NBC News anchor Brian Williams is taking heat after admitting Wednesday that a rocket-propelled grenade did not bring down a helicopter he had been aboard while reporting in Iraq, despite having told the story repeatedly since 2003.
“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams told Stars and Stripes in a statement. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
{mosads}Despite a subsequent on-air apology during last night’s broadcast of NBC Nightly News, many viewers took to the Web to voice their skepticism at Williams’s claim that he “misremembered” the event, blaming his tall tale on “the fog of memory over 12 years.”
Within hours of the revelation, #BrianWilliamsMisremembers — a Twitter hashtag poking fun at the newsman for his memory lapse — began trending and has remained a top topic some 12 hours later.
Below are a few of the trend’s most creative entries:
Whether or not the the backlash against Williams puts his job in jeopardy remains to be seen.