NBC is investigating “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams after he recanted this week a story that he’d flown on a military helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq, according to Friday reports.
{mosads}Sources told The New York Daily News that Richard Espositio, an investigative journalist with NBC, is leading the inquiry. The Hill was unable to confirm the report immediately.
It’s been a tumultuous week for Williams, who recounted the now-debunked story on Tuesday and released an apology on-air and on his Facebook page Wednesday.
The veteran journalist was pilloried on Twitter and slammed by veterans service organizations, though the groups stopped short of calling for his resignation.
A number of soldiers told Stars and Stripes that they were not satisfied with Williams’s response. They disputed his Facebook apology, which said he flew in a helicopter behind the one that was hit, and argued that he had not flown near that helicopter. Soldiers added that they believed Williams’s helicopter had been forced to land because of a sandstorm, not because of enemy fire.
UPDATE 4:00 p.m.: NBC News president Deborah Turness has released a memo to staff concerning Brian Williams. “We’re working on what the best next steps are — and when we have something to communicate we will of course share it with you,” Turness writes. Read the full memo below: