Brian Williams slams fake news

MSNBC anchor Brian Williams, who lost his job with NBC’s nightly news for exaggerating details of his time reporting in Iraq, slammed President-elect Donald Trump and members of his transition team for spreading fake news throughout the election.

{mosads}“Fake news played a role in this election and continues to find a wide audience,” Williams said on MSNBC Wednesday night.

Williams targeted retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, for promoting links to fake news stories on his Twitter account.

These “gems,” Williams said, include claims that Hillary Clinton was involved in child sex-trafficking and that President Barack Obama laundered money from Muslim terrorists.

Trump fired Flynn’s son for tweeting about the child sex-trafficking conspiracy theory earlier this week. The move came after one man took the claim about Clinton’s involvement in sex-trafficking seriously and fired one shot in a Washington, D.C., pizzeria, where conspiracy theorists said the false crimes were taking place.

In 2015, Williams was suspended without pay and eventually removed as NBC’s anchor when he admitted he exaggerated a story he often told about coming under enemy fire while riding a helicopter in Iraq. Lester Holt replaced Williams as anchor and has filled the position since.

After several months, Williams was made MSNBC’s chief breaking news anchor.

“I am fully aware of the second chance I have been given,” Williams told Matt Lauer on the “Today Show” at the time.

In 2003, Williams and an NBC News team were reporting in Iraq when three Chinook helicopters came under fire. Williams had said he and the news team were on one of the helicopters hit, when they actually were aboard a different helicopter located about an hour behind the other three.

“I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another,” Williams told “Stars and Stripes” after crew members from the helicopters that were hit that day came forward.