It turns out, there's a lot more he misremembers:
The NBC news anchor, who apologized Wednesday for telling a false story about taking fire in a helicopter while covering Iraq, is being called out for possibly lying about his experience covering Hurricane Katrina, according to a report.
Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking flood water and seeing dead bodies float past his hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter while covering Hurricane Katrina.
However the The New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter was not flooded and quoted a local health expert who did not recall anyone getting such a stomach ailment.
Williams recalled his bout with the bug in interview with Tom Brokaw last year, when he said: “I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery."
The Advocate said a public health official never heard of people getting things like dysentery after the storm.
“I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” Dr. Brobson Lutz told The Advocate.
“I don’t know anybody that’s tried that [drinking flood water] to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.”
Williams said also during an interview in 2006 that he saw dead bodies float past his window in the French Quarter.
“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 said in 2006.
But the French Quarter, the original high ground of New Orleans, was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city, The Advocate said.
He also said in his Brokaw interview: “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. We are friends to this day.”
NBC News brass don't want to hold Williams accountable, but former Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw does:
“Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter,” an NBC source said. “He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”
Brokaw's own credibility is in question here, since he apparently knew the Iraq helicopter tale was a fable:
Brokaw, 74, was still the “Nightly News” anchor when Williams came back from his Iraq expedition — and an insider said he knew the story Williams later spouted was bunk.
“Tom Brokaw and [former NBC News President] Steve Capus knew this was a false story for a long time and have been extremely uncomfortable with it,” the source said.
NBC News execs had counseled him to stop telling the tale.
NBC put a guy who made shit up about his Iraq war reporting experience into the Nightly News anchor chair - heckuva job NBC!
While the elites at NBC are trying to save Williams' lying ass, some of the plebes feel differently:
NBC brass hasn’t been talking to lower-level employees about the situation, leaving people in a panic, the insider said.
“NBC bosses don’t understand how serious this is. Nobody in a leadership position is talking to the troops. Nobody has addressed it,” the source said.
One longtime NBC employee who has worked with Williams on several occasions had a few dirty words to describe the celebrated anchor, calling him a “real pompous piece of s–t.”
“He’s an a–hole,” he fumed. “He’s not a journalist. He’s a reader.
“Oh, the fireworks that are going off inside,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. He’s the face on NBC. He’s a liar.
“Everyone knew it.”
Can't wait for the next NBC Education Nation where the pompous Williams asks directs questions to Michelle Rhee about the importance of holding teachers accountable for their performance and behavior.
Same goes for Brokaw, who has been known to pontificate about teachers unions allowing poor performing teachers to remain in their profession.
Brokaw knew Williams was full of shit, NBC News brass knew he was full of shit, Williams himself knew he was full of shit - and yet, there was Brian Williams, hosting the NBC Nightly News last night.
Ah, yes - accountability is only for the little people.
you are absolutely correct!
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