Brian Williams

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(journalist)
Brian Williams.jpg
BornBrian Douglas Williams
1959-05-05
Ridgewood, New Jersey, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materGeorge Washington University, The Catholic University of America
Parents • Gordon Lewis Williams (father)
• Dorothy May Pampel (mother)
Children • Allison
• Douglas
SpouseJane Gillan Stoddard
Member ofShrewsbury 24
Corporate journalist nominated for fake news award

Brian Williams was for his ten years the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. In March 2017 he was shortlisted by 21st Century Wire for the 2017 Horace Greeley Award for Best Fake News Journalist, but did not win.[1]

Mendacity

He was disciplined after his claim that he was in a helicopter which was shot down in Iraq was disproved. After this lie was uncovered, increased attention to other claims of his uncovered multiple inconsistencies, both between his own accounts and those of others. In 2008, Williams claimed that he was "at the Brandenburg Gate the night the wall came down", while CBS and other sources report that Williams did not arrive until November 10, the day after the gates between the two halves of Berlin were opened.[2][3] "'The night the wall came down' is widely recognized as November 9, 1989", according to a CNN report.[3] Williams joked in 2014 that he was upset that NBC's Tom Brokaw had arrived first in Berlin, adding that "by the second night of the story, we were all there."[3]

Suspension

On 4 February 2015, he recanted his story about the Iraq helicopter. He was then suspended for six months, and eventually demoted from the Nightly News for "misrepresent[ing] events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003."[4]

Reinstatement

After his suspension Williams was later made MSNBC's Chief Breaking News Anchor and on September 6, 2016, he was given his own news show The 11th Hour with Brian Williams.

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References