Cut Brian Williams a break on Iraq claim

The NBC anchor issued an abject apology in his “Nightly News” program Wednesday, admitting he’d falsely claimed to have been in a Chinook helicopter shot down over Iraq 12 years go. He wrote on the NBC Nightly News Facebook page that he’d spent some time wondering if he’d “gone crazy,” but ultimately decided he’d conflated events in his memory.

Others aren’t so quick to agree with him. Critics are piling on and hoping to put the newsman’s essential credibility in question. That’s a currency without which he can’t do his job. Some are drawings comparisons to the reporting controversy that brought down the veteran CBS anchor Dan Rather. Like any good controversy, the affair has already launched a few social media hashtags, including #BrianWilliamsMisremembers, which pillories Williams by placing him at the center of world events in which he had no part.

While no one can rule out Williams and NBC set out in a craven and intentional attempt to misappropriate valor from a dramatic wartime scenario, or even a well-intentioned white lie (Williams was trying to honor an involved soldier during his most recent retelling), it’s also possible he’s suffered an all-too-natural memory error.

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