Reliable source? ... Questions about Brian Wiliams other news stories are being questioned after he admitted that a story he has often repeated on air about coming under fire in a helicopter in Iraq in 2003 during the US invasion was not true. Picture: ROBYN BECK Source: AFP
MORE heroic tales of Brian Williams’ adventures in journalism are being questioned.
The NBC news anchor, who apologised on Wednesday for telling a false story about taking fire in a helicopter while covering Iraq, is being called out for possibly lying about his experience covering Hurricane Katrina, according to a report.
US TV NEWS ANCHOR APOLOGISES FOR IRAQ FIB
Williams claimed to have gotten dysentery from drinking flood water and seeing dead bodies float past his hotel in the New Orleans French Quarter while covering Hurricane Katrina.
However the The New Orleans Advocate noted that the French Quarter was not flooded and quoted a local health expert who did not recall anyone getting such a stomach ailment.
Famous family ... Brian Williams is “Girls” actor Allison Williams’ father. Picture: Jamie McCarthy Source: Supplied
Williams recalled his bout with the bug in interview with Tom Brokaw last year, when he said: “I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery,”
The Advocate said a public health official never heard of people getting things like dysentery after the storm.
What really happened? ... Brian Williams anchors five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the region. Picture: Judi Bottoni Source: Supplied
“I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterwards,” Dr. Brobson Lutz told The Advocate.
“I don’t know anybody that’s tried that [drinking flood water] to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.”
Williams said also during an interview in 2006 that he saw dead bodies float past his window in the French Quarter.
“When you look out of your hotel window in the French Quarter and watch a man float by face down, when you see bodies that you last saw in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and swore to yourself that you would never see in your country,” Williams said in 2006.
But the French Quarter, the original high ground of New Orleans, was not impacted by the floodwaters that overwhelmed the vast majority of the city, The Advocate said.
The French quarter escaped overwhelming flood waters during Hurricane Katrina as it is the highest part of the city. Picture: Supplied Source: AFP
He also said in his Brokaw interview: “Our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer. We are friends to this day.”
The new revelation came as revered broadcast journalist Tom Brokaw said that Williams should step aside.
In the wake of the humiliating revelation the NBC Nightly News anchor apologised during Wednesday night’s broadcast.
“I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago … I want to apologise. I said I was travelling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft,” he said.
Sorry or not, the internet wasn’t about to let the newsman off the hook, and in the hours that followed, the #BrianWilliamsMisremembers meme took flight.
Nice, @DutraWeather. MT @weeddude: The Best Speculative Brian Williams “Misremembering” http://t.co/YBs5XSvSzP pic.twitter.com/I34rPSmOeV
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) February 5, 2015 riding shotgun with O.J. #BrianWilliamsMemories pic.twitter.com/52E6h5tVcl
— Calhoun (@linkcalhoun) February 5, 2015 
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