Tom Brokaw Reportedly Warned NBC About Brian Williams’ Stories for a While

There was a report last week that Tom Brokaw was furious with Brian Williams over his tall tales and wanted his “head on a platter” (as in firing him). Brokaw publicly denied saying anything to NBC brass about firing Williams.

But NPR reporter David Folkenflik said yesterday that Brokaw is “really playing a role behind the scenes” in how NBC is handling this. According to people he spoke with, the relationship between Williams and Brokaw is “publicly cordial,” but privately “cool and evolving to frosty.”

And then there’s this little revelation about how Brokaw was aware of Williams’ exaggerations for a while:

“Brokaw’s told colleagues, going back at least a year, that he heard Williams giving increasingly grandiose versions of the downed Iraqi helicopter story that got him into trouble in recent days, and that Brokaw himself looked into the anecdote and that the facts simply didn’t match.”

Listen to Folkenflik’s report here, via NPR:

[h/t Salon]
[image via lev radin/Shutterstock]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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