The
New York Post's Page Six is reporting that veteran NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw is calling for the firing of veteran NBC newsman Brian Williams for lying about being aboard a helicopter hit by an RPG rocket during the Iraq war in 2003.
An unnamed NBC source told the Post, "Brokaw wants Williams' head on a platter. He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report."
Williams reported the incident in 2003 on a show Brokaw was anchoring, noting that the helicopter in front of the one in which Williams was riding was hit and forced to land.
Story continues below video.
However, over the years, the story changed, and in 2013, Williams claimed on the "Late Show With David Letterman" that the Chinook helicopter on which he was traveling was hit.
Story continues below video.
After soldiers involved in the original mission complained,
Stars and Stripes broke the story that Williams had lied about being endangered.
Williams even allowed the false story to be reiterated by the announcer at a New York Rangers game he attended last week, when he thanked Army Sgt. Maj. Tim Terpak for protecting him after his chopper was hit and forced to land,
The New York Times reported.
However, Lance Reynolds, who was on the chopper which was hit, wrote on Facebook: "Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you waking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened," the Times reported.
One of the pilots of the Chinook in which Williams was riding, Christopher Simeone, told the Times: "When he was on the air on the Letterman show, I was going crazy. I was thinking, 'This guy is such a liar and everyone believes it.'"
On Wednesday, Williams made a formal on-air apology, stating, "I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago. I want to apologize. I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft.
"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. I hope they know they have my greatest respect and also, now, my apology."
Story continues below video.
The Post reported, "Tom Brokaw and (former NBC News President) Steve Capus knew this was a false story for a long time and have been extremely uncomfortable with it."
Williams, the Times reports, just signed a five-year contract at a rumored $10 million per year, and NBC President Deborah Turness called him one of "the most trusted journalists of our time."
The Times notes that NBC News leads the other three major networks, averaging 8.95 million viewers, as compared to ABC's 8.11 million and CBS' 6.88 million.
Williams' story is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton's claim that she came under sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996, later proven to be false, the Times reports.
"He is not going to be suspended or reprimanded in any way. He has the full support of NBC News," the NBC source told the Post.
However, the Times notes: "What is clear is that the trustworthiness of one of America's best-known and most revered TV journalists has been damaged, and that the moral authority of the nightly network news anchor, already diminished in the modern media era, has been dealt another blow."