NEW YORK, June 19 (UPI) -- In his first public interview since being suspended by NBC News for errors in his reporting, newsman Brian Williams told the Today show's Matt Lauer Friday that he "owns up to" his mistakes.
The former anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News acknowledged reporting things in the past that weren't true -- and doing it largely from a sense of wanting to be the best in his business.
"Looking back, it had to have been ego that made me think I had to be sharper, funnier, quicker than anybody else, [to] put myself closer to the action, having been at the action in the beginning," Williams said during Friday's appearance on Today. "I own this and I own up to this."
Williams was suspended in February after the Nightly News ran a retrospective report on the 2003 Iraq War, during which he recalled having been aboard a U.S. military helicopter that was shot by an enemy rocket-propelled grenade. After several people pointed out the inaccuracy online, Williams apologized and was subsequently suspended by the network for six months.
Over the last several weeks, speculation ran wild on the Internet regarding whether Williams would return to the anchor desk or be fired. On Wednesday, NBC announced it had removed Williams from Nightly News, but will reassign him to other duties with the network.
"It has been torture," Williams said of his experience since being suspended. "I was reading these newspaper stories, not liking the person I was reading about."
In addition to the faulty 2003 Iraq War claim, scrutiny has also been placed on other claims Williams has made in the past -- perhaps most prominently his reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, about which which he later claimed to have seen a dead body float by his hotel in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
"Something changed," Williams said of the contrast between his strong commitment to reporting facts and motivation to enhance them. "I was sloppier and I said things that weren't true."
Williams said one factor that facilitated his mistake was a disconnect between vigilantly performing his professional duties while on the clock at NBC News, and continuing to meet those responsibilities off the clock. Williams made some of the inaccurate statements during interviews he gave other programs and other journalists away from NBC.
"I told the story correctly for years before I told it incorrectly," he said. "I was not trying to mislead people. That, to me, is a huge difference here."
Lauer then asked Williams if he knew the Iraq helicopter claim was inaccurate when the Nightly News ran the story in January.
"No," Williams replied. "It came from a bad place. It came from a sloppy choice of words."
Despite apolgizing on TV and Facebook in February, many continue to be skeptical of Williams' explanation -- particularly online. They argue that it is simply improbable that he could have forgotten such important details about the events in question.
"You're still lying. When you're in a hole (busted), stop digging (lying)," one Facebook poster said of Williams' apology there.
"I think that if you're in a life threatening incident like Brian Williams' fictionalized account, you would never forget or "misremember," stated another.
"I see why people would say that. I understand it," Williams said. "This came from, clearly, a bad place, a bad urge inside me. This was clearly ego-driven -- a desire to better my role in a story I was already in. That's what I've been tearing apart, unpacking and analyzing."
The New York Daily News, which has been highly critical of Williams since he was suspended, cited numerous reactions on social media to the newsman's Today show interview -- during which, the paper pointed out, Williams appeared to sweat.
"It remains to be seen if he will be forgiven by the public," The Daily News' Candace Amos wrote Friday.
"What happened is the fault of a whole host of other sins. What happened is clearly part of my ego getting the better of me," Williams said. "To put myself in a better light, to appear better than I was. I got it wrong. I own this and I own up to this."
When asked by Lauer whether he exaggerated any other stories during his career, Williams responded by suggesting that it really doesn't matter.
"I said things that were wrong. One is too much. Any number north of zero is too many," he said. "We can't have it. I can't have it in my life, I can't have it in my work. I can't have it in the company we work for.
"I know why people feel the way they do. I get this, I'm responsible for this. I am sorry ... I am different, as a result. And I expect to be held to a different standard."
