Longtime New Yorker media-industry columnist Ken Auletta reported on Wednesday afternoon that “Tom Brokaw played a key role in NBC’s decision last night to suspend the news anchor Brian Williams, according to two people involved.”
Auletta wrote that Williams had agreed to a suspension but “wanted a declaration by NBC that he would return as an evening-news anchor.” NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke, “torn between wanting to take a hard line and feeling compassion for Williams,” sought Brokaw’s counsel on the matter. After Brokaw indicated to Burke that he was “concerned about the effects of Williams’s actions on the reputation of the rank and file in the news division,” Burke decided to make the suspension “non-negotiable.”
According to Auletta, Brokaw, who preceded Williams as Nightly News anchor, believed that David Bloom, who died in April of 2003 while covering the Iraq war, was “NBC’s greatest news asset; he thought Williams was a skilled broadcaster but that he was inclined toward self-aggrandizement.”
From Auletta’s post (bolding added):
NBC had begun a probe, led by the network’s investigations editor, Richard Esposito, which, though not complete, had already uncovered “more than one issue of Brian exaggerating,” according to one of the sources. Williams said that he realized the lameness of his apology, made last week, for “exaggerating” the dangers that he encountered in Iraq, in 2003. He assured NBC’s chief executive, Steve Burke, he would look into the camera and offer a compelling explanation of his lapse.
The second conferee said that Williams and his attorney were willing to accept a suspension, but that Williams wanted a declaration by NBC that he would return as an evening-news anchor. Burke, the conferee says, was torn between wanting to take a hard line and feeling compassion for Williams. Brokaw, who turned seventy-five last week, cancelled a Caribbean vacation to heed Burke’s request for advice. Brokaw was concerned about the effects of Williams’s actions on the reputation of the rank and file in the news division.
On Tuesday, Burke summoned Williams and told him that the suspension was non-negotiable.
…Even after he retired as an anchor, a decade ago, Brokaw was often consulted by the two network presidents who succeeded Wright, Jeff Zucker and Burke. Brokaw saw the correspondent David Bloom, who died in 2003, as NBC’s greatest news asset; he thought Williams was a skilled broadcaster but that he was inclined toward self-aggrandizement…
Williams has been suspended for six months without pay. His Connecticut home is not Elba, but it may as well be. There is no reason to believe that his plummeting trust ratings will rise. NBC’s evening newscast will likely fall out of first place, instigating a frantic search for a replacement. As Williams “exaggerated” what happened to his helicopter, so it could be said that NBC is exaggerating its expectation that he will return.
