Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nightly News for more than 10 years, is stepping down from his nightly responsibilities. While it is unclear for how long he will be gone, it is a sign that Williams and NBC are\u00a0beginning to take seriously the damage that has been done to his professional career by his failure to accurately remember (or his intentional misrepresentation\u00a0of) events that took place in the recent past.<\/p>\n
At question is an incident while reporting on the war in Iraq. According to various recollections by Williams he was in a helicopter that was either under fire, took a hit from an R.P.G., and\/or was forced down. Military personnel who were there recall it differently and have been upset that Williams has been twisting the facts to make it appear that he was in greater danger than was the case. In a separate case, Williams’s reporting after Hurricane Katrina is also being questioned.<\/p>\n
Social media has not been kind. The hashtag #BrianWilliamsMisremembers has dogged Williams since the story broke and fellow\u00a0journalists are not coming to his rescue. Some\u00a0are piling on, according to the New York Times<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cBrian Williams will be fine,\u201d Andy Levy, a Fox News commentator, wrote<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter. \u201cIf he can survive being hit by an R.P.G., he can survive this.\u201d<\/p>\n Journalism is a business that trades in credibility and the fair exchange of accurate information in a timely manner. If any part of that equation is missing, the value of the information plummets. For a network anchor who is reported by the New York Times<\/em> to be worth about\u00a0$2M a year, the loss of value is significant. According to the Times<\/em><\/a>, at his recent contract negotiations “Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News, called him one of ‘the most trusted journalists of our time.’\u201d Also according to the Times<\/em><\/a>,<\/p>\n Before the episode, Mr. Williams long had been considered one of the most trusted people in not only in the news business but in the country as a whole. He was trusted by about three-quarters of consumers, making him the 23rd-most-trusted person in the country, according to the celebrity index of The Marketing Arm, a research firm owned by Omnicom. That places him alongside the likes of Denzel Washington, Warren E. Buffett and Robin Roberts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That was then, this is now. Brian Williams’s credibility is on the line and only time will tell if American consumers of news will forgive him the lapse in judgement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nightly News for more than 10 years, is stepping down from his nightly responsibilities. While it is unclear for how long he will be gone, it is a sign that Williams and NBC are\u00a0beginning to take seriously the damage that has been done to his professional career by his failure … <\/p>\n