NBC Anchor Takes Break Over Iraq War Lie

NBC anchor Brian Williams is taking himself off air temporarily after falsely claiming he was aboard a helicopter hit by enemy fire in Iraq.

Williams sent a memo to colleagues saying he was taking time out of presenting Nightly News for several days after it became "painfully apparent" he was a distraction.

NBC has launched an internal investigation into his lie.

"In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions," said the memo, which was released by NBC.

"Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us."

Williams had already apologised for claiming on air that he had reported aboard a Chinook helicopter crippled by enemy fire during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Several soldiers involved in the operation said the presenter was in fact on a different helicopter that had not come under fire and arrived at the scene about an hour later.

"Sorry dude, I don't remember you being on my aircraft. I do remember you walking up about an hour after we had landed to ask me what had happened," Lance Reynolds, who was the flight engineer, wrote on the anchor's Facebook page.

In a written apology released three days ago, Williams said "the fog of memory over 12 years" had made him conflate and misremember events.

Questions have also been raised about Williams' claim he saw a body or bodies in the Hurricane Katrina floodwaters that hit New Orleans.

The internet responded to the latest error with a wave of ridicule - #BrianWilliamsMemories and #BrianWilliamsMisremembers were soon trending on Twitter.

Doctored images showed the anchor reporting live from the Moon landings, inspiring Martin Luther King and as Moses on Mount Sinai.