Brian Williams announced Saturday he’s putting himself on a brief hiatus following revelations this week he fabricated a story about coming under fire in Iraq in 2003.
“In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions,” he said in a note published by NBC News.
Stars and Stripes reported first this week that Williams’ oft-repeated story of wartime heroism is a falsehood.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams told the newspaper Wednesday after his latest iteration of the tale last week was met with pushback. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Several U.S. servicemen who were reportedly in Iraq the night of Williams’ anecdote have come forward to contradict the news anchor’s account of what happened, namely that the newsman was never in any danger and that he never came under fire.
Lance Reynolds, who was part of the original helicopter group that was attacked in 2003, drew attention to Williams’ hoax last week when he posted on Facebook: “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.”
“Then I remember you guys taking back off in a different flight of Chinooks from another unit and heading to Kuwait to report your ‘war story’ to the Nightly News. The whole time we were still stuck in Iraq trying to repair the aircraft and pulling our own Security,” he added.
Elsewhere, former U.S. Army warrant officer Chris Simeone, who said Thursday that it was he who flew the Chinook carrying Williams and NBC News employees, disputed the newsman’s story in an article published by Page Six.
“Brian Williams began to tell the story, from 2003, that the lead aircraft in our flight had received this ground fire. This was not true. Brian Williams then began to give account that the aircraft he was traveling on received this ground fire. This is not true,” he said. “Brian Williams reported on the David Letterman show that the ‘captain’ of his aircraft had received a Purple Heart for a wound to the ear. I was the pilot in command of the aircraft carrying Brian Williams. I do not have a Purple Heart, and my ears are just fine.”
Williams’ story for a brief moment appeared to contain an ounce of truth after former Chief Warrant Officer Rich Krell told CNN this week that it was he who piloted the aircraft carrying NBC News personnel and that they had, in fact, come under some small arms fire.
However, Krell later recanted the story, telling CNN Friday morning that he now doesn’t remember what happened that night in Iraq.
“As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us,” Williams said Saturday in a note.
It’s unclear how long Williams’ self-imposed hiatus will last. It’s also unclear whether NBC News plans to discipline Williams for having told a false story for the past 12 years.
Notably absent from Williams’ note is any sort of apology or admission to wrongdoing.
