Reports: Brian Williams Cancels Thursday Letterman Appearance

This April 4, 2012 file photo shows NBC News' Brian Williams, at the premiere of the HBO original series "Girls," in New York. (AP Photo/Starpix, Dave Allocca, File)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

NBC News anchor Brian Williams cancelled his appearance on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” scheduled for Thursday, CNN reported Sunday evening.

Williams announced on Saturday that he would temporarily take himself off the air after he admitted last week that his story about being in a helicopter hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq was bogus.

The NBC News anchor apologized for his factual errors last week, but after crew members disputed his most recent version of the Iraq War tale, numerous videos of Williams embellishing the story surfaced.

Williams told David Letterman in a 2013 appearance on the “Late Show” that “two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire, including the one I was in — RPG and AK-47.”

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire
18
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. How about news people sticking to the news? Even in the early days when TV was really a new big deal, you would never see the news people like Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, Edward R Murrow on TV doing an entertainment “schtick”. For as far as we have come, we don’t need people we take seriously to deliver important news, playing the clown on late night TV. Now, if these guys want to tell us that they are merely “news readers”, maybe we can make an exception. The other thing to ask yourself is whether you think the major networks would risk their multi-million dollar a year news properties actually in harm’s way in a war zone? The prima donas are well protected regardless of where they go.

  2. The golden boy is not a news person, he’s a personality with a brand (hate that term.) To promote that brand he’s gone on 30 Rock, Slow Jam the News with Jimmy Fallon, he’ll promote his daughter’s TV appearance on his so-called news show, and so why would anyone pay attention to whatever he says in the evening. By then we already know what’s happened during the day.

  3. Avatar for sandyh sandyh says:

    Was he going to sing this time or do his Jay Leno impression?

  4. Avatar for sandyh sandyh says:

    You mean Geraldo is lowering himself by appearing on Trump’s show?

  5. Whether one wants to defend or skewer Brian Williams is a waste of time.

    What does anyone want to do about infotainment by news readers and deliberate misinformation or outright lies as news?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

12 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for josephebacon Avatar for srfromgr Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for leftflank Avatar for sundancer Avatar for RhondaPainter Avatar for randyabraham Avatar for sandyh Avatar for chelsea530 Avatar for kitty

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: