So far, NBC News finds Brian Williams embellished at least 11 times
So far, NBC News finds Brian Williams embellished at least 11 times
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By
Paul Farhi April 25 at 1:11 AM
@farhip
A months-long internal investigation of Brian Williams by NBC News has turned up 11 instances in which the anchorman publicly embellished details of his reporting exploits, according to a person familiar with details of the probe.
NBC undertook the examination of Williams statement after he apologized in early February for saying on NBC Nightly News that a military helicopter in which he was traveling at the start of the Iraq War had been damaged by rocket fire. His account was challenged by soldiers who were on the flight, leading to a furor that prompted NBC to suspend Williams for six months without pay and to investigate other statements hes made.
....
The investigators, led by NBC News senior executive producer Richard Esposito, have also raised doubts about Williams comments about his experiences
covering Israels military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. In an interview with a student-run television station at Fairfield University in Connecticut in 2007, Williams said he saw rockets passing just beneath the Israel helicopter in which he was traveling. But Williams gave a less harrowing account of the same trip
in an NBC News blog a year earlier.
NBC executives met in a conference room Thursday morning at the networks Rockefeller Center headquarters for a briefing about the investigation. The meeting included the three executives likely to determine Williams fate at the network: NBC Universal chief executive
Steve Burke, NBC News chairman
Andrew Lack and NBC News president
Deborah Turness.