Brian Williams' Iraq War lie had been repeated several times, even with David Letterman

During last night’s NBC Nightly News broadcast, anchor and managing editor Brian Williams described his Iraq War lie as a “mistake,” but it’s certainly a mistake he’s repeated several times.

Williams was forced to recant the story that he was on a helicopter that was shot down in Iraq in 2003. He told the story again recently because he wanted to honor a veteran he attended a New York Rangers game last night.

Stars and Stripes uncovered that the story was total bunk. Crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook told the paper that Williams was nowhere near the helicopter that was hit. The crewmembers said that Williams didn’t arrive in the area until an hour later and was in a different helicopter.

“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams told Stars and Stripes. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”

Williams called it a “bungled attempt” to honor the soldiers that did protect him in Iraq. “I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” he said during the Wednesday Nightly News broadcast.

It’s hard to believe that this is “just” a mistake on Williams’ part. He and the network have been pushing the narrative for all 12 of those years. As Mashable’s Brian Reis pointed out on Twitter, Williams gave the exact same fabricated story to David Letterman in 2013.

And it’s not just Williams going “rogue.” Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Miller, flight engineer Lance Reynolds and door gunner Mike O’Keefe all told Stars and Stripes that they recalled NBC reporting in 2003 the false story. Indeed, the NBC News archives lists a 2003 story titled “Target Iraq: Helicopter NBC’s Brian Williams Was Riding In Comes Under Fire.” (Here’s the listing, which BuzzFeed found.)

Williams claimed he did not report that he was in a helicopter that was targeted at the time of the incident. He also said that there was a 2008 blog post in which he wrote that he wasn’t in the helicopter that was hit.

Now, this whole situation paints Williams in a new light. He’s one of the most well-known news anchors in America and was considered the only person NBC News didn’t have to worry about. NBC News President Deborah Turness currently has her hands full with The Today Show and Meet The Press’ floundering ratings. This was the last thing she needed to worry about. According to Variety, at the moment, there doesn’t appear to be any move to suspend Williams.

Williams’ “mistake” is even taking over Twitter. All day, #BrianWilliamsMisremembers has been trending.

Journalists are in harm’s way around the world. The Committee To Protect Journalists reports that 14 journalists were killed in Iraq in 2003. You can’t just “misremember” being in danger or hit by an RPG and call it a “mistake" or joke about with Letterman.

image via Twitter from The Hill
image via B. Ach/INFevents.com