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Brian Williams' claims probed by NBC's investigative unit Published February 06, 2015 FoxNews.com NBC News has assigned the head of its own investigative unit to look into statements made by anchor Brian Williams about his reporting in Iraq a dozen years ago. A source at the network who requested anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak on personnel matters confirmed the investigation on Friday. Williams has apologized for falsely saying on the air that he was in a helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while in Iraq in 2003. Richard Esposito, a former editor at the New York...

What has happened at NBC News? Answer? Nothing that hasn’t been happening in slow motion for years. Back there in the mists of January -- last month -- I wrote a story in this space about a group called the Conservative War Chest launching a major effort to call attention to what the group called the“corruption of American journalism” - with a specific and detailed focus on NBC and its Comcast owners. Released weeks before these latest stories about anchor Williams hit the fan the 65-page report provided chapter and verse about the culture of NBC and its cable sibling...

Brian Williams is stepping away from NBC Nightly News for several days. The anchor sent a note to the show's staff, announcing that Lester Holt is replacing him this week. The news comes as the anchor is embroiled in a scandal surrounding his story about being a passenger in a helicopter that took fire in the Iraq War. Williams' message can be seen, below. "In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions. "As Managing Editor...

Brian Williams said on Saturday that he was stepping aside from the daily broadcast of NBC’s “Nightly News” for the next several days, after admitting that he had misled the public about being on a helicopter that was forced down in Iraq. In a memo to the NBC News staff, Mr. Williams said that Lester Holt, the anchor for “Dateline,” would step in as the network dealt with the issue. “In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due...

Via Ace and Twitter user Niedermeyer’s Dead Horse, yet another tale of Brian Williams’ heroism on that fateful day in Iraq in 2003 has emerged, this time from 2007. Don’t forget that the absolutely false version of his helicopter ride being hit by an RPG had been floating around since 2004, this time the story has even more compelling detail. Williams tells Fairfield University reporter Emily Fitzmaurice in November 2007 about all of the close calls he’s had as a reporter, including the 2003 incident in Iraq in which he looked down the tube of the RPG launcher. Pick up...

By saying he was in a helicopter that was hit by enemy fire–when in fact nothing of the sort actually happened–Brian Williams lied. His subsequent statements calling his lies a “mistake” is another lie. Williams clearly tried to steal some of the valor of those who have actually been under fire; and now that he has been exposed as a fraud, he is pleading with us to accept his actions as a “mistake.” A “mistake” is what has happened when you wear one black shoe and one brown shoe; it is what has happened when you leave your door unlocked....

The following memo was sent from NBC News President Deborah Turness to NBC news staff on Friday: All, This has been a difficult few days for all of us at NBC News. Yesterday, Brian and I spoke to the Nightly News team. And this morning at the Editorial Exchange, we both addressed the wider group. Brian apologized once again, and specifically expressed how sorry he is for the impact this has had on all of you and on this proud organization.

NBC should fire Brian Williams. It’s not just because the face of its news division has become the trending punch line on social media after his harrowing account of a near-death experience in Iraq was exposed as false. It’s not just because his explanation for the discrepancies in fact were simply absurd, or because his apology was more parsed than abject. It’s because he fabricated a story. This is one line in journalism that must never be crossed, should never be rationalized and can never be mitigated by any sum of years of honorable service in the profession. * Williams...

ABC honcho’s ‘secret task force’ to investigate Brian Williams as NBC probes Iraq helicopter attack tale: sources Ben Sherwood, the president of Disney-ABC Television Group, has put together the task force to see if the ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor has told any other tall tales, sources told The Daily News on Friday. ABC officials denied that such a task force exists. Meanwhile, Richard Esposito, who leads the Peacock Network’s investigative unit, has been assigned to look into Williams for lying about dodging danger while reporting in Iraq, sources said. The head of NBC’s investigative unit is breathing down Brian Williams’...

