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NBC is once again under fire from Iraq War veterans — this time for a correspondent’s claims that sniper Chris Kyle was “racist.”
More than 20 retired generals and admirals penned a letter to Comcast, which owns NBC, following a Jan. 29 interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” with Middle East reporter Ayman Mohyeldin, according to a report in the Washington Examiner.
“Some of what people have described as his racist tendencies towards Iraqis and Muslims when he was going on some of these, you know, killing sprees in Iraq on assignment,” Mohyeldin said of Kyle, whose career was recently the subject of the blockbuster movie “American Sniper.”
Host Joe Scarborough was taken aback by his colleague’s comments, saying, “All right, when we come back, Ayman is going to kick around Santa Claus.”
The letter, which the Washington Examiner said was sent out Tuesday, demands an on-air apology from Mohyeldin.
“Mohyeldin’s statements were an inexcusable slap in the face to the widow of Chris Kyle and to all those in the armed forces who continue to serve our country in harm’s way,” they wrote in the letter.
This is the latest black eye for the Peacock Network, which has been in panic mode since its star anchor, Brian Williams, backtracked on his story that he had been shot at during his 2003 trip to Iraq.
Coincidentally, the Mohyeldin interview was the same day Williams took former Command Sgt. Major Tim Terpak to Madison Square Garden for the Rangers-Canadiens game — part of a segment that would later cause a lot of trouble for NBC’s golden boy.
The hockey game was supposed to be Williams’ way of thanking the retired soldier for protecting the NBC crew while they were embedded in Iraq during the first week of the invasion.
But the photo op backfired for the “Nightly News” anchor after he aired a segment on his reunion with Terpak.
“The story actually started with a terrible moment a dozen years back during the invasion of Iraq when the helicopter we were traveling in was forced down after being hit by an RPG,” Williams said on the Jan. 30 broadcast. “Our traveling NBC News team was rescued, surrounded and kept alive by an armored mechanized platoon from the US Army 3rd Infantry.”
After the clip was posted to the “NBC Nightly News” Facebook page, former soldiers who were on the helicopter that actually took enemy fire quickly took to Facebook to shoot down Williams’ story.
Following the backlash and questions about other possible tall tales Williams has told, the 55-year-old veteran reporter voluntarily took himself off the air Saturday.
“It has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions,” he wrote in a memo to his staff.
It is still unclear when, or if, Williams will return as anchor of the “Nightly News.”
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