You know the story of the boy who cried wolf–or in this case, rocket fire? Everything becomes suspect. And so it is now with suspended NBC anchorman Brian Williams, whose credibility just went through the public shredder. An internal investigation by NBC into Williams’ other potentially fraudulent stories is currently focused on three in particular.
Williams has claimed that on the heels of the US invasion of Iraq he flew into Baghdad with Navy SEAL Team Six– the unit that later killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Williams only began mentioning his SEAL trip eight years later, after the bin Laden killing. Williams has also said he was at the Brandenburg Gate the night the Berlin Wall came down–there are suspicions he fudged his timing on this. Williams also said he met Pope John Paul II when Williams was a student at Catholic University. When John Paul died 26 years later, Williams said on air of the informal meeting: “he embraced my hand with both of his, made the sign of the cross, and said a blessing to me.” All incidents are being investigated.