Screenshot of NBC News coverage during initial wave of U.S. bombing of Iraq in 2003.
The news that NBC’s Brian Williams was not,
in fact, on a helicopter in 2003 that came under fire from an Iraqi
Rocket-Propelled Grenade (RPG) should come as a surprise to noone.
Williams had repeated the lie on several occasions over the course of a
decade until a veteran, who was on the actual helicopter that was
attacked, had enough of Williams’ war porn and called the TV host out on Facebook. In a quite pathetic effort to cover his tracks, the anchor—who makes in excess of $10 million per year—
claimed that his fairy tale was, in fact, "a bungled attempt by me to
thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and
women" who had served in Iraq. Twelve years, it seems, is enough time
for Williams to confuse being on a helicopter that came under fire from
an RPG with being on a helicopter that did not.
Given that Williams works for NBC, his participation
in the construction of a piece of fiction during the U.S. invasion and
occupation of Iraq is apt. US network news, together with outlets such
as CNN, aggressively cheer-led an invasion
predicated on a massive falsehood: the Iraqi possession of WMD. What is
jarring, however, is the fact that Williams’ sad attempt to inject
himself into the fabric of the violence is getting more ink and airplay
than the non-existence of WMD did back in the early-to-mid 2000s: a lie that provided the justification for a military action that has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
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