NBC's Brian Williams Misremembers Being 'Shot Down' in Iraq

[b2r]

  You could blame it on the teleprompter, but for the fact that the story has changed over the years.


2003 


2013


2015


The apology.




NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest

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.

www.stripes.com/news/us/nbc-s-brian-williams-recants-iraq-story-after-soldiers-protest-1.327792

[billisonboard]

GOTCHA

[b2r]

  Maybe he's planning a Whitehouse run!

[djAdvocate]

not the first time this has happened.  won't be the last.

unforgivable, but not really unique.

[zibazinski]

What an ass.

[Value Buy]

Well, I am a little mixed on this.

I know I look back at my military service, and probably played it up a little after I got back. Especially while in a bar after a few brews.

Then again, I was in the military.

I think I was anyway. Maybe I made it up!

OK, I was in the military.

And I said not a big deal when I got back, but I do believe we all can sort of blow the actual details in our minds beyond what they actually were, unless you were in actual combat, then I say go for it. If you want to enlarge the story you earned it.

Just do not write a book or become a talking head.

And definitely a politician! 

I am surprised it was Stars and Stripes that blew the story. NBC is in bed with the Administration, so I am surprised the story was debunked.

[OldCoyote]

It is sad that we hold reporters to be more honest than our law enforcement.

[Opti]

Feb 6, 2015 9:38:31 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Well, I am a little mixed on this.

I know I look back at my military service, and probably played it up a little after I got back. Especially while in a bar after a few brews.

Then again, I was in the military.

I think I was anyway. Maybe I made it up!

OK, I was in the military.

And I said not a big deal when I got back, but I do believe we all can sort of blow the actual details in our minds beyond what they actually were, unless you were in actual combat, then I say go for it. If you want to enlarge the story you earned it.

Just do not write a book or become a talking head.

And definitely a politician! 

I am surprised it was Stars and Stripes that blew the story. NBC is in bed with the Administration, so I am surprised the story was debunked.

I'm closest to VB on this one. I'm not sure if Brian Williams started remembering it in his

mind incorrectly or he stupidly did it to be more dramatic.

I'm glad a retraction was issued and wish he hadn't screwed it up in the Rangers video clip.

Makes it too much about him instead of a simple we met in Iraq ... story.

[Deleted]

He could redeem himself reporting from Syria.

[Value Buy]

At the end of tonight's broadcast, I believe he said someone else would be on the nightly news tomorrow.

I really was not paying too much attention, as it was the very end of the newscast

[Tennesseer]

Feb 6, 2015 20:41:36 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

At the end of tonight's broadcast, I believe he said someone else would be on the nightly news tomorrow.

I really was not paying too much attention, as it was the very end of the newscast

Lester Holt anchors NBC's Weekend Edition (tomorrow is Saturday). Williams anchors the NBC Nightly News Monday through Friday.

[Value Buy]

Feb 6, 2015 20:48:48 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Feb 6, 2015 20:41:36 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

At the end of tonight's broadcast, I believe he said someone else would be on the nightly news tomorrow.

I really was not paying too much attention, as it was the very end of the newscast

Lester Holt anchors NBC's Weekend Edition (tomorrow is Saturday). Williams anchors the NBC Nightly News Monday through Friday.

yes, today is Friday.............

Darn, should have caught that.

[Opti]

Feb 6, 2015 20:50:26 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Feb 6, 2015 20:48:48 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

Lester Holt anchors NBC's Weekend Edition (tomorrow is Saturday). Williams anchors the NBC Nightly News Monday through Friday.

yes, today is Friday.............

Darn, should have caught that.

Nevertheless, probably good timing for NBC and Brian Williams.

[zibazinski]

No one ever being shot down ever forgets it. Every last second of it. 

[b2r]

       Or, looking down the tube of an RPG fired at you, but hitting the chopper in front of you. 

1:43-2:40

It gets me to thinking, I’ve been very, very lucky the way my life has turned out, I’ve been very lucky to have survived a few things that I’ve been involved in, at a perception a few minutes ago, I was remembering something I tend to forget, the war with Hezballah in Israel, a few years back, where there were Katuyshka rockets passing just underneath the helicopter I was riding in. A few years before that, you go back to Iraq, and I looked down the tube of an RPG that had been fired at us and it hit the chopper in front of ours. 

encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ1mih4xF58V49ugOAFJAoS1JeMeSb-OQUejRPyT0QK2AtntMAx

blessings.buzz/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/brian2.jpg

ioneadwnews.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/10832123_373109816205658_53260349_n.jpg?w=300&h=300 

[NoNamePerson]

Maybe he took fire near that body he saw floating by in the French Quarter during Katrina  

[b2r]

Brian Williams to Take Leave From ‘NBC Nightly News’

Brian Williams said on Saturday that he was stepping aside from the daily broadcast of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days
 
www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/business/brian-williams-to-take-leave-from-nbc-nightly-news.html?_r=0 
 

[EVT1]

Considering all of the outright liars in the media why is Williams taking all the heat? Because he lied about personal experiences rather than lie about shit in general?

