Psychologist Defends Brian Williams After Katrina Story Scrutiny: He Suffered ‘Genuine Memory Error’ [Video]

Allison Williams, who just happens to be the daughter of popular news anchor Brian Williams, became famous for taking on the challenging role of Peter Pan. And while NBC was delighted with her success in powering through the live broadcast, they’re not so thrilled with reports that Brian lied about his Katrina coverage, according to Fox News.

The latest allegation charges Brian with embellishing his Hurricane Katrina reports. That charge follows his own confession that he provided an inaccurate report about what really occurred on a helicopter during the Iraq War. So how did Williams manage to succeed in outraging both Iraq War veterans and Katrina survivors?

When it comes to Hurricane Katrina, Brian dramatically described sitting in his hotel room in the city’s French Quarter and feeling horrified as he watched a body float past. But that on-air broadcast discussed non-existent flooding, said a source.

“We were never wet. It was never wet,” argued Dr. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director who survived the storm in a trailer in that area.

In addition, Brian talked with former Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw about becoming sick with dysentery because he mistakenly gulped down floodwater. Wrong again, said Lutz, who asserted that he neither treated nor heard of any cases of dysentery after the hurricane.

“My week, two weeks there was not helped by the fact that I accidentally ingested some of the floodwater. I became very sick with dysentery, our hotel was overrun with gangs, I was rescued in the stairwell of a five-star hotel in New Orleans by a young police officer. We are friends to this day. And uh, it just was uh, I look back at total agony.”

But now a psychologist has come to his defense, according to the New Republic. Specializing in memory research, Lawrence Patihis says it’s possible that Williams genuinely thought he had experienced what in reality are false memories.

The University of California, Irvine, researcher explained.

I suspect that no one is immune from memory distortion. Even people with superior memory seem to be susceptible to misleading information that is presented after the original event.

Therefore, said Patihis, Brian may be a victim of this problem.

“In the case of Brian Williams, that misleading information may have been in the form of seeing the footage of him and his film crew examining the damage of the helicopter that was actually hit, and seeing it over and over again,” concluded the psychologist.

One person who definitely believes in Brian Williams is his daughter Allison, who just played the role of Peter Pan, as the Inquisitr reported. And when Allison won the role in the live broadcast, ironically, it was her father Brian Williams who reported that she had been dreaming of playing the boy who didn’t want to grow up since she was a child.

Williams featured the announcement at the conclusion of his broadcast, including a photo of his daughter when she was young.

“Family members confirm she’s been rehearsing for this role since the age of 3, and they look forward to seeing her fly,” said Brian.

[Photo By Ethan Miller/Getty Images]