While promoting a curriculum produced by the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation, NBC anchor Brian Williams stated “now I’m cleansed, I’ve made my bias out in the open. We can all be honest here.” These statements became ironic in light of Williams’ now debunked claim that a helicopter he was in during the Iraq War came under RPG fire.
Williams hosted a panel in October 2013 which “focused on veterans who received a Medal of Honor, and what they can teach our students,” according to Education Week [1]. Williams is “a member of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation,” according to his bio on the NBC News website. He has also promoted tributes to Medal of Honor recipients on “Nightly News.”
According to the 990 tax returns for the foundation, Williams has been on the board since at least 2005. He is also listed on the “Board of Directors” page on the foundation’s website.
On Feb. 4, Stars and Stripes reported that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted to not being aboard a helicopter that was shot and had to be rescued following RPG fire during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Williams stated that he “feels terrible” and “was wrong” for not telling viewers that he was instead “on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG.”
Despite claiming that he just misspoke, Williams pushed this same story multiple times since 2003, including on CBS’s “The Late Show with David Letterman” on March 26, 2013. Just hours after returning to Kuwait after this now-infamous helicopter incident, Williams [2] compared it to "Black Hawk Down meets Saving Private Ryan."
You can watch the full video of the Williams’ Medal of Honor panel here [3].
— Mike Ciandella is Research Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Mike Ciandella on Twitter. [4]