The waters have been choppy for NBC News in recent years, with its “Today” franchise having ceded ground to ABC’s “Good Morning America” and its Sunday-morning mainstay “Meet the Press” struggling to find a new identity after the death of longtime host Tim Russert. Amidst that chaos, Brian Williams was supposed to be the anchor – in both senses of the word. Now Williams, whose “NBC Nightly News” is the most watched evening newscast in the United States, has added to the challenges facing the NBCUniversal news division. [Snip] What makes Williams’ admission worse, according to one person familiar with...

CNN reports there is “widespread shock and disbelief” at NBC over the lies and explanation by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams over his now infamous military helicopter ride in Iraq in 2003.“An NBC News spokeswoman said Thursday that the network stood by Williams’ apology and had nothing further to say. “But others within the news division, granted anonymity to speak freely about the situation, said there was widespread shock and disbelief about Williams’ foggy-memory explanation. One correspondent called it “unreal.”” CNN also reported NBC war correspondents and producers are “particularly perturbed” with Williams and question whether he will be...

A life threatening situation for Brian Williams. Fortunately the danger passes and the NBC News anchorman remains friends with his rescuer to this day. If that sounds like his story about his helicopter supposedly being hit by an RPG in Iraq, a fable that he was forced to apologize for, as well as his subsequent rescue by an army sergeant, it also sounds eerily similar to a story he told about Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The SooperMexican blog made the discovery of Brian Williams' Katrina rescue story. It remains to be seen how authentic this story is but SooperMexican...

Writing for the Baltimore Sun, media journalist David Zurawik called for Brian Williams to resign or to be fired by Friday. “If credibility means anything to NBC News, Brian Williams will no longer be managing editor and anchor of the evening newscast by the end of the day Friday,” Zurawik writes. Wednesday evening, after being caught lying, the Nightly News anchor admitted that for the last 12 years he has repeatedly lied about being shot down in a helicopter over Iraq.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Wednesday's program offered a clarification of the events that led to his news team being protected in Iraq by the Third Infantry in 2003 — and his recent honoring of one of the Army vets who was there. (snip) Williams and his team were actually in one of the aircraft following a Chinook helicopter that was hit. In fact, in the original Dateline special on the incident, Williams even says, "On the ground we learn the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky," acknowledging he was not in the...

Update, 11 p.m.: Brian Williams apologized on-air tonight for claiming that he was in a helicopter hit by an RPG in Iraq, but the version of events he gives in his apology is vague in a way that avoids addressing the main accusation of the soldiers quoted in Stars and Stripes questioning his accounts of events. Those soldiers, in Stars and Stripes' telling, say that not only was Williams not in a helicopter that was hit by an RPG, but that he was nowhere near the helicopters that were actually fired upon. Said Williams tonight: "I made a mistake in...

If credibility means anything to NBC News, Brian Williams will no longer be managing editor and anchor of the evening newscast by the end of the day Friday. The admission from Williams Wednesday that he lied about being in a Chinook helicopter that was hit by enemy fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is astonishing. And he only admitted the lie after being confronted with it by the military publication, "Stars and Stripes," which has a well-documented report and timeline showing his shifting version of events over the years. SNIP Really, if this was 10 or 15 years...

Williams, the anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," apologized on Wednesday for claiming -- as recently as last Friday -- that he'd been aboard a helicopter that was "forced down after being hit by an RPG." The incident happened on March 24, 2003. A Chinook helicopter was forced down by enemy fire. But Williams was not aboard. Stars and Stripes reported on Wednesday that "Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter," one that "took no fire and landed later beside the damaged helicopter due to an impending sandstorm from the Iraqi desert." Williams is blaming...

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years. Williams himself repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry. The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation...

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday that he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, recanting a claim that he and the network had repeated for years -- most recently on Friday night. Contrary to Williams' past claims that he was traveling in a Chinook helicopter that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire on March 24, he arrived at the scene in a separate helicopter about an hour later. He apparently was never in any danger, and the Chinook that took fire, one of three in...

KASIE HUNT, MSNBC: And are you smart enough to be president of the United States?"