America
Brian Williams admits faking story about Iraq attack
Washington, Feb 6
Veteran journalist Brian
Williams, the popular host of NBC's nightly prime time newscast, has
apologised after admitting that he made up the story he told about
travelling in a helicopter that was attacked during the 2003 Iraq
invasion.
Williams retracted the story he recounted last week
after crewmembers of the US chopper that was attacked told Stars and
Stripes newspaper that the reporter was not on board at the time.
The
journalist, 55, apologised Wednesday evening in a statement he read
during the "NBC Nightly News", that he hosted since 2004.
"I want to apologise," Williams said.
"I
made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago...I feel
terrible about making this mistake...about the incident...and I was
indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the rocket-propelled
grenade(RPG) in the tail housing."
Williams spoke about the
attack last Friday on the broadcast while reporting a tribute at a New
York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier who provided ground
security during the incident.
He said that he was on board the helicopter that was hit by the RPG and forced down.
Williams also said he did not know why he had confused one aircraft for the other in his story.
At
present, it is not known what the repercussions of the false story will
be for Williams at NBC, although his credibility has now been
questioned by some of his journalism colleagues.
He has also been
the butt of online jokes since the story broke, including
photo-montages in which he was shown reporting from the Moon and
messages on Twitter.