The biggest news anchor in America has just been caught out lying on air. And there aren’t many people who are happy about it.
He has an average of 10 million viewers each night, hosting the number one news program in the US.
The star of the show, the anchor Brian Williams who earn over US$10 million a year has held the primo spot as the big dog in US news since 2004.
But he’s now gaining fame for a different reason – lying on air and it doesn’t seem like anyone is going to let him off easily.
It began when last Friday on air when Brian Williams recalled the time he was travelling in a Chinook helicopter during the Iraq war that was shot at.
He generously thanked the “one special veteran” who saved his life at the time – and then thanked all the men and women who served in the war.
He was humble and gracious, still scarred by his very near death experience. Grateful to the man who saved him. Never forgetting how it changed the course of his life.
The only thing is it never happened.
Immediately after he gave his account of the incident the pilot (who actually WAS in the helicopter) jumped aboard the NBC News Facebook page.
“Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft,” veteran Lance Reynolds wrote.
Oh. What do they call it? Humble pie?
“I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago,” Williams estimated 10 million Americans watching the Nightly News broadcast.
“I want to apologise … I said I was travelling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft.”
He said he had suffered “a misremember”.
It has since been pointed out that he has in fact misremembered the story several times in the media during his career including telling the same story on The Late Show with David Letterman years ago.
The same story turned up when he interviewed Alec Baldwin “I guess I do say to myself and to others — ‘I’ve got this’ — and I don’t know where that unbridled confidence comes from,” Williams told Baldwin
It turned out that he probably was on board a helicopter in Iraq, just not that one, at that time, and his one was not shot at.
Brian Williams has since been forced to apologize writing on Facebook:
“To Joseph, Lance, Jonathan, Pate, Michael and all those who have posted: You are absolutely right and I was wrong. In fact, I spent much of the weekend thinking I’d gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in ’08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp. Because I have no desire to fictionalize my experience (we all saw it happened the first time) and no need to dramatize events as they actually happened, I think the constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area — and the fog of memory over 12 years — made me conflate the two, and I apologize.”
But social media isn’t going to forget … with the hashtags #BrianWilliamsMemories and #BrianWilliamsMisremembers lighting up the Twittersphere.
Top Comments
The other great memory lapse is Hillary's account of entering Bosnia as First Lady at her first attempt to get the presidential nomination: ' I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base' Unfortunately there is youtube footage of the actual event showing the usual dignitary welcome, red carpet and brass bands (which of course is obvious - the Secret Service don't let presidents or spouses anywhere near snipers, not at least since Dallas 1963 anyway). It was a big part of why Barrack wiped the floor with her then. It will be interesting to see if it damages her chances this time around when there appears to be no serious challenger. Looking forward to Bush-Clinton Mark 2 debates, lots of 'your brother was worse than my husband'.
What a bullshitter, and he thinks he can brush it off with a 'misremember"?
How embarrassing.