Bad information often gets a reporter into trouble. WMDs and Judy Miller, anyone? But for Bob Costas, a bad tip didn't get him into trouble — it got colleague Brian Williams into an embarrassing lie. You see, Costas had heard that Bruce Springsteen had, during a live concert, congratulated World's Best Athlete Michael Phelps (who Amanda Beard totally didn't make out with) for snagging his seventh gold medal and then dedicated "Born in the USA" to him. Costas wanted to ask Phelps what he thought about The Boss' personal dedicated, but his interview ran long, so he passed the tip to Williams, who brought it up in his own interview with Phelps. Except Springsteen never congratulated Phelps during the concert, nor did he dedicate a song to him.

And that's left Costas apologizing to viewers, but especially Williams. A blog post should do, right?

A few days ago in Beijing, Brian Williams and I had separate interviews with Michael Phelps. Just prior to those interviews, I had been told that the previous Friday night in Jacksonville, Bruce Springsteen had informed his audience that Phelps had won his seventh gold medal and that he then dedicated “Born in the USA” to Michael.

I had every reason to believe this information was accurate, and its source was reliable. In fact, I had intended to use it in my own interview with Phelps, but when time didn’t allow for it, I passed the story on to Brian, who did use it. As you may have seen, Phelps lit up at the story, which rang true for the additional reason that it’s the sort of thing Bruce might very well have done. Except that in this case, he didn’t. I had been misinformed. Still, the blame rests with me. So, I just wanted to set the record straight – and apologize to my friend Brian Williams, one of the best newsmen and biggest Springsteen fans I know.

(Now if The Boss could just cover our butts by giving Mr. Phelps a shout-out on Thursday night in Nashville, or Saturday night in my hometown of St. Louis – a show I’d definitely be at were I not in Beijing – I think I’d feel a lot better.)

[Daily Nightly]