[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
The 12 February 2015 edition of Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN spotlighted another set of questionable accounts by Brian Williams regarding a supposed relationship with members of the celebrated Navy SEAL Team Six. On three separate appearances on CBS's Late Show between 2011 and 2013, Williams claimed that he traveled with the unit in to Iraq just three days after the 2003 invasion; that SEAL "friends" of his sent him a piece of the wreckage from the helicopter that crashed on the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden; and that a SEAL once sent him his knife.
Two guests – CNN analyst Peter Bergen and former SEAL Team Six member Howard Wasdin – cast cold water on Williams's claims. Fill-in anchor John Berman noted that an unidentified special-ops commander disclosed to Bergen, "We do not embed journalists with that unit or any other unit that conducts counter-terrorism missions. Bottom line – no." The anchor then asked, "Does that leave any wiggle room for Brian Williams's account of things?" The analyst gave a blunt answer: "I really don't think so. I mean, his account of being embedded with SEAL Team Six didn't pass the smell test just on the face of it."