Update: Yesterday, NBC News senior vice president Allison Gollust issued the statement above, attacking the Society for Professional Journalists for failing to contact NBC before it called upon the network to sever its ties to General Barry McCaffrey.

It turns out Ms. Gollust’s accusation is flatly false.

Today, Scott A. Leadingham, Communications Coordinator, Society of Professional Journalists, supplied FCP with a copy of this e-mail, which he sent to Ms. Gollust the day before SPJ issued its statement. Leadingham told FCP he also spoke with Gollust’s assistant twice on the day he sent the e-mail, but Ms. Gollust never responded to any of his messages. Here is the e-mail:

Hello, Ms. Gollust.

I’m contacting you in regard to the Society of Professional Journalists responding to media reports about NBC analyst Gen. Barry McCaffrey. Our ethics committee is preparing to issue a statement calling on NBC to sever its relationship with Gen. McCaffrey in light of a conflict of interest recently reported by the New York Times. Specifically, the ethic committee is calling on NBC News President Steve Capus and Nightly News Anchor/Managing Editor Brian Williams to respond.

Before issuing such a statement, however, SPJ would like to give NBC a chance to respond. If NBC so chooses, we will include your response in our statement, in the interest of fairness.

Please contact me by phone or e-mail at your earliest convenience. We would like to issue this statement before the end of the week.

Best Regards,

Scott A. Leadingham Society of Professional Journalists

Update II: Ms. Gollust confirmed to FCP today that, contrary to another statement she made yesterday, no NBC News Broadcast has ever made any mention of the McCaffrey controversy since David Barstow’s first article ran in The New York Times last spring.

Update III: Ms. Gollust responds:

Mr. Kaiser,

My statement of yesterday still stands, and I take issue with your accusation that I am a liar. I am not.

Mr. Leadingham, and SPJ, offered me the opportunity to respond to the findings and subsequent actions of the Ethics Committee. By the time he offered us the chance to respond, the Committee had already come to their conclusions, as is evidenced in his note. We decided not to offer a statement in their release, as is our prerogative.

As for our coverage, when I told you that we covered it in April, I was referring to Brian’s “Daily Nightly” blog, as well as the brief mention on MSNBC, per my earlier email. The majority of the limited response we had to the initial article was on the “Daily Nightly” site and other internet sites, so we determined that was the most appropriate way to respond.

I believe that answers all your questions.

FCP: This ignores the fact that Gollust’s statement about SPJ left the clear impression that the organization had made no effort to contact NBC News before it called upon the network to sever its ties to McCaffrey. And her statement to FCP yesterday that NBC had covered this controversy in April was in response to the question, “Has NBC ever covered this on any of its broadcasts?” It was not a question about MSNBC, or about Brian Williams’s posting—which I first wrote about here—immediately after he made it.