newsmakers

newsmakers

NBC’s Brian Williams apologizes for falsehood

NEW YORK

NBC “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams apologized Wednesday for incorrectly claiming as recently as last week that he rode on a helicopter that came under enemy fire when he was reporting in Iraq in 2003.

Instead, Williams said, he was in another helicopter trailing a Chinook that actually was hit. He apologized on “Nightly News” for getting it wrong.

The embarrassing admission came after a story in the Stars & Stripes newspaper pointing out the discrepancy. Williams had made the claim on the air Friday during a story about Tim Terpak, an Army officer whom he had befriended when Terpak was assigned to protect the NBC crew.

Williams reported on “Nightly News” that he had gone with Terpak to a New York Rangers hockey game. They were introduced to the audience by the public- address announcer, who also repeated the claim that Williams’ helicopter had been hit.

Stars & Stripes quoted Lance Reynolds, the flight engineer on the crew that rode with Williams, as saying that “it felt like a personal experience that someone else wanted to participate in and didn’t deserve to participate in.”

The newspaper said Williams’ helicopter traveled about an hour behind the aircraft that actually took fire.

NBC noted that a “Dateline NBC” story in 2003 correctly reported that Williams learned after his helicopter landed that “the Chinook ahead of us was almost blown out of the sky.”

“Because I have no desire to fictionalize my experience ... and no need to dramatize events as they actually happened, I think the constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area — and the fog of memory over the years — made me conflate the two,” Williams wrote.

‘Suge’ Knight still in hospital after hearing

LOS ANGELES

Former rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight on Wednesday remained in a hospital where he was taken a day earlier for chest pains after pleading not guilty to a murder charge.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Deputy Guillermina Saldana said the agency could not provide any further details on the 49-year-old Knight, who is accused of intentionally running down and killing a friend last Thursday. Another man was injured.

Associated Press