by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 11, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

                Stepping down as managing director and anchor for NBC’s “Nightly News” Feb. 7, 55-year-old Brian Williams tried to take himself out of the headlines but finds himself more radioactive than ever.  Hoping to end the controversy, the popular news anchor was caught by Stars and Stripes magazine fabricating a 2005 account in which Williams claimed his Chinnok helicopter was hit by a rocket propelled grenade near Baghdad in 2003.  While Williams apologized Feb. 4 for “conflating” the story reported on the David Letterman Show March 26, 2013 that his helicopter was struck by RPG and AK-47 fire, his apology fell flat, making more plausible excuses how it was possible he got his wires crossed.  When NBC News President Deborah Turness opened an internal investigation into Williams’ fibbing Feb. 6, it opened up a can of worms with other media outlets reporting more concocted stories.

             Covering hurricane Katrina from the Ritz-Carlton in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 2005, Williams said he saw a body float down a street from his hotel window.  Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré told CNN’s “Reliable Sources” that “anything was possible,” but said “it would be very suspect,” considering the minimal flooding in the French Quarter, raising more doubts about Williams’ story.  More questions arose about Williams’ 1975 account in Esquire Magazine of getting robbed at gunpoint with a .38 caliber handgun while selling Christmas trees at local Church in Red Rock, New Jersey.  Restaurant owner Danny Murphy doubted Williams’ story, noting nothing was ever reported to police in the relatively crime-free community.  Whatever Turness finds in her “internal” investigation, no credible news network can have its managing director and news anchor accused of telling stories.

             Williams took over the NBC’s “Nightly News” Dec. 2, 2004 when broadcasting legend Tom Brokaw retired from the anchor desk.  No one imagined Williams could so successfully takeover for Brokaw, rising quickly to the most watched network news program shortly after the death of ABC’s legendary news anchor Peter Jennings Aug. 7, 2005.  Williams remained at the top of the ratings heap until recent reports about his hyperbole consumed the headlines, forcing him out Feb. 7.  While Williams is guilty of no more than embellishing stories, network and cable news thrives on credibility—that fragile commodity lost to Williams and NBC News. Whether or not Williams deserves to be fired is not part of NBC’s calculation for reinstating the besieged broadcast journalist to the anchor desk.  Only the hard Nielsen Ratings tell the story of what Turness must do with Williams.

             When Williams half-apologized Feb. 4 on his Nightly News broadcast, he gave more excuses how he could get his facts wrong about his Chinnok helicopter got hit with RPG fire and AK-47 fire.  Instead of telling his audience and network executives he embellished his story to make the news more interesting, he talked about vague things like “the fog of memory,” making more excuses but offering no heartfelt apology.  “This was a bungled attempt by me to thank one special veteran and by extension our brave military men and women, veterans everywhere, those who have served while I did not,” Williams told his audience Feb. 4.  So many flowery words, too little apology and a more elaborate hoax to blow smoke, left Williams’ credibility—and that of NBC News—hemorrhaging. Had Williams just leveled with his audience, telling them he over did it to make the story more interesting, he might have survived.

             NBC executives have little chance for the foreseeable future of reinstating Williams as NBC News managing director or Nightly News anchor.  On his last broadcast, ABC’s “News Tonight” with David Muir beat Williams by 500,000 viewers, a net loss of 900,000 when you consider Williams beat his competition before by 400,000 viewers.  Nielsen Ratings tell the whole story of why NBC executives can’t reinstate Williams for the foreseeable future.  NBC knows it will take time to find a new on-air talent and recover the reversal of fortunes, leaving NBC scrambling to catch-up with CBS “Evening News” and ABC’s “Nightly News.”  Williams had perfect chance to plead his case to his audience and network executives, admitting he was a “serial exaggerator,” looking for approval by making up stories.  When it comes to a network’s credibility, they’re as good as their on-air talent.

             Returning Williams to the anchor chair would slap NBC’s loyal audience in the face, not because he committed an egregious crime but precisely because all news networks run on credibility.  Once venerable CBS News managing director and anchor Dan Rather was caught disseminating un-vetted reports about former President’s George W. Bush’s military records in 2004, it didn’t take long for CBS President Leslie Moonves to accept Rather’s resignation March 9, 2005.  Too many stories have piled up against Williams to salvage his career, pointing toward “serial exaggeration,” not, as Williams calls it, “the fog of memory.”  Dropping out of college to intern in the Carter administration in 1979, Williams once admitted not getting his degree was one of his “greatest regrets.”  Whether dropping out of college created the insecurity that led to his “serial exaggeration” is anyone’s guess.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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