Chicopee John Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 << “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”>> See below 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 its formation, was able to make an emergency landing with no casualties. "I want to apologize," Williams said on Wednesday night's broadcast of NBC Nightly News. "I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft." Williams, 55, most recently told the story during NBC coverage of a tribute to a retired command sergeant major at a New York Rangers hockey game. “The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG,” Williams said on the broadcast. “Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry.” The Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that covers the United States Armed Forces, first reported the admission. Williams disputed claims to the newspaper that his original report was inaccurate, saying that he originally reported that he was in another helicopter but that he had confused the events. “I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams told the newspaper. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.” In a 2008 blog post, Williams said he was flying in a Chinook helicopter as part of a four-chopper formation, and all four took fire. But Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Miller, who was the flight engineer on the aircraft that carried the journalists, told Stars and Stripes that their helicopter "never came under direct enemy fire." Several service members said they recall NBC reporting Williams was aboard the aircraft that was attacked, despite the claim being false. Mike O’Keeffe, who was a door gunner on the damaged Chinook, told The Stars and Stripes the incident has bothered him since he and others first saw the original report. “Over the years it faded,” he said, “and then to see it last week it was — I can’t believe he is still telling this false narrative.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicopee John Posted February 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Williams apologizes for 'bungled attempt' to thank vet 01:54 Story highlights NBC news Brian Williams says he "misremembered" being on helicopter hit by rocket Roxanne Jones: Williams made himself hero and should be held accountable Roxanne Jones is a founding editor of ESPN The Magazine and a former vice president at ESPN. She is a national lecturer on sports, entertainment and women's topics and CEO of the Push Marketing Group. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. (CNN)There are some moments in life I will never misremember: The joy of seeing my newborn son for the first time. The sweet excitement of my first kiss. Or, the terror I felt on September 11, 2001, as I wandered the streets of New York with my 7-year-old son, trying to protect him from the horror all around us as we and millions of others walked for miles to safety. Joy and pain, those memories are locked in my mind, and barring any onset of dementia, the details of those experiences will never fade. Most of us are wired this way, and that is why much of America, including myself, is having a hard time understanding how NBC news anchor Brian Williams could possibly have "misremembered" whether he was actually aboard a Chinook helicopter forced down by rocket fire during the Iraq invasion in 2003. Especially when there were multiple witnesses around to remind him of the truth of what happened that day. Roxanne Jones Instead, Williams inserted himself into the story. He made himself the hero and for that he should be held accountable. Since that day in Iraq, Williams has retold the dramatic story of how he survived the terrifying experience, while reporting on the war. It was a classic tale of the unselfish, intrepid newsman, risking his life to bring America a close-up glimpse at the horrors of war. But after finally being called out earlier this week by the real heroes of that day who risked their lives, Williams now has a different recollection: He was not on that plane, but on another one that landed later. "I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago," Williams said this week. "I want to apologize ... I would not have chosen to make this mistake. I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another." Williams' admission, 12 years later, came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment's Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms firetold Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was "nowhere near that aircraft or the two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire." According to soldiers at the scene, Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the three helicopters in front of him landed. And they've been wondering for years why the news anchor got it so wrong. "It was something personal for us that was kind of life-changing for me. I know how lucky I was to survive it," Lance Reynolds, who was the flight engineer, reportedly told Stars and Stripes. "It felt like a personal experience that someone else wanted to participate in and didn't deserve to participate in." In addition to his public apology, Williams owes a private apology to the soldiers who flew on that mission and an apology to every man and woman who fought bravely and died to protect our American freedoms, often without glory. Those are the people who make it possible for a guy like Williams, a college dropout, to realize the American dream of rising to the top in their career and entering the privileged class. But often times it's too easy to forget to give others credit, especially when we get overly impressed with our individual accomplishments -- or as it seems in Williams' case, when we value the glory over the story we are trusted to report. We live in a competitive, celebrity-driven