Recent controversy has swirled around NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. The popular chief anchor and managing editor has been suspended for six months without pay for allegedly falsifying claims of an accident that happened in 2003 involving a military convoy in Iraq.
After this scandal surfaced, so did other accusations against Williams, claiming that there were other incidents that the NBC anchor made questionable statements. This came as a surprise to many Americans and viewers since Williams is such a well-respected journalist.
According to USAToday, NBC News President Deborah Turness said the decision to suspend Williams was made jointly with NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke and Pat Fili, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group. NBCUniversal, which operates NBC News, is a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Comcast Corp.
"His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate," Burke said. "He deserves a second chance and we are rooting for him. Brian has shared his deep remorse with me and he is committed to winning back everyone's trust."
Williams decided to pull himself out a newscast the immediately followed the allegations, which was probably the right decision on his part, but a six-month suspension from NBC seems pretty excessive.
Yes, Williams should not have exaggerated claims or made them up to be more than they really were, but for an incident that happened 12 years ago, that is quite dramatic.
I realize that it is never appropriate to lie, and as a consumer of news, I trust that journalists like Williams are giving completely accurate information and being truthful. He slipped up, messed up and took responsibility for what happened, but portraying him as some type of crook is just as inappropriate.
Lester Holt will be filling in for Brian Williams for the next six months, and after that, only time will tell how this whole ordeal will impact viewers and the newscast. Williams anchored the number one evening news show in the country and was a frequent guess on other popular late-night talk shows.
In a recent New York Times article it was reported that, “If Mr. Williams does not return, finding a permanent successor will be a major problem for the network, which was not anticipating having to replace him. In December, Mr. Williams signed a new five-year contract reported to be worth $10 million a year. Mr. Holt, who had been the weekend anchor for NBC, was not previously considered a likely replacement.”
The New York Times also reported that, “The military publication Stars and Stripes was tipped off that the account was inaccurate and contacted Mr. Williams, who admitted that he was not on the helicopter that was forced down. “I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Mr. Williams told Stars and Stripes. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”
Travis J. Tritten, the Stars and Stripes reporter who broke the story about Mr. Williams’s exaggeration, said he did not get any satisfaction from seeing Mr. Williams suspended. “Like the vets I spoke with,” he wrote in a Twitter post after the suspension was announced, “I just wanted to set the record straight.”
