Appearing on Fox News’ “The Kelly File” Wednesday, Fox media critic Howard Kurtz said it was “inexplicable” that NBC News anchor Brian Williams could have made an “honest mistake” in falsely claiming that his helicopter was shot down during his coverage of the Iraq War. (VIDEO: NBC’s Brian Williams Recants, Apologizes For Telling False War Story)
HOST MEGYN KELLY: Tonight he did a full mea culpa and said, ‘I can’t believe that I was so confused, I’ve sort of conflated the two stories.’ Will there be fallout on this?
KURTZ: I think there will be tremendous fallout on this, given Brian Williams’s prominence as an anchor, as the longest serving network news anchor. And, you know, if it had been a question where a couple details were exaggerated, were fudged, I think people would be willing to forgive that.
KELLY: But this doesn’t seem, in defense of Brian Williams, as bad as that. It seems like he made an honest mistake, as his accurate reporting of it back in 2003 would suggest.
KURTZ: Well, I’ve interviewed Brian Williams dozens of times. He’s always been a straight shooter with me. But I have to, in the role of media critic, say it may be an honest mistake, but it’s an inexplicable one, because of the life-changing nature of having your helicopter shot down. Somebody else’s helicopter shot down, I’m sure that was traumatic. But he wasn’t on that helicopter.