culture where few of us are immune to the power of television to turn even the most obscure among us into overnight superstars. Once the cameras come on, it's tempting for us to get caught up in our own hype, to value celebrity over substance, and to start talking about ourselves as a "brand." And sadly, journalists are no exception. Providing stories (or content, as we now call the news) is a 24/7 business. And to stay in business, we need people to watch, read, re-tweet and share our content. Brian Williams does this better than most and that's why he has been called "America's Most Trusted Newsman." Mónica Guzmán, Seattle-based journalist and vice chairperson of the Society of Professional Journalists' Ethics Committee, says what Williams did was absolutely wrong and that he should be held personally accountable by both his audiences and his employer, NBC. "We are in a moment of outrage. One of the primary journalism tenants is to tell the truth. Trust is our only currency and when you lose trust there's not much left," she told me. Williams has broken that principle and Guzmán believes society suffers when that happens. "We know the difference between when the WWF wrestler says, 'I'm going to kill you...' and what Brian Williams says on a newscast. We have an expectation of accuracy and it needs to be credible. If we don't have sources of information that we can trust, we cannot be an informed society." Will his apology be enough? Or, is coming clean 12 years later too little too late for Williams? Only time will tell. But the backlash to his apology has begun. Several soldiers on the plane that day are not satisfied with Williams' apology and say he's still exaggerating the facts and his role in the story. Either way, it's a sad day for journalism and the public. I'm hoping NBC will send a strong message, a suspension without pay or even dismissal, if it turns out Williams has done unrepairable damage. When journalists believe that misremembering is a legitimate excuse for misleading the public -- it's time to get a new job. Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicopee John Posted February 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Cut Brian Williams a break on Iraq claim By Ford Vox Updated 3:14 PM ET, Thu February 5, 2015 Story highlightsFord Vox: Brian Williams' is being slammed for false Iraq claim, but false memories are not uncommon He says studies show how easily memories can be accidentally modified based on circumstances, retelling and emotion Dr. Ford Vox is a physician and journalist based in Atlanta. He is a contributing writer for Bloomberg View, focusing on medical practice, health care policy and medical science. He practices brain injury medicine at the Shepherd Center, a hospital dedicated to serious brain and spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Follow him on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. (CNN)The NBC anchor issued an abject apology in his "Nightly News" program Wednesday, admitting he'd falsely claimed to have been in a Chinook helicopter shot down over Iraq 12 years go. He wrote on the NBC Nightly News Facebook page that he'd spent some time wondering if he'd "gone crazy," but ultimately decided he'd conflated events in his memory. Ford Vox Others aren't so quick to agree with him. Critics are piling on and hoping to put the newsman's essential credibility in question. That's a currency without which he can't do his job. Some are drawings comparisons to the reporting controversy that brought down the veteran CBS anchor Dan Rather. Like any good controversy, the affair has already launched a few social media hashtags, including #BrianWilliamsMisremembers, which pillories Williams by placing him at the center of world events in which he had no part. While no one can rule out Williams and NBC set out in a craven and intentional attempt to misappropriate valor from a dramatic wartime scenario, or even a well-intentioned white lie (Williams was trying to honor an involved soldier during his most recent retelling), it's also possible he's suffered an all-too-natural memory error. Doctors like myself who grapple with memory impairments in our patients won't issue a diagnosis on the basis of a single memory lapse or false memory, no matter how major. Admittedly, this one was earthquake-generating, but the dramatic nature and outsized impact of this error don't make it a sign of disease, not without more frequent spells or other symptoms. We don't call single false memories like this a disease because they're in fact normal, right alongside your occasionally forgotten car keys, your missing wallet or even your misremembered conversation. Brian Williams has experienced a very public symptom of life, and we should all forgive him for that. Let he who has never lost his keys cast the first tomato. You may wonder how it's possible that Williams tricked himself into such a vivid false memory told in such detail. He did experience some aspects of the events. Though he wasn't in the Chinook that took a hit, he landed in that forward position with it. He formed bonds with the servicemen around him. He felt vulnerability and stress during that period. Williams has told his story many times before, and each time he tells it, he is retrieving it. Errors happen during memory retrieval all the time, just as errors happen in cell division; biology isn't computer science. Furthermore, he is subtly modifying his memory with his every retelling. Revisions occur as the memory is re-encoded based on what's going on at the time he tells the story. Circumstances like a gabby, friendly free-wheeling interview with David Letterman. The emotions he's feeling when he's retelling the story also infect the original memory. The NBC videos of the downed Chinook that he's viewed repeatedly are dredged up as well. Clever