Failure to Report for Duty: Stars And Stripes Publishes Full Brian Williams Interview Because He Canceled On David Letterman

Posted: February 9, 2015 | Author: Pundit Planet | Filed under: Mediasphere, U.S. News | Tags: Brian Stelter, Brian Williams, CBS, CNN, David Letterman, Iraq War, Late Show with David Letterman, NBC, NBC News, NBC Nightly News |Leave a comment

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**Some industry navel gazers say he’s missed a great opportunity by canceling. But Williams’ loss, and Letterman’s, is Stars and Stripes’ gain**

Lisa de Moraes reports: Stars and Stripe says it has today published the transcript and audio of its full interview with Brian Williams from last week — because Williams canceled on David Letterman.

“The reason we decided to publish it now is because Williams backed out of this appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. We felt there was a lot of interest out there to hear him, in his own words, really address these questions and hear his response, unfiltered…”

Williams will not appear on the Late Show with David Letterman this Thursday, yesterday canceling a long-scheduled appearance in the wake of an investigation into his inflated claims about taking enemy fire while in a helicopter in Iraq. Some industry navel gazers say he’s missed a great opportunity by canceling. But Williams’ loss, and Letterman’s, is Stars and Stripes’ gain.

“…so everybody can listen for themselves and judge…Williams has not come forward and answered questions. He has made statements on his own but he hasn’t sat and answered questions about it.”

— Travis Tritten

“The reason we decided to publish it now is because Williams backed out of this appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman,” Travis Tritten, who did the interview, explained this afternoon to CNN. “We felt there was a lot of interest out there to hear him, in his own words, really address these questions and hear his response, unfiltered — so everybody can listen for themselves and judge,” Tritten added.

“We are five days [later] and Williams has not come forward and answered questions. He has made statements on his own but he hasn’t sat and answered questions about it.”

In the interview, Tritten is heard telling Williams he had “multiple guys” telling him they remember immediately after the incident that Williams and NBC were reporting he was on the aircraft that was hit.

Williams’s response, in full:

No, I think I correctly reported as I did in my blog in ’08 that I was on the aircraft behind the one that was hit. It was not … Because I knew we had all come under fire, I guess I had assumed that all of the airframes took some damage because we all went down… (read more)

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