News Anchor Brian Williams Lied About Being Shot At in Iraq
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is in hot water after admitting he lied about being shot at in 2003 while in a helicopter in Iraq.
Brian Williams had reported that the helicopter he was on was shot and downed by RPG fire. Turns out, he completely lied about it but what's strange is why this is now coming out 12 years after the fact.
I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake. I would not have chosen to make this mistake. I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another - NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams
Turns out that crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire recently told 'Stars and Stripes' that the NBC news anchor was not even close to the helicopters that were hit and downed. In fact, Brian Williams didn't show up to the scene for more than an hour after the fact. He claims it was all a mistake but here is his original quote,
The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG, Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry - Brian Willaims
Who knows, maybe it was an honest mistake but I find it hard to believe that you could get that story wrong. On the other side of the coin, why mention something like that when it wasn't true when you know darn well it would be discovered.