Lessons In Honesty and Integrity
[Picture: NPR]
As you know I have blogged about
Brian Williams, not to attack the man, but to remind everyone that honesty and
integrity are all we have.
On February 10th NBC News suspended
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor for NBC Nightly News, for six months
without pay.
Williams had stepped down
voluntarily, after Stars and
Stripes questioned an incident described on air.
While in the anchor chair, Williams
said a helicopter he was on had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while it
flew over Iraq in 2003. Members of the military, who were on the helicopter
with him, questioned that version of events, and Williams later
admitted he had "misremembered" the episode.
NBC News President Deborah Turness
broke the news to staff in a memo today.
According to Politico, which got its
hands on the note, Turness said Williams had misrepresented the
event on his newscast last month as well as on other occasions. Turness said
this was "wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian's
position."
"As I'm sure you understand,
this was a very hard decision," Turness said. "Certainly there will
be those who disagree. But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and
proportionate action."
Lester Holt, who has been replacing
Williams, will continue to host the top-rated nightly television newscast.
In the same memo, Steve Burke, the
CEO of NBC Universal, said Williams had "jeopardized the trust millions of
Americans place in NBC News," but "he deserves a second chance."
"Brian has shared his deep
remorse with me and he is committed to winning back everyone's trust,"
Burke said.
NPR's David Folkenflik reports that
the internal review of Williams' work is still ongoing.
David adds that
today's action is the "first time in 10 days since Williams' offending Jan
30 newscast that network's leadership registered [a] presence publicly in any
meaningful way."