There are entire organizations that lie as a function of their business model.  I guess maybe because he was held up as a neutral source of reporting.  And the question there is did he make shit up when it came to the actual news or just embellishing his persona.  IMO if you lie about the news you are gone- but not in this country. 

[NoNamePerson]

Personally I hold newscasters in the same light as politicians - not to be trusted whatsoever. I am so jaded in my old age 

[Artemis Windsong]

It's forgivable.  Too much daily stress.  Just forget it and go on.  Chalk it up to misreporting like the Chinese airline pilot's names.

No harm, no foul.

[deziloooooo]

Feb 6, 2015 9:38:31 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Well, I am a little mixed on this.

I know I look back at my military service, and probably played it up a little after I got back. Especially while in a bar after a few brews.

Then again, I was in the military.

I think I was anyway. Maybe I made it up!

OK, I was in the military.

And I said not a big deal when I got back, but I do believe we all can sort of blow the actual details in our minds beyond what they actually were, unless you were in actual combat, then I say go for it. If you want to enlarge the story you earned it.

Just do not write a book or become a talking head.

And definitely a politician! 

I am surprised it was Stars and Stripes that blew the story. NBC is in bed with the Administration, so I am surprised the story was debunked.

Actually....

"unless you were in actual combat, then I say go for it. If you want to enlarge the story you earned it."

If so , there really is no need to enlarge it or puff it up...

[deziloooooo]

Feb 7, 2015 17:08:56 GMT -5 b2r said:

Brian Williams to Take Leave From ‘NBC Nightly News’

Brian Williams said on Saturday that he was stepping aside from the daily broadcast of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days
 
www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/business/brian-williams-to-take-leave-from-nbc-nightly-news.html?_r=0 
 

I'm sorry to hear that....I like him and enjoy his work....I'm thinking the embellishment was more to build up the story for the man himself not himself {Williams..}...he forgot the cardinal rule ..there are folks out there always looking to discredit and zing others where ever possible..looking for every and any variation that might bring discredit on ...and he got caught in that...

[Virgil Showlion]

We can only imagine what a coffee table chat between Mr. Williams and Ms. Clinton would sound like.

"You think that's bad? Let me tell you about the time I was killed in Vietnam."

[Blonde Granny]

For whatever reason, Brian Williams decided that HE wanted to be the story instead of just reporting the events as they were.

Too bad Mr. Williams, your mouth and your imagination were running wild. This while those who actually were in those situations remained quiet and just did their jobs.

[Value Buy]

Feb 8, 2015 9:10:52 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

We can only imagine what a coffee table chat between Mr. Williams and Ms. Clinton would sound like.

"You think that's bad? Let me tell you about the time I was killed in Vietnam."

I think you meant to say John Kerry.

[Virgil Showlion]

Incidentally, when did people start calling lying "misremembering"?

If I claim I haven't eaten a single sweet all week and my wife points out that I picked up a muffin at Starbucks on Monday, that's misremembering.

If I'm not in the middle of a group of helicopters taking rocket fire and I impress my buddies with tales of being in a group of helicopters taking rocket fire, that's a lie.

[EVT1]

Feb 8, 2015 17:05:29 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Feb 8, 2015 9:10:52 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

We can only imagine what a coffee table chat between Mr. Williams and Ms. Clinton would sound like.

"You think that's bad? Let me tell you about the time I was killed in Vietnam."

I think you meant to say John Kerry.

Kerry was in Vietnam- were you? I call that offensive.

[EVT1]

Feb 9, 2015 23:11:16 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Incidentally, when did people start calling lying "misremembering"?

 

Iraq

[Value Buy]

Feb 10, 2015 0:38:56 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Feb 8, 2015 17:05:29 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

I think you meant to say John Kerry.

Kerry was in Vietnam- were you? I call that offensive.

Since you asked, yes I was.

December 1969 to February 1971

Fourteen months.

Unlike Kerry, I was drafted and sent over there, and was proud of my service to my country.

Offensive?

Kerry totally blew his time in country out of the water on what he actually did while there.

And to this day I sincerely believe he is a liar and blowhard.

[Tennesseer]

Feb 10, 2015 8:32:01 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Feb 10, 2015 0:38:56 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Kerry was in Vietnam- were you? I call that offensive.

Since you asked, yes I was.

December 1969 to February 1971

Fourteen months.

Unlike Kerry, I was draftedand sent over there, and was proud of my service to my country.

Offensive?

Kerry totally blew his time in country out of the water on what he actually did while there.

And to this day I sincerely believe he is a liar and blowhard.

Yes, you are different from Kerry. Kerry enlisted.