Fox News Media Analyst and “Mediabuzz” host Howard Kurtz declared “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that Brian Williams’ claims that a helicopter he was in was hit by an RPG “was not a one-time memory lapse or regrettable fog of memory by Brian Williams” on Friday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
Kurtz said that a review of Williams’ prior statements proves “beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was not a one-time memory lapse or regrettable fog of memory by Brian Williams, that he has repeatedly told different versions, contradictory versions, self-aggrandizing versions of this tale of the chopper in Iraq which he either says was hit by an RPG when he was on, or following right behind, the evidence collected by Stars and Stripes makes clear that he was nowhere near the chopper that was downed and fortunately everybody there survived. And this shows why late today, NBC News President Deborah Turness announced an internal investigation at NBC into the actions of its chief anchor and why she has not in that memo, or publicly, uttered a word of support for her anchor…I think there’s some distancing here.”
He continued, “[Tom] Brokaw…did not exactly put his weight behind his successor either. So, [what] we’re seeing here, I think is distancing on the part of NBC folks because they’re not sure what’s going to come out next.”
When asked if he thought Williams would be fired, he responded “I would not say so right now. I think that he’s had a long and basically solid career…if you say it’s a one-time mistake, he probably hangs onto his job. But if more comes out, look, he’s got a credibility crisis on his hands.”
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