Case Study: Brian Williams’ Embellished Stories
Brian Williams, a 22-year veteran who was drawing 10 million viewers a night as anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” was suspended for six months and was demoted in early 2015 because he had repeatedly embellished his accounts of reporting exploits.
NBC suspended Williams without pay and launched an internal investigation after he apologized on his newscast Feb. 4 for having said on an earlier newscast that a military helicopter he was riding in had been damaged by rocket fire at the beginning of the Iraq invasion in 2003. His account had been disputed by military veterans.
The investigators reported June 18 that Williams had been found to have publicly fabricated accounts in “a number of” instances. (News accounts said there were 10 to 11 instances.) In its own news story announcing the investigators’ findings, NBC said: “The statements in question did not for the most part occur on NBC News platforms or in the immediate aftermath of the news events but rather on late-night programs and during public appearances, usually years after the news events in question.”
In an interview in June with Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today,” Williams acknowledged distorting the helicopter account and telling other “stories that were not true.” He did not identify those other stories. “It came from a sloppy choice of words,” Williams said. “It got mixed up; it got turned around in my mind.”
Williams returned to work in September in a new role, that of anchor of breaking news and special reports for the cable channel MSNBC. Lester Holt, who had been filling in during Williams’ suspension, was confirmed as the new anchor of “NBC Nightly News.”
Rem Rieder, USA Today’s media critic, called NBC’s handling of the situation “truly terrible.” Rieder wrote, “Williams’ new role will be anchoring major news, which requires the same credibility as fronting a network newscast. And credibility is the problem here. Williams has shattered his.”
Sources
Mullin, Benjamin, “NBC to conduct internal investigation of Brian Williams,” Poynter, Feb. 6, 2015.
Steel, Emily, John Koblin and Ravi Somaiya, “Brian Williams to stay at NBC, but not as news anchor,” June 17, 2015.
NBC News, “Lester Holt named anchor of ‘NBC Nightly News,’” June 18, 2015.
Rieder, Rem, “NBC’s terrible Brian Williams decision,” USA Today, June 18, 2015.
Farhi, Paul, “At long last, Brian Williams is back – humbled and demoted to MSNBC,” The Washington Post, Sept. 21, 2015.