The New York Times calls NBC anchorman Brian Williams’ untrue story of braving danger aboard a helicopter in Iraq as a mistaken claim. But other news outlets are less persuaded that the retracted tale was simply a mistake.
Williams’ story, which he has reiterated several times with varying details since first telling it in 2003, had it that the Peacock Network’s star newsman was flying on a U.S. military aircraft that came under fire and was forced down. Witnesses have contradicted his claim, however, and Williams apologized Tuesday on Facebook, blaming the falsehood on “the fog of memory over 12 years.” The unraveling of Williams’ story was first reported by Stars and Stripes.
“The NBC News anchor Brian Williams apologized Wednesday for mistakenly claiming he had been on a helicopter that was shot down by ground fire in Iraq in 2003,” read the Times’ report by Ravi Somaiya. It is later repeated in the article that Williams “admitted that he had made a mistake, acknowledging that he was not in an aircraft hit by ground fire, but instead was in a following aircraft.”
Williams’ indirect explanation in his Facebook has not restored his credibility in the eyes of skeptics, many of them service members and veterans who take a dim view of untrue war stories. Critics of Williams have gone so far as to call his account “a lie.” But the Grey Lady’s characterization of his falsity as a mistake was even gentler than many descriptions in mainstream media coverage.
Washington Post media reporters Paul Farhi and Erik Wemple labeled Williams’ claim as a “false story” in separate reports.
“I say ‘false story’ because that is precisely what it is,” Wemple told the Washington Examiner media desk. “He told a story whose particulars have turned out to be false. To call it a ‘lie,’ as many have done, is to assert the ability to climb inside his head. To lie is to knowingly state something that is false, to deceive on purpose. It’s possible that he did that, but I don’t have those goods.”
Farhi said that Williams’ tale is both wrong and a mistake, not necessarily one or the other. “I guess this is a nuance of language,” he said. “I mean ‘false’ as in ‘not true,’ rather than ‘willfully perpetrating information known to be not true. So, all we can report for certain is that Williams’ story is wrong and false; and that he is mistaken in his account. Anything more goes beyond what is known.”
Somaiya, the Times reporter, directed a request for comment to a Times spokeswoman who did not reply.
Other outlets used “false” rather than “mistaken.” The Stars and Stripes’ initial report called it a “false claim.” The Wall Street Journal identified it as a “story” that was “false.” Politico reported that Williams’ apology was in response to “falsely claiming that he had been aboard a helicopter that was shot down…”
