the desert.
"I have to treat you now with renewed respect," Letterman said. "That's a tremendous story."
NBC News needs to look at not only Williams' story, 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 NBC News President Deborah 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
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I can't help myself. I'm a compulsive liar.