by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 7, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                  Committing the unpardonable sin, NBC’s 55-year-old primetime news anchor apologized on his nightly news broadcast for misspeaking about his helicopter ride while broadcasting the Iraq War in 2003.  Cracking the credibility of NBC News, Williams apologized Feb. 5 for embellishing his harrowing tale on the “Late Show with David Letterman” March 26, 2013, and more recently repeating the nonsense at a New York Rangers hockey game with his buddy Tim Terpak, allowing the announcer to repeat the same nonsense that his helicopter got hit with a rocket propelled grenade while traveling in Iraq.  Williams’ fib was reported in Stars & Stripes newspaper, stating for the record that Williams’ helicopter was not hit.  Williams repeated his fabrications again on NBC’s Nightly Friday, Jan. 30, telling his audience that Terpak, an Army officer, was assigned to protect his NBC crew on the chopper.

             Once Stars & Stripes exposed Williams fib, he felt inclined to explain it away to his Nightly News audience.  “This was a bungled attempt by me to thank a special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women, veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not,” said Williams on his show Feb. 4, hoping some nifty damage control would make the crisis go away.  “I hope they know they have my greatest respect and also now my apology,” hoping to stop the hemorrhage that could upend his career at NBC News.  NBC News President Deborah Turness announced the network would conduct investigate into Williams’ public remarks.  When covering Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans in 2995 Williams reported he saw a body floating face-down outside his hotel room window.  More questions arise about the factual basis to Williams’ on-air reporting.

             No network can afford to have their primary new anchor breach the public trust with inaccurate, distorted or twisted reporting.  “When you look outside your hotel room window in the French Quarter and watch a man float face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Ban Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” said Williams   New Orleans Police Capt. James Scott said Williams’ hotel, the Ritz Carlton, was blocks away from where any bodies floated down.  When CBS “Evening News” anchor Dan Rather ran a story Sept. 8, 2004 about former President George W. Bush going AWOL in the Texas National Guard in 1972-1974, he was fired for failing to authenticate the document.  Rather ran with the story given to him by his producer Mary Mapes, someone on the inside of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry’s campaign staff.

             Because the documents used by Rather turned out to be forgeries, Rather took the heat and resigned after 43-years with CBS News.  While Rather too the heat as CBS news director of telling his “Evening News” audience the document were authenticated by CBS News, he never fabricated anything about his history or background.  Williams’ fabrications go to the heart of his personal credibility but now NBC News for retaining him as its primetime news anchor.  Whatever Williams’ top-ratings, NBC can’t keep him with a credibility problems.  His Feb. 4 apology didn’t go far enough, explaining away his fib, something so childish, so inexcusable, that no matter what the excuse it makes things worse.  Calling his fabrication “a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran . .  .” Williams gave NBC’s audience no reason to trust his reporting, or more importantly, his judgment.

             If Williams’ explanation is correct, that he did not knowingly twist any of the facts, then his memory problems prevent him from accurately reporting on his personal observations.  “Because I have no desire to fictionalize my experience . . .and no need to dramatize events as they actually happened, I think the constant view of the video show us inspecting the impact area—and the fog of memory over the years—made me conflate the two,” Williams wrote   Going through those kind of mental gyrations to excuse his misrepresentations offer no guarantees that he won’t do it again.  If Williams told his audience he got carried away trying to make the story more interesting, they’d probably be more forgiving.  Talking about the “fog of memory” sounds more like someone trying to make excuses than someone seriously apologizing for deliberate exaggeration and embellishment. 

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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