Oh, the irony … Brian Williams, the NBC “Nightly News” anchor who fabricated a story about being shot at by an RPG while in a helicopter in Iraq, is “a member of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation,” according to his bio on the NBC News website [1].
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 [2].
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 [3]. He has also promoted tributes [4] to Medal of Honor recipients on “Nightly News.”
On Feb. 4, Stars and Stripes reported that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted [5] 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 [6]” on March 26, 2013.
Excerpt from Brian Williams' bio:
— Mike Ciandella is Research Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Mike Ciandella on Twitter. [7]