NBC news anchor Brian Williams suspended for six months : 24/7 News Online — Transcript

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1. 0:00US news anchor Brighton Williams has
2. 0:02been suspended by his employer NC after
3. 0:05he admitted giving a misleading account
4. 0:07of coming under Fire in Iraq the
5. 0:10broadcaster said Williams would be
6. 0:12suspended for 6 months without pay for
7. 0:14his inexcusable actions Williams the
8. 0:18most watched Network anchor in the US
9. 0:21often spoke of being shot down in a
10. 0:23helicopter in Iraq however after
11. 0:26veterans disputed his account he
12. 0:28admitted getting the story wrong and
13. 0:30blamed the fog of memory last week he
14. 0:33apologized on air for the lapse I made a
15. 0:37mistake in recalling the events of 12
16. 0:39years ago he said I want to apologize I
17. 0:43said I was traveling in an aircraft that
18. 0:46was hit by RPG rocket propelled grenade
19. 0:49fire I was instead in the following
20. 0:51aircraft NBC News president Deborah
21. 0:54tness said that Williams had
22. 0:56misrepresented events from the Iraq War
23. 0:59it then became clear that on other
24. 1:01occasions Brian had done the same while
25. 1:04telling that story in other venues T NES
26. 1:07said this was wrong and completely
27. 1:10inappropriate for someone in Brighton's
28. 1:12position his apology came after veterans
29. 1:15who were on the helicopter that was hit
30. 1:17challenged his version of events one of
31. 1:20them flight engineer Lance reels wrote
32. 1:23sorry dude I don't remember you being on
33. 1:26my aircraft I do remember you walking up
34. 1:29about about an hour after we had landed
35. 1:31to ask me what had happened last week
36. 1:34Williams said he was taking himself off
37. 1:36air for several days as it had become
38. 1:39painfully apparent that he was too much
39. 1:41a part of the news on Tuesday a
40. 1:44statement from Steve Burke NBC Universal
41. 1:47chief executive officer said Williams
42. 1:50had jeopardized to trust millions of
43. 1:52Americans place in NBC News his actions
44. 1:55are inexcusable and this suspension is
45. 1:58severe and appropriate NBC is conducting
46. 2:01the review into what happened the BBC
47. 2:04strag Ian in Washington says there is
48. 2:07already speculation about whether the
49. 2:09anchor will ever return to his job now
50. 2:12that his credibility is so badly damaged
51. 2:15questions have also been raised about
52. 2:16Williams's coverage of Hurricane Katrina
53. 2:19in 2005 with one Health official
54. 2:22challenging claimed he contracted
55. 2:24dentary while reporting on the
56. 2:28aftermath e