In February 2015 NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams received a six-month suspension after lying about his involvement in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Williams had agreed to a five-year deal with NBC in December 2014 for a $10 million yearly compensation (Day and Hamedy n.p). However, he was placed on indefinite leave without pay, which was unprecedented for a network news anchor in the annals of time. Deborah Turness, president of NBC News, criticized Williams harshly in her remarks regarding his suspension. She claimed that Williams had exaggerated the war's events in a broadcast by incorrectly claiming that the helicopter he was riding in come under rocket fire. The president continued to state that the network’s investigation indicated that Williams had repeated the same false claims in other venues (Day and Hamedy n.p).
The disciplinary action taken against Williams was a great fall from grace for Williams, who had been in charge of the America’s top-rated news outlet for almost a decade and assisted in leading it to several Peabody and Emmy awards (Steel and Somaiya n.p). The punishment came after Williams’ apology for falsely claiming that the helicopter he used during the 2003 combat mission in Iraq had come under fire. Williams’ apology quickly attracted criticization from the media, which perceived it as insufficient (Steel and Somaiya n.p). In fact, it was the turbulence of media coverage about Brian Williams’ issues that fueled his six-month suspension. The coverage of Williams’ incident had become a key topic for the late-night comedy shows, where Williams was a lively guest. Due to the media's broad coverage of the story, Williams’ ranking as one of the most trustworthy American news anchors experienced a steep drop in a matter of days (Steel and Somaiya n.p).
Some television journalism experts alongside Williams former NBC News colleagues believed that Williams' ability to entertain in front of the younger viewers, who rarely watched the news, was a factor in leading him into the problem (Iyengar n.p). According to them, Williams was so good at entertaining younger viewers that he sometimes thought of being a late-night host. Besides, Williams’ most deliberately exaggerated story about the helicopter incident happened in 2013 in the Late Show with David Letterman (Iyengar n.p).
Judy Muller, who is a long-time network correspondent was among those who believed that Williams’ fault resulted from the demand for TV journalists to entertain their audiences, and she described Williams’ exaggeration of the helicopter story as a shame (Day and Hamedy n.p). Williams’ punishment came after a week-long media attack that revolved between outrage and scorn over the anchor’s embellishments, thereby spoiling Williams’ reputation and shambling NBC in its battle with other rival networks regarding the nightly ratings (Iyengar n.p). The showbusiness magazine indicated that Williams was poised for a comeback following his on-air apology. Such coverages resulted in more discussions, with many questioning his reputation and whether he was fit to resume duty (Iyengar n.p). Additionally, Williams’ accusations augmented after the military newspaper Stars and Stripes conducted interviews with various US army veterans, who had previously accused Williams of making fun of his combat experiences in Iraq (Steel and Somaiya n.p).
In overall, the media’s accusatory coverage of Brian Williams’ claims made significant contributions to his suspension. It was due to the media’s coverage of Williams’ claims that the NBC News president got compelled to describe Williams claims as entirely inappropriate for a media personality in William's position. When giving her remarks regarding Williams' suspension, president Deborah Turness stated that Brian Williams had the responsibility of being truthful and upholding the high standards of the news division of NBC News at all times.
References
Day, Patrick, and Saba Hamedy. “Brian Williams Controversy: What Led to The NBC Anchor’s Suspension.” Los Angeles Times (2015): n. p. Web. 3 Dec. 2017.
Iyengar, Rishi. “Brian Williams Will Stay On At NBC News, But Won’t Get His Old Job Back.” Time (2015): n. p. Web. 3 Dec. 2017.
Steel, Emily, and Ravi Somaiya. “Brian Williams Suspended from NBC for 6 Months Without Pay. 10, 2015.” The New York Times (2015): n. p. Web. 3 Dec. 2017.