studies tell us just how powerfully words and images can manipulate memory to the point of inserting false memories. In one, researchers interviewed the parents of their experimental subjects, all college students, and collected true stories about events each of the studies had experienced. After presenting these true stories mixed with false ones, researchers were able to trick 25% of the perfectly healthy students into thinking they had experienced one of the false stories just by having had them imagine any connections they might have to what they couldn't remember. Brian Williams had plenty of connection to the downed helicopter. In another study demonstrating the disturbing ease with which the human mind can create a false memory, researchers doctored a photograph to show adult subjects as children in a hot air balloon, and 50% of the adults ultimately believed they really took the balloon ride. Mr. Williams has been saturated in photos and video of the downed Chinook for many years now. In the annals of famous false memories, this one has eclipsed Neil deGrasse Tyson's notoriously erroneous stock line criticizing part of a George W. Bush speech that the former President never uttered. There's no doubt Brian Williams has made a serious journalistic error for which he must atone. At the same time we should show him some sympathy for an embarrassing bug in the mental hardware all humans share. Read CNNOpinion's new Flipboard magazine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieHardBrownsFan Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Typical liberal fag wannabe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calfoxwc Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Let's see. What other lib liar said something similar? eh.,.... oh, yeah. It was hillary clinton. Libs love lies when they help them with their agenda. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/02/05/sharyl-attkisson-brian-williams-not-alone-hillary-clinton-lied-about-being-shot-at-in-bosnia/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cysko Kid Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 I think you'd remember being fucking terrified out of your mind if your chopper actually took rocket fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairHooker11 Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 he dont mind his daughters butt munching scene though..... # piling on http://www.mediaite.com/tv/brian-williams-reacts-to-his-daughters-anilingus-scene-in-last-nights-girls/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicIsForSquares Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Let's see. What other lib liar said something similar? eh.,.... oh, yeah. It was hillary clinton. Libs love lies when they help them with their agenda. http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2015/02/05/sharyl-attkisson-brian-williams-not-alone-hillary-clinton-lied-about-being-shot-at-in-bosnia/ Libs are not the only liars. Chris Kyle said he shot dozens of looters during Katrina, two car jackers unrelated to Katrina, and supposedly never reported any of it to police. Just whacked people left and right on U.S. soil with no record of it. He also lied about his fight with Jesse Ventura and admitted to lying about it under oath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calfoxwc Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 sure, but he wasn't a politician looking to make him/her self into something he was not. Embellish himself? yeah. But create a falsehood to manufacture himself completely different than what he was? Nope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicIsForSquares Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 sure, but he wasn't a politician looking to make him/her self into something he was not. Embellish himself? yeah. But create a falsehood to manufacture himself completely different than what he was? Nope. Oh I am not defending HIllary at all. She definitely is dog shit. As for Kyle, embellishing some facts is something totally different than outright lying about killing 32 people on U.S. soil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legacy Fan Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 In an attempt to let us pretend like we are real doctors, we get hammered all the time with regular medical stuff in our journals, CE, and even back in school. Why? Because everyone has teeth (or wants them). Anywhoo, Kyle's embellishments/lies (what ever you want to call them) are a textbook symptom of PTSD. So while the Katrina stuff is odd, Kyle was trained to eliminate threats. So it's a little different than when Journalist (whose job is to chronicle and report EVENTS) "mixes up his recollection" of the events he's reporting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erie Dawg Posted February 6, 2015 Report Share Posted February 6, 2015 Williams is fucked, when the liberal media exaggerates like he does it finally catches up to you. From USA Today. NBC News confirmed Friday that it's investigating chief anchor Brian Williams over his now-retracted statement that he was in a helicopter in Iraq that was hit by enemy fire and forced to land. "This has been a difficult few days for all of us at NBC News," NBC News President Deborah Turness said in a staff memo circulated Friday. "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. "As you would expect, we have a team dedicated to gathering the facts to help us make sense of all that has transpired. We're working on what the best next steps are and when we have something to communicate we will of course share it with you," she said. The internal probe is being led by Richard Esposito, who heads the network's investigative unit and was formerly an editor at The Daily News of New York, according to The Daily News.The Daily News