14 DAY TRIAL // Brian Williams has been with NBC News on the Nightly News for almost 11 years, and has always been considered a very reliable and quite courageous news anchor by his peers and the wider public. Right now, his entire career is under scrutiny, after he admitted to lying about being in a helicopter incident in Iraq in 2003.
Williams’ admission came last weekend, after he was called out on it by a flight engineer that really was on the helicopter in question. He pulled himself off air afterwards, probably thinking this would suffice. It didn’t: the network wants answers, and more importantly, wants to see him punished.
Brian Williams, suspended without pay
In light of recent discoveries about Williams’ coverage of various events throughout the years and his clear tendencies to portray himself as some sort of unsung hero who is always closer to the danger than he should be, NBC has decided to suspend him without pay for 6 whole months.
By the way, word online has it that Williams’ salary is of about $10 million (€8.8 million) a year, so this forced leave without pay must sting a lot.
Network bosses estimate that the ongoing investigation they’re conducting right now will conclude by then, at which time they will be able to make the right decision about his future as anchor on the Nightly News.
Things aren’t looking good for Williams: following the public and media backlash, he seems to have lost all credibility, so chances are he will get the axe at the end of the 6 months. At best, he will be forced to “retire” behind the camera for good.
You will find the memo sent out to the media by NBC News President Deborah Turness below.
The Iraq “misinterpretation,” the other lies
While honoring a war veteran at the end of last week, Williams retold his story about how he had a very close brush with death when in Iraq covering the war, when his helicopter was hit by RPG fire. His comment prompted the aforementioned flight engineer, Lance Reynolds, to call him out on Facebook with, “Sorry dude, I don’t remember you being on my aircraft.”
As it turns out, Williams wasn’t on the helicopter that was hit, but arrived an hour later on a separate jet and got all the details of the attack from the crew. However, that didn’t stop him from saying on various occasions that this happened to him directly, sometimes even exaggerating the details to make it sound as if he was in more danger.
The next day, Williams apologized, saying he “misremembered” the events and that he’d take himself off the air for a while because of it. By that time, though, many had caught wind of his lie and started looking for evidence of more of the same.
It didn’t take long for it to appear.
Right now, Williams is believed to have lied about his experience during the coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (when he said he saw dead bodies floating past him in the water), and his trip to Israel in 2006 (when he said Katyusha rockets flew right under the jet he was in, though that was never the case).
He is believed to have lied even about that one time he saved one puppy from a burning house when he was a volunteer firefighter, because depending on whom he told the story to, that puppy turned into two and even three helpless pooches.
From now and until a decision about Williams is made, he will be replaced by Lester Holt.