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 In an internal memo, NBC News President Deborah Turness told
staffers that a team would gather the facts about the incident
in which Williams, 55, falsely said he was in a U.S. Army
helicopter that was hit and forced down by an RPG.
"This has been a difficult few days for all of us at NBC News,"
she said. "As you would expect, we have a team dedicated to
gathering the facts to help us make sense of all that has
transpired."
Williams apologized on TV on Wednesday for "making a mistake"
after veterans complained about the claim he made during a
broadcast last week, saying it was not true.
But the lie threatens his credibility as the anchor and managing
editor of NBC's flagship evening news program.
“I was instead in a following aircraft. We all landed after the
ground fire incident and spent two harrowing nights in a
sandstorm in the Iraq desert,” Williams said in his apology.
He blamed it on repeatedly watching a video of himself looking
at the impact damage and "the fog of memory over 12 years" that
he said made him misremember.
The probe by the network's investigative unit is being headed by
Richard Esposito, who was formerly an editor at the Daily News
newspaper of New York, according to media reports.
The apology by Williams did little to quell the uproar and
cast doubt about whether he would be able to continue in his
role at NBC, a unit of Comcast Corp.
"We're working on what the best next steps are," Turness added
in the memo.
NBC did not respond to requests for comment, and Williams
appeared on his evening news show on Friday.
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But the Emmy-winning anchor was ridiculed on social media and in the
press for his "lame apology."
"Now Williams is under fire," read a banner headline in the New York
Post, which listed other interviews and news segments in which he
spoke about his helicopter being forced down.
Williams is also facing scrutiny about his remarks about covering
Hurricane Katrina. In an interview he spoke about seeing a deceased
man float face down from his hotel window in the French Quarter of
New Orleans.
But a former city health director, Dr. Brobson Lutz, told the New
Orleans Advocate he questioned Williams' account because the
historic district did not experience as much flooding as other parts
of the city.
Lutz was also dubious about comments Williams made in another
interview when he said he suffered from dysentery after mistakenly
drinking flood water while covering Katrina.
"I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don't
recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or
the whole month afterwards," said Lutz.
(This story corrects Esposito's position at the Daily News in 8th
paragraph)
(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Eric Kelsey, Christian
Plumb and Lisa Shumaker)
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