Truth in Advertising... and in News ^Featured

For a long time, America has been getting news from NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. We have trusted him to give us the straight story night after night. It seems the story wasn’t always straight. In fact, some of it didn’t even happen.

February 4, the news was Williams himself as it was released that he lied when he claimed he was in a helicopter that had been shot down over Iraq in 2003. This came to light after Williams accompanied a soldier to a New York Rangers game. The announcer told the crowd that U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major Tim Terpak had saved Williams and his team after the shooting of his helicopter in Iraq. NBC put up video of the event on Facebook. A commenter raised a flag about the story and more information was sought.

The commenter, flight engineer Lance Reynolds, along with other crew members, told Stars and Stripes newspaper that Brian Williams was actually not in the copter that had been shot down, but rather in one that had arrived an hour after the crash.

Williams attempted to save face by commenting via Facebook that he meant to say he was in an aircraft following the one that was shot down, not the actual one that was shot. He repeated his apology online and blamed foggy memories over the course of the years and a desire to show respect to the veterans.

In some cases, this might have ended the story. But for Williams, it called into question his general ethics and trustworthiness as he had told the story several times over the years. Some radio and television commenters have gone so far as to call for his resignation.

Since his initial apology, Williams has not spoken publicly about the issue. His reputation has been damaged and he is keeping quiet as things play out.

Back in 2003, when the event occurred, there were complaints from veterans about the accuracy. Some of these vets have been upset since then, and have tried to draw media attention to the lie sooner. As Williams told the story repeatedly over the last ten or eleven years, his closeness to death has become more central and perilous with each telling. The original incident, according to crew who were actually on the downed Chinook, occurred when William’s flight was at least 30 minutes behind the shooting. Others on the flight with Williams do not recall any of the group of copters they were in coming under fire. They attempted to contact reporters at the time about the discrepancy with no luck.

NBC has yet to comment on the story or on Williams’ subsequent retellings and confabulations. Considering the fact that he just renewed his $10 million per year contract with NBC as they touted him as “the most trusted journalist(s) of our time,” the timing couldn’t be worse for the network.

Compared to mistakes made by other journalists, Williams’ lies based on making an improvement on his reputation are a slap in the face to the news. Will he weather the storm or end up feeling as though he is in a helicopter being shot down over Iraq?