Brian Williams. Photo by AP/Evan Agostini
The casually but carefully worded, even artfully constructed explanation Brian Williams gave on “The NBC Nightly News” by way of apology Wednesday night spoke volumes about the Iraq War falsehood he concocted.
He admitted the fabrication Wednesday in an interview in Stars & Stripes when Army servicemen who had been aboard the aircraft in question challenged the anchorman’s account about being on a Chinook helicopter that came under fire. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another,” he said.
Conflating aircraft or confusing fact with fiction.
The witty, No. 1-rated, immensely likeable anchorman is now enmeshed in a crisis of his own making. It’s a crisis that will have reverberations throughout NBC News and will require disciplinary action. Firing is not out of the question.
Williams’ credibility has taken a serious hit. The network has said nothing about disciplinary action.
It’s a matter of deliberate conflating/lying: Variety reported that Williams was warned earlier by senior NBC management to stop telling the Iraq chopper story in public. Apparently he disregarded those warnings. If that is true, then he must step down.
