NBC to launch Brian Williams investigation: report

NBC is reportedly launching an internal investigation into erroneous news claims made by “NBC Nightly News” host Brian Williams about being in a helicopter that was forced to land after taking fire in Iraq.

The investigation was first reported Friday by the New York Daily News and an NBC source confirmed the news to Buzzfeed.

Sources told the Daily News that the investigation would be lead by Richard Esposito. Mr. Esposito previously worked as an investigative correspondent at ABC and before that was an editor at the Daily News.

The news on the investigation came after Mr. Williams’ predecessor Tom Brokaw denied that he urged NBC executives to fire the reporter.

“I have neither demanded nor suggested Brian be fired,” Mr. Brokaw said in an email to The Huffington Post. “His future is up to Brian and NBC News executives.”

A local tabloid had reported that Mr. Brokaw wanted Mr. Williams’ “head on a platter,” according to the Daily News.

Mr. Williams, 55, has not said that he lied about the helicopter story, but Wednesday he apologized for “misremembering” the event in 2003.

His story was discounted when the group of veterans who were in the Chinook helicopter in question told Stars and Stripes newspaper that Mr. Williams was not in the aircraft but was in fact in a second helicopter that followed behind.

Mr. Williams’ reporting on Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana is now being questioned too. Mr. Williams reported that he saw a dead body floating outside his French Quarter hotel and that gangs invaded his five lodgings at the Ritz-Carlton.

The New Orleans Advocate reported that the historic French Quarter area never flooded and the antique storefronts were left untouched by looters.

Mr. Williams also claimed that he contracted dysentery from ingesting the contaminated floodwaters; The Advocate tracked down the medic in charge of the area after the catastrophic storm, who said he couldn’t recall a single case of dysentery.