As a string of "conflated" stories about his network news past swirl around "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, reports are emerging that NBC was well aware of Williams' habit of inflating tales of his newsman "heroism" for at least a year before they exploded into a public controversy.
Williams, in a memo, told NBC staff he was absenting himself from his job amid calls for his resignation, and NBC announced that Williams' stories of being in a helicopter that was shot down in 2003 in the Iraq War and details of his coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were under investigation.
Maureen Dowd,
writing in The New York Times, reports, "NBC executives were warned a year ago that Brian Williams was constantly inflating his biography."
She noted that after Williams regaled "David Letterman with his faux heroics," stating that, "Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire, including the one I was in, RPG and AK-47," veterans of the mission revealed on Facebook and in interviews that it was the helicopter in front of the one in which Williams was riding that was hit and forced down.
Williams also has come under scrutiny for his varied recollections of riding in an Israeli military helicopter in 2006, when Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah allegedly passed 1,500 feet under his chopper.
On "The Daily Show" Williams said, "Here’s a view of rockets I have never seen, passing underneath us, 1,500 feet beneath us. And we’ve got the gunner doors on this thing, and I’m saying to the general, some four-star, 'It wouldn’t take much for them to adjust the aim and try to do a ring toss right through our open doors, would it?'"
The Washington Post reported.
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Williams also has told conflicting stories about his coverage of Hurricane Katrina, including a claim that he witnessed a suicide inside the Superdome,
CNN reports.
The anchorman recently signed a new five-year contract for a reported $10 million per year, and temporarily took himself off the air when the controversy erupted.
In a memo,
Williams wrote, "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."
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