Brian Williams Scrutinized Over SEAL Team Six Embedded Reporter Claim

Suspended NBC News celebrity anchorman Brian Williams continues to come under scrutiny. Now that the man whose big fib about being in a military helicopter that came under enemy fire in Iraq has been exposed as a pathological liar, his entire career is being picked apart. I recently wrote that “One almost expects to see statements pop up that Williams was riding shotgun with SEAL Team Six during the raid that was alleged to have resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden” but I was only being sarcastic. Now lo and behold, an actual story has surfaced of ‘lyin Brian actually claiming that he was embedded with SEAL Team Six. You just can’t make shit like this up.

As reported by CNN’s Peter Bergen in the online piece “Did Brian Williams embed with SEAL Team 6?”:

Embattled NBC News anchor Brian Williams may have some more explaining to do.

On May 3, 2011, just two days after the daring U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Williams said on his NBC News show, "Now, people might be hearing about SEAL Team 6. I happen to have the great honor of flying into Baghdad with them at the start of the war."

With this statement Williams asserted that he was embedded with one of the most covert units in the U.S. military and flew with the SEALs into Iraq in March 2003 as the war there began.

When asked about this claim, a Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw told CNN: "We do not embed journalists with that unit or any other unit that conducts counterterrorism missions. Bottom line -- no."

Could Williams have simply hitched a ride into Iraq with SEAL Team 6 outside of the formal embedding process? This seems quite unlikely. A SEAL officer told CNN, "That early in the conflict, there were only missions taking place, not bouncing between outstations."

With another whopper now on his resume Williams may have no choice other than to seek a job in national party politics. There are also inquires being made into whether ‘lyin Brian personally witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall as he has claimed and whether he actually met Pope John Paul II when he was in college.

In the story “NBC investigating Brian Williams' claims that he witnessed fall of Berlin Wall and met Pope John Paul II” the New York Daily News reports that:

NBC is expanding its inquiry into the alleged tall tales of suspended “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams, CNN reported Thursday.
The network’s internal fact-checking is “nowhere near done,” a senior NBC source told the cable news channel.
The look into Williams’ exaggerated exploits has expanded beyond the anchor’s claims about being in a helicopter that was struck by an RPG during the 2003 Iraq War.
The new focus will examine Williams’ claims that he, not his predecessor Tom Brokaw, was in Germany the day the Berlin Wall fell and a story about meeting Pope John Paul II while a college student at Catholic University in 1979.

Despite efforts by the NBC News damage control team to contain the category five storm surge of bullshit it now appears that their defenses will be completely overwhelmed.

Chopper Whopper: NBC Anchor Brian Williams Exposed as Professional Liar

According to Greek mythology Icarus plunged to his death after his waxen wings melted when he flew too close to the sun. It is a fitting metaphor for millionaire celebrity NBC News anchor Brian Williams who had to retract and publicly apologize for a career burnishing fib that he told. Williams had regaled people with the tale that he had been on a helicopter that was forced down under fire in Iraq back when battle raged in 2003. But the pride of NBC Nightly News repeated his fairy tale one time too many and was called out for it.

As reported by Reuters in the story “NBC's Brian Williams apologizes for Iraq story after soldiers protest”:

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said on Wednesday he was sorry for "making a mistake" when he said he was on a helicopter that was hit and forced down by rocket fire during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after soldiers complained it was not true.

Williams made the claim on his broadcast last Friday while reporting a tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier who provided ground security during the incident. Williams said he and his news crew were protected by a mechanized platoon from the U.S. Army 3rd Infantry after their Chinook helicopter was crippled by enemy fire.

That prompted crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment's Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire to tell the Stars and Stripes military newspaper that the journalist had arrived on a different helicopter an hour later.

In a statement responding to the soldiers, Williams said they were absolutely right and he was wrong.

"In fact, 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," Williams wrote.

He said he supposed that repeatedly watching a video of himself inspecting the impact damage, plus "the fog of memory over 12 years," made him conflate and misremember events, some of which took place in a thick "Orange Crush" sandstorm.

The “fog of memory” that Williams uses as an excuse is more like the fog of bullshit and an obvious and shameful effort to deceive the American public. But that is why a guy like him makes the big bucks and the temptation was just too much to mix a lie of his own in with the big government propaganda that he recites. It is even worse than Dan Rather’s similar fall from grace after his sloppy work on a story about George W. Bush’s National Guard Service. Mr. Rather, long hated by conservatives for perceived bias was arrogant to the core and his blunder resulted in his unceremonious exit from CBS and Bush's reelection. Williams also should surrender his anchorman throne for this lie because how can he possibly have any credibility going forward?

A story from the BBC provides a bit more detail on the exposure of Brian Williams as a pompous liar:

His apology came after veterans who were on the helicopter that was hit posted comments on the broadcaster's Facebook page.

Flight engineer Lance Reynolds, who was on the helicopter that was hit, wrote: "Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened.

In a later posting he wrote: "The place we were shot at was a long ways away from where we even saw him and his crew. "

Replying to the criticism, Mr Williams said that "constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area - and the fog of memory over 12 years - made me conflate the two".

Mr Reynolds told the military newspaper Stars and Stripes: "It was something personal for us that was kind of life-changing for me. I know how lucky I was to survive it."

"It felt like a personal experience that someone else wanted to participate in and didn't deserve to participate in."

The hashtag #chopperwhopper has now appeared on Twitter, with many contributors criticising Mr Williams and questioning whether he should stay in his job.

The quote from Lance Reynolds is priceless, “sorry dude” though will not be enough from Williams who should do the right thing and resign. Not that NBC, much higher up the totem pole than Democrat party propaganda arm MSNBC should be spared from criticism over Williams’ whopper about the chopper. If anything this validates what conservatives have long been saying about the network’s credibility.

There is a line of celebrities with less baggage than Brian Williams who would work for less money and jump through flaming hoops to get a shot at his gig. Americans will adjust quickly because as they have proven time and again, they will just gobble down the bullshit biscuits no matter who it is that is feeding them the precious morsels.