Fox News senior correspondent Geraldo Rivera defended embattled NBC newsman Brian Williams on Friday, slamming the anchor’s critics as basement-dwelling trolls who had never seen combat.
Williams apologized on Wednesday for claiming a helicopter in which he’d been flying while reporting from Iraq in 2003 had been shot down by a rocket propelled grenade. He blamed the error on “the fog of memory.”
Rivera, whose own war reporting has been criticized over accuracy, said that “a lot of people conflate” facts, but it would “a far more grievous offense” if Williams embellished.
“What I don’t want is people to pile on and destroy a man’s entire career for this one incident,” said Rivera. “Let’s go slow.”
Rivera had particular scorn for critics on social media.
“Why is it that the loudest voices condemning Brian Williams never served in combat, were never combat reporters?” Rivera said. “I think that all these people with Twitter accounts who are attacking this person from the safety of their mother’s basement should shut up and let the soldiers and the GIs deal with this.”
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h/t Mediaite
