Former “NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw said Brian Williams, the man who took over his television seat, ought to be fired for lying and furthering the false narrative — for years — that the helicopter he rode over Iraq in 2003 was shot down, an insider told a New York newspaper.
The New York Post cited sources at the network and reported Mr. Brokaw, who’s now 74, has been “making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”
And another quip from an NBC source, the New York Post said: “Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter.”
Mr. Brokaw was actually the anchor during the newscast when Mr. Williams filed his report in March 2003 that described how he was traveling in a group of helicopters, when it was forced down in the desert. Mr. Williams’ report included the claim that once safely on the ground, “[I learned the Chinook in front] had almost been blown out of the sky,” Fox News reported.
The story evolved from there, and in 2008, Mr. Williams blogged that his helicopter had come under fire from a rocket-propelled grenade. In 2013, he then told David Letterman’s “Late Show” audience that two of the four helicopters he had traveled with had been hit — “including the one I was in,” he said, Fox News reported.
Mr. Williams admitted he lied about the incident just this week.
NBC, however, is reportedly standing by Mr. Williams.
“He is not going to be suspended or reprimanded in any way,” a source told the New York Post. “He has the full support of NBC News.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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