Brian Williams' Hometown Has Mixed Feelings About Embattled News Anchor
MIDDLETOWN, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Before the cameras and the "NBC Nightly News," Brian Williams spent his days growing up in Middletown.
A woman sitting at the Middletown Pancake House told 1010 WINS' Rebecca Granet that Williams used to work at the restaurant.
"My mother remembers him being a bus boy here, and he was very quiet and shy," the woman said.
Locals Have Mixed Feelings About Brian Williams In His Hometown
But even after NBC suspended Williams for six months following his admission that he exaggerated his experiences covering the Iraq War, Bill, of Middletown, said the town is still proud of him.
"They have every right to be because he went to No. 1 in his business," he said.
Others, however, say Williams' credibility is an issue now.
"I just think his career's over. Nobody will trust him again," said one woman, adding having faith in a news anchor's facts is paramount.
Williams apologized last week for falsely claiming that he was in helicopter that had been hit by a grenade while in Iraq in 2003 a week earlier during a "Nightly News" tribute to a veteran he had befriended during his trip. Before expressing his regrets on the air, Williams did so online and in an interview with the newspaper Stars & Stripes.
He speculated online that constant viewing of video showing him inspecting the damaged helicopter "and the fog of memory over 12 years, made me conflate the two, and I apologize."
His story had morphed through the years.
Shortly after the incident, Williams had described on NBC how he was traveling in a group of helicopters forced down in the Iraq desert. On the ground, he learned the Chinook in front of him "had almost been blown out of the sky;" he showed a photo of it with a gash from a rocket-propelled grenade.
The NBC crew and military officials accompanying them spent three days in the desert, kept aground by a sandstorm.
But in a 2008 blog post, Williams said his helicopter had come under fire from what appeared to be Iraqi farmers with RPGs. He said a helicopter in front of his had been hit.
Then, in a 2013 appearance on David Letterman's "Late Show," Williams said that two of the four helicopters he was traveling
with had been hit by ground fire "including the one I was in."
In the wake of the controversy, the network launched an internal investigation.
NBC Universal said Tuesday it is continuing the probe into Williams' statements.
Lester Holt will continue to sub in for Williams in his absence.
