It was a good thing that NBC's Brian Williams was sitting behind a desk last week while anchoring Nightly News, because it hid the fact that his pants were on fire while recalling a trip he made to Iraq in 2003.

BriWi told a lie and now that he's been caught, he has admitted it.

Here is how Williams reported the story just last week:

Williams is now recanting his claims that he was on board a helicopter forced down in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq.

The claim has been widely cited and Williams repeated it on the air on Friday's broadcast. But, crew members from the Chinook helicopter that was hit by rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that Williams was not near that helicopter or two others flying in formation that were struck. According to the news organization, Williams arrived in the area about an hour after.

Williams told Stars and Stripes in an interview that he did not remember the events correctly and he misspoke.

Wait a minute! If you were in a helicopter that hit by an RPG, I would think you would remember that.

Fact is, Williams tried to embellish a story and got caught. Not really something you want from your main network Anchor.

One other thing, when Williams was in Iraq in 2003, he surely wasn't the only person from NBC News. Others from NBC had to be traveling with the Anchor. Which means, while this story of BriWi being shot down  has been told several times over the years, no one from Williams crew that day spoke up to say. that is NOT what happened."

So it appears that the lie goes deeper than just Williams. 

This all comes as NBC News was once again pulling away from ABC in the evening news ratings. It remains to be seen if BriWi's lie will hurt him ratings wise. And while it turns out that Williams was not shot down in a helicopter in Iraq, there is no doubt that his credibility took a direct hit.

Here's Williams saying he was sorry on Nightly News last night:

H/T USA Today