Brian Williams on the Couch

NBC News anchor Brian Willaims took himself off the air as the network launches an internal investigation of his accounts of being on a downed helicopter over Iraq. His coverage of Hurricane Katrina is also under scrutiny now.

Another tale getting fresh attention involves Williams covering the 2006 War in Lebanon. Here’s what Williams said (skip to 1:45) when Fairfield University’s Emily Fitzmaurice asked the anchor what story had the biggest impact on his career (via Breitbart).

I think that is — you know, that get’s me to thinking; I’ve been very very lucky the way my life has turned out. I’ve been very lucky to have survived a few things I’ve been involved in. At a reception a few minutes ago, I was remembering something I tend to forget the war with Hezbollah in Israel a few years back, where there were Katyusha rockets passing just underneath the helicopter I was riding in.

The Weekly Standard’s Jeryl Bier tracked down this dispatch about the incident Williams refers to.

Technically, Williams is correct that Katyushas were flying down below, but they were off in the distance, and not “just under” Israeli Blackhawk. You won’t see any drama inside the chopper or signs of emergency evasive maneuvers. Williams would not have failed to include any of that.

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Bottom line: I don’t see anything wrong with the report — everything’s there on film. But his description to Fitzmaurice is disingenuous and just a bit self-inflating to an understandably awed college reporter.

But the more seasoned journalists now probing Williams won’t be wide-eyed or so easily impressed. I’m giving the last word on the matter to New York University’s professor of journalism, Jay Rosen.

UPDATE Monday, 2/9: After returning to the US from Lebanon, Williams told a similar story to The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart. Skip ahead to the 4:44 mark.

“Here’s a view of rockets I have never seen, passing underneath us, 1,500 feet beneath us. And we’ve got the gunner doors on this thing, and I’m saying to the general, some four-star: “Okay, so if we’re 1,500 feet , it wouldn’t take much for them to adjust the aim and try to do a ring toss right through our open doors, would it?”