Brian Williams Out Six Months

NBC has made a decision on anchor Brian Williams:

From: "Deborah Turness (NBCUniversal)"
Date: Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 4:48 PM -0800
Subject: Brian Williams
To: "@NBC Uni NBC News All"  

All,  

We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately. We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News.  

Our review, which is being led by Richard Esposito working closely with NBCUniversal General Counsel Kim Harris, is ongoing, but I think it is important to take you through our thought process in coming to this decision.  

While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position.  

In addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field.  

As Managing Editor and Anchor of Nightly News, Brian has a responsibility to be truthful and to uphold the high standards of the news division at all times.  

Steve Burke, Pat Fili and I came to this decision together. We felt it would have been wrong to disregard the good work Brian has done and the special relationship he has forged with our viewers over 22 years. Millions of Americans have turned to him every day, and he has been an important and well-respected part of our organization. 

To read the rest of NBCUniversal's statement, go here. 

Brian Williams Going "On Leave"

There's an old saying:

Confession may be good for the soul, but it's very bad for my reputation.

Such is the case of embattled NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who confessed that he made up the story that the helicopter he was flying in Iraq was under fire.

Williams has announced that he is taking a leave of absence from his duties as news anchor for an unspecified number of days.

According to the Hollywood Reporter:

Brian Williams is stepping away from NBC Nightly News for a number of days. 

The anchor sent a note to the show's staff, announcing that Lester Holt is replacing him for an unspecified amount of time. The news comes as Williams is embroiled in a scandal surrounding his story about being a passenger in a helicopter that took fire in Iraq in 2003.

Frankly, I can't see how he can survive this scandal without having to resign or be fired from his positions as news anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News. His credibility is in tatters.

Along with the Iraq story, people are questioning his claim that he saw a body floating face down in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. The area where Williams was at the time was not flooded, according to news sources. That and other claims Williams has made are being investigated.

Jokes about Williams are being widely circulated on the Internet such as the one pictured at top.

To read more, go here.

Brian Williams Should Resign or Be Fired

It is hard to see how NBC News anchor Brian Williams can survive in the network's anchor chair since the revelations that he lied about being in a helicopter in Iraq that was under fire in 2003. His credibility is totally in tatters since his admission that the tale he had been telling was untrue.

According to the New York Times:

For years, Brian Williams had been telling a story that wasn’t true. On Wednesday night, he took to his anchor chair on “NBC Nightly News” to apologize for misleading the public. 

On Thursday, his real problems started. 

A host of military veterans and pundits came forward on television and social media, challenging Mr. Williams’s assertion that he had simply made a mistake when he spoke, on several occasions, about having been in a United States military helicopter forced down by enemy fire in Iraq in 2003. Some went so far as to call for his resignation. 

In his apology, Mr. Williams said that he had been on a different helicopter, behind the one that had sustained fire, and that he had inadvertently “conflated” the two. The explanation earned him not only widespread criticism on radio and TV talk shows, but widespread ridicule on Twitter, under the hashtag “#BrianWilliamsMisremembers.”

This kind of reminds me of the problems that faced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather when he dragged his feet to admit documents about President George W. Bush were fake. He was jettisoned as news anchor as a result.

Now, other news stories that Williams reported on are under intense scrutiny.

Funny thing, my late mother did not like Brian Williams for some reason. Maybe she sensed something about him that this scandal only scratches the surface.

If NBC News is to regain any sort of trust and credibility, they have to fire Williams.

To read more, go here.