was the first news outlet to disclose the NBC investigation. Meanwhile, further scrutiny of Williams' past statements surfaced Friday amid a challenge to his account of his experiences in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. USA TODAY Watch: Brian Williams tells Iraq helicopter story In a 2006 interview with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Williams said he witnessed a body floating in the French Quarter area of the city. "When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country," Williams told Eisner, who suggested in the interview that Williams emerged from former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw's shadow with his Katrina coverage. "There were bodies in other parts (of the city), but there were no bodies in the Quarter," Brobson Lutz, a former city health director for New Orleans, told USA TODAY, adding that the only body he retrieved from the neighborhood at the time was a restaurateur who died of a heart attack. NBC News didn't respond to a request for comment. The New Orleans Advocate, which was among the first to question Williams' account of his experience in the city, reported Friday that the French Quarter was largely dry. "We were never wet. It was never wet," Lutz told the Advocate. The paper updated its story later Friday, saying while the Quarter was largely dry, photographs and news reports from the time "indicate there was flooding around the Ritz-Carlton, where Williams apparently stayed." The paper says it's unclear how deep the water was. Last week, Williams was at a New York Rangers game with a soldier who helped guard him and other American soldiers while a convoy of military helicopters they were flying on was forced to land on a desert in Iraq in 2003. Williams said the helicopter he was on had been hit by enemy fire and forced down. Veterans from the convoy challenged Williams' story which he has repeated in the past on Facebook, forcing the anchorman to recant the story on air Wednesday. "I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the groundfire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a sandstorm in the Iraq desert," Williams said Wednesday. USA TODAY Rieder: Brian Williams' unmitigated disaster USA TODAY Williams' popularity, ratings could save his job Lutz also questioned Williams' account told in an interview last year with Brokaw that he caught dysentery after he ingested some floodwater. "My week, two weeks there was not helped by the fact that I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery, our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer," he told Brokaw. Lutz said he doesn't remember "a single case" of dysentery during Katrina. In another development, CNN's media reporter, Brian Stelter, reported Friday that the pilot he interviewed a day earlier about Williams was "no longer standing by his story." The pilot, Rich Krell, told Stelter that he was flying the helicopter Williams was on and their helicopter did take fire, though it wasn't hit. Krell's account has been questioned by other soldiers. Krell told Stelter on Friday that "the information I gave you was true based on my memories, but at this point I am questioning my memories." Contributing: Gary Levin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calfoxwc Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 But it certainly was an effective tool, this lying.... to influence the left and others.... against Bush. Libs lie when it benefits them. Their ends justify the means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LogicIsForSquares Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Liars lie when it benefits them financially or otherwise. Williams thought no one would ever pry into the facts of his story and got burned. The guy needs to be fired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieHardBrownsFan Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 He comes across as a snobbish person. Now giving false stories to give himself some sort of bravado. Fire his ass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axe Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Who is this guy? Yeah, he needs to be fired basically. He'll probably claim PTSD at some point messed up his memories or something. In other news: http://thegrio.com/2015/02/08/good-samaritan-pastor-lied-shot-black-man/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 He really has seemed like a snotty and condescending liberal, something I frank a news anchor should avoid so it's hard to feel sorry for him in light of this revelation. It has to be embarrassing though, getting busted on the world stage. A bit humorous to hear him defended by Dan Rather. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Too bad that shit hasn't resonated more with Elizabeth Warren, or as we knew her: Fauxcahontis. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicopee John Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 He is only.......................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MLD Woody Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Who is this guy? Yeah, he needs to be fired basically. He'll probably claim PTSD at some point messed up his memories or something. In other news: http://thegrio.com/2015/02/08/good-samaritan-pastor-lied-shot-black-man/ Yes, but is that pastor a "dirty liberal"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohican Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Oh I am not defending HIllary at all. She definitely is dog shit. As for Kyle, embellishing some facts is something totally different than outright lying about killing 32 people on U.S. soil. What if part of Kyle's lies are part of SkyNet's cover up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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