If they care about credibility at all he can not come back. It’ll be interesting. And, I do think he got caught up in his own celebrity and forgot about his actual job. He always seemed more like an anchor Ken doll than a journalist to me. But, admittedly I don’t think I have ever watched a full 22 minutes.
Oops- they just announced he is canceling his scheduled appearance on Letterman this Thursday.
Will be interesting to see if Sat. Night Live takes a shot at him.
Say what u want about Mr. Plastic Hair on ABC, at least where his nose points is within 20 degrees of where the rest of his face is pointing.Watching Sergeant Williams used to give me a headache…trying to reconcile how his schnoz could be pointed right at me while his eyes were straining to keep up.
If im not mis taken he isn’t even a college grad. He’s not a journalist he’s a teleprompter reader. He grew up in my town, and he was being asked to help his small catholic high school stay afloat. Im guessing he has bigger fish to fry. His little blurb in cable drives me nuts…we’ll tell you what we need to know, I cringe every time I hear it. Maybe they’ll take that down too. I guess we don’t require integrity in our newscasters.
I like Scott Pelley ay CBS.
NBC does not have a very deep bench at this point, and audiences need a comfort zone. OTOH, if his personal vignettes have been enhanced, and facts are in doubt, he can never authoritatively interview anyone else whose story is questionable. It is a mess.
Terrible. Should never be back in the news business.
this is pretty close to stolen valor.
I have trouble remembering what I had for lunch yesterday or the day before, unless something particularly unique happened.
But in my life, I’m darn sure I’d remember if I was in a helicopter shot down by an rpg, and I’d also remember if I had not. And let’s remember- his story wasn’t told for the first time years after the event. It has been told repeatedly right after the event and for years up to just days ago.
It is unfortunate he lied to embellish his story and then (imo) lied when he said he “mis-remembered”. I don’t believe he mis-remembered- he just didn’t have the guts to say he made it up to seem more important.
He is the “big-money” face of NBC news, and I don’t think they have the willingness, guts, or integrity to let him go. Unless many more instances of the same kind of thing come to light, my prediction is he’ll lose just a few viewers, be the butt of many jokes, but will ride it out and remain a newscaster
@younghoss, I like Brian Williams but it appears his credibility is shot.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/08/brian-williams-mugging-story_n_6642368.html
Perhaps he can get a slot on Comedy Central.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/feb/08/brian-williams-nbc-iraq-katrina-scandal
Credibility, what there was, is gone. However, there are a lot of people who seem not to care about credibility in a network news anchor. This I do not understand at all. But, it is reality. And, it’s really weird.
I don’t watch television news. I have seen enough background on a few news stories to come to the conclusion that ALL news stories are slanted. If I am interested in something, I read as much about it as I can from a variety of sources, but I don’t partake of pre chewed sound bites, without a reality chaser.
I do have my favorite local & national news guys, mostly because I have known them ever since I or they, were children, but the days of unimpeachable credibility are long gone.
He will have a successful career in any one of the cable news channels where honesty has taken a back seat to politics and ratings. Speaking of politics, we give our elected politicians a green light to lie and distort the truth; and we continue to forgive them. Brian should be forgiven. He made a mistake and we are talking about potentially taking his career away. I hope none of you ever make a mistake at your jobs or lose your careers.
I think his career will survive but it will be on a different show. Much like Dan Rather did with Dan Rather Reports.
One of my favorite movies ever is Broadcast News. This reminds me of that movie in some ways. . .
I guess it depends on whether you think he made a mistake or was caught in a longtime tendency to embellish events for his own benefit. So far, we have him saving puppies, watching bodies float by where they didn’t, staying in a hotel overrun by gangs that wasn’t, and getting shot at when he was in a different chopper which then turned into following when he was headed in a different direction. Okay.
Broadcast News was back when this stuff mattered, apparently.
Hi younghoss!
Agree that its premature to postulate whether NBC will put him on the 2 am weekend news or on the bench. Many people have short memories.
Have you guy seen the #BrianWilliamsMemories tweets? They are hilarious!
Yep, agree with Marie. If this were Williams’ only mistake, I think he’d be forgiven. However, the impression I’m getting is that Williams has been telling tall tales for years, that people in the industry were well aware of it, and now he’s finally gone one step too far. He’s told that helicopter story multiple times, he said he was in the New Orleans super dome and saw a suicide jumper as he jumped, yada, yada, yada.
Obviously, I’ve no idea if this is the case, but it’s certainly the way the media is reporting this.
He’s a likable guy but he’s no Walter Cronkite. First Iraq, then Katrina. Someone somewhere is now investigating every syllable that he has ever uttered. I’d be surprised if he survives this.
And his daughter was not so good as Peter Pan either. Off with their heads!!