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FLASHBACK: Brian Williams Discussed ‘Fear That You Might Have Gotten Something Wrong’ [VIDEO]

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
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Brian Williams once told a group of journalism students that he goes to great lengths to ensure accuracy in his reporting and claimed that “blood rushes” from his head at the fear of getting a story wrong.

Williams also told students during the April 8, 2011 talk at Elon University that he rigorously checks email and feedback from viewers to check for mistakes.

The NBC “Nightly News” anchor is currently under fire after he retracted a story he’s told for years in which he claimed to have been on a Chinook helicopter during the Iraq War in 2003 which was downed by an enemy rocket-propelled grenade.

Williams’ body of work as a journalist is now under intense scrutiny. Besides investigations by other media outlets, NBC is reportedly conducting its own internal investigation into Williams’ Iraq report as well as his reporting during Hurricane Katrina.

At the talk at Elon, which Williams’ son was attending at the time, the newsman was asked how his role and responsibility as a journalist has changed as he’s gone from a news reporter in Pittsburg, Kan. to the nightly news desk at NBC.

“You know when you’re in Kansas starting out in your first job, the pressure to not screw up is a very healthful — healthy — endorphin,” said Williams.

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“And it’s no different, the stakes are bigger now because of sheer audience number, but you’re still motivated by the desire to be right.”

“Just pride,” he continued, “You never want to get the story wrong. It is a terrible feeling if you’ve filed a story, if you’ve finished a broadcast, that phone call comes in, that email, and the blood rushes from your head if you have that fear that you might have gotten something wrong.”

Williams then began discussing email he receives from viewers and said that he watches it closely.

The subject of email complaints has come up during the Chinook story fallout. Don Helus, who flew the Chinook that was downed by an RPG has said that he contacted MSNBC three days after Williams’ initial news segment aired to complain about inaccuracies.

Helus said he never heard back from the network.

“I watch emails to our broadcast so carefully,” said Williams. “I never dismiss anybody’s point because anyone could be right. Oftentimes people hear something incorrectly. We go back over our journalism and we’re happy to see we got it right.”

“I got just as nervous in Kansas worrying about getting the facts right, worrying about being right, as I do today,” Williams added. (RELATED: Who Flew Brian Williams’ Chinook?)

The Daily Caller contacted MSNBC’s press office which declined to comment on the record.

Though he retracted the most dramatic claim about that day in Iraq — the RPG attack — Williams has not backed off his claim that the helicopter he was riding in fell under small-arms fire. Williams has claimed that he merely became confused over the past 12 years from a “fog of memory.” He said that he mixed up his Chinook, which he has said was hit by AK-47 bullets, with the one hit by the RPG.

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