Brian Williams Apologized For Saying He Was Fired Upon In Iraq

Brian Williams has apologized on the air during his NBC Nightly News broadcast for claiming repeatedly, over the past 12 years, to have been riding in a Chinook helicopter that was fired upon during his visit to the recently-invaded country in 2003.

The apology came after Stars And Stripes reported in a recent article that the claims were false. Here’s the pertinent part:

The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said.

Williams believes his memory had been impacted by media coverage over the past decade. Here’s a quote from Williams, also from Stars and Stripes:

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.

The uproar came after a report on NBC Nightly News last Friday, when Williams was honoring a veteran who he had met in 2003 in Iraq.