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It's one thing to lie, but it's another thing to lie when covering up the lie. NBC news anchor, Brian Williams apologized on Wednesday evening over his "mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago," when he claimed the helicopter he was riding in was shot down over Iraq.
The story was broken by Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper.
But the lie about the lie went like this: "I would not have chosen to make this mistake. I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another."
Anyone who has been in an aircraft that has crashed in combat is going to know he was in that bird. There are no doubts, no way he is going to "conflate one aircraft with another." If you were in a helicopter that was shot down, you would know it clearly.
Williams, whose chin goes as far left of center as his political views, first told the lie on the air in 2013. He lied about it again last Friday.
Some of us who served in a war would call such a lie, stolen valor. It's a disgrace and there is no excuse for it.
Williams has lost credibility with many who actually gave him credibility prior to this stolen valor episode. He said that he had misremembered the story and was sorry. He refused to come out and say he lied; he did not misremember not being shot down. You cannot misremember a negative or an absence of an event. He lied.
Last week's lie occurred when he was speaking at a Rangers hockey game, paying tribute to a retired soldier who worked security detail for grounded choppers while Williams was in Iraq in 2003 not being shot down.
Here's what he said: "The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG. Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry."
Unfortunately for Williams, the crew of the 159th Aviation Regiment who were on board the Chinook helicopter that was hit by 2 rockets and small arms fired told a different story, telling Stars & Stripes that Brian Williams was nowhere them when they were shot down, nor the two other choppers that took hits.
Williams and his crew arrived west of Baghdad on a different helicopter an hour or so later.
Some of the crew on the Chinook that went down were visibly upset with Williams' lie.
On Facebook, Williams wrote: "I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in '08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp. . . "
There's more to his post, but it's BS.
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The story was broken by Stars & Stripes, the military newspaper.
But the lie about the lie went like this: "I would not have chosen to make this mistake. I don't know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another."
Anyone who has been in an aircraft that has crashed in combat is going to know he was in that bird. There are no doubts, no way he is going to "conflate one aircraft with another." If you were in a helicopter that was shot down, you would know it clearly.
Williams, whose chin goes as far left of center as his political views, first told the lie on the air in 2013. He lied about it again last Friday.
Some of us who served in a war would call such a lie, stolen valor. It's a disgrace and there is no excuse for it.
Williams has lost credibility with many who actually gave him credibility prior to this stolen valor episode. He said that he had misremembered the story and was sorry. He refused to come out and say he lied; he did not misremember not being shot down. You cannot misremember a negative or an absence of an event. He lied.
Last week's lie occurred when he was speaking at a Rangers hockey game, paying tribute to a retired soldier who worked security detail for grounded choppers while Williams was in Iraq in 2003 not being shot down.
Here's what he said: "The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG. Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armor mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry."
Unfortunately for Williams, the crew of the 159th Aviation Regiment who were on board the Chinook helicopter that was hit by 2 rockets and small arms fired told a different story, telling Stars & Stripes that Brian Williams was nowhere them when they were shot down, nor the two other choppers that took hits.
Williams and his crew arrived west of Baghdad on a different helicopter an hour or so later.
Some of the crew on the Chinook that went down were visibly upset with Williams' lie.
On Facebook, Williams wrote: "I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in '08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp. . . "
There's more to his post, but it's BS.
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