I always knew Brian Williams was a creep. I didn’t realize he was a sociopath.

This just in from Travis J. Tritten at Stars and Stripes:

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years…

The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said.

“I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”

Did you catch that last part? Here it is again:

“I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”

He “conflated” one aircraft — the one that was actually hit by enemy fire — with another aircraft — the one he was in, which showed up an hour later.

He “conflated” them.

And how in the world did he do that?

“Because I have no desire to fictionalize my experience (we all saw it happened the first time) and no need to dramatize events as they actually happened, I think the constant viewing of the video showing us inspecting the impact area — and the fog of memory over 12 years — made me conflate the two, and I apologize.”

The “fog of memory.” That’s what made him claim his helicopter was shot down.

Or, here’s an alternate theory: Brian Williams is a damn liar. He got caught lying. And now he’s trying to weasel out of it by saying the “fog of memory” made him “conflate” himself into a life-threatening scenario that happened to somebody else.

And why not? What does he have to lose? If he just knuckles down and keeps lying about his lie, maybe he’ll get through this. It’s been working just fine for everybody else on his team.

I’m sure a lot of people will be calling for Brian Williams to be fired, but I doubt it’ll happen. Stealing valor from our troops is the least disgraceful thing NBC News has done in a long time.

(Hat tip: Ace)

Update: “I made a mistake in recalling–” Nope. Nnnnnnope. “This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran–” Oh, honey, no.