NBC News’ Brian Williams said Wednesday evening he “bungled” the retelling of a story last week when he claimed he once came under fire as a news correspondent in Iraq in 2003 — except he has been telling the now-debunked story for more than a decade.
“In a broadcast last week in an effort to honor and thank a veteran who protected me and so many others after a ground fire incident in the desert during the Iraq War invasion. I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” Williams said Wednesday evening, his apology coming just moments after Stars and Stripes reported he had fabricated a story about being aboard a helicopter downed by rocket fire during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“I want to apologize. I said I was travelling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the ground fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert,” he added Wednesday evening.
NBC News first claimed in 2003 that Williams was aboard a helicopter that was fired on during the Iraq invasion, saying in one bold headline: “Target Iraq: Helicopter NBC’s Brian Williams Was Riding In Comes Under Fire.”
In 2005, during a Veterans Day ceremony in New Canaan, Ct., Williams reportedly told the story again, regaling his audience with a tale about how his “helicopter took small arms fire and was forced to land.”
Williams later repeated the same story during an interview in 2013 with late night television host David Letterman, making sure to include all the best and most juicy details of his supposedly harrowing experience.
And as recently as last Friday, Williams once again claimed that he was aboard a chopper in Iraq that was badly damaged during the invasion by small arms and rocket fire.
“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,” Williams said during a tribute to a retired soldier who provided ground security for the downed choppers that night in Iraq. “Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry.”
But it was last week’s version of the downed chopper story that apparently did it in for Williams, his version of events prompting vigorous pushback from the servicemen who actually took fire from Iraqi forces.
Lance Reynolds, a flight engineer involved in operation that night, responded on Facebook to Williams retelling of the story: “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.”
Others chimed in, telling Stars and Stripes that Williams and his news crew were nowhere near the action that evening. In fact, according to the servicemen who were there that night, Williams was about 60 minutes behind the action.
Asked about these details, Williams eventually admitted to Stars and Stripes that he “misremembered” the story.
“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.”
The NBC News anchor later took to Facebook and his evening broadcast to “apologize” for the story.
“It did not take long to hear from some brave men and women in the aircrews who were also in that desert,” he said during his show.
“This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran, and by extension our brave military men and women, veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not,” he added. “I hope they know they have my greatest respect and also now my apology.”
However, as noted in the above, last Friday was clearly not the first time that the NBC News anchor claimed he came under fire in Iraq, a story that even he now acknowledges was a total fabrication.
A spokeswoman for NBC News did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
