Doubts raised about Brian Williams' Hurricane Katrina reporting


The New Orleans Advocate has raised doubts about NBC News anchor Brian Williams' reporting about Hurricane Katrina, particularly his assertions that he saw a dead body floating by in the city's French Quarter and that he got ill from drinking floodwater. Here's The Advocate:
Dr. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director who manned an EMS trailer that was set up in the 900 block of Dumaine Street, a block from his house in the French Quarter, said he was a fan of Williams but dubious of his claims.“We were never wet. It was never wet,” he remarked of the conditions in the city’s most historic neighborhood.As for dysentery, “I saw a lot of people with cuts and bruises and such, but I don’t recall a single, solitary case of gastroenteritis during Katrina or in the whole month afterward,” Lutz said.As for Williams saying he accidentally drank floodwaters, Lutz added, “I don’t know anybody that’s tried that to see, but my dogs drank it, and they didn’t have any problems.” [The New Orleans Advocate]
The report comes amidst the fallout from Williams admitting that his helicopter had not come under RPG fire in Iraq in 2003, as he had previously asserted many times.
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Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.
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