Attkisson: Williams Being Held to Higher Truth Standard

Attkisson talks with Clinton during Bosnia Trip

Emmy Award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who covered the story of Hillary Clinton's lie about being shot at in Bosnia, says she can't understand how the former secretary of state weathered the scandal while NBC News anchor Brian Williams may not.

"To me, part of the irony is if Brian Williams isn't able to survive it — that we think it's important enough when somebody gives this kind of story that he would lose his career — yet we didn't care enough to have it matter that much with someone who became our secretary of state," Attkisson said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"Is it really more important that Brian Williams has a certain type of character and honesty than a presidential candidate or secretary of state?" said Attkisson, a former CBS News reporter.

"I don't know, that's up to the American people to decide, but clearly they got past it in the case of Hillary Clinton, although it was never explained. We'll see if people can get past it in the case of Brian Williams."

Clinton's gaff came during her 2008 run for the White House, when she claimed she and her staff had dodged sniper fire on an airport landing strip in Bosnia. But news video of the event revealed it never happened.

Attkisson formerly with CBS News and  author of the book "Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama's Washington," published by Harper, said Williams' lie was on that trip with Clinton and that the Williams case is "strangely" reminiscent.