In a scathing article for Politico Magazine on Thursday, senior media writer Jack Shafer wrote an obituary for the career of suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams: "At this point, Brian Williams knows he's dead: He's simply negotiating the terms of his burial."
Shafer addressed a Monday New York Daily News item that claimed the president of NBC News wanted Williams to return: "For a brief moment earlier this week, it looked as though Williams might have found a champion in Andrew Lack....But whoever launched that trial balloon – presumably a Williams loyalist – must have been ducking for cover the next day when the Hollywood Reporter and the New York Post sent high-velocity rounds through the Daily News item with a blind-sourced story of its own."
He cited one of the reports: "'They want Brian to resign,' an anonymous source told the Post. 'If they have to fire him, they can't control him.'"
Shafer speculated: "Who can tell from the leaks whether Williams wants his job back or if he's merely jockeying for the best termination deal he can get? Hell, he might not even know for sure that he wants to return and suffer the risk of croaking his viewers in blood clots of laughter."
He concluded:
In the end, there wasn't any reason to fight for BriWi. Lester Holt seems to be doing fine, and there appear to be all too many people within NBC happy to see Williams gone....Williams, a charismatic newsreader of no distinction as a reporter, has no such work summary to protect him from critics' blows. All he has is the lopsided grin, the great timing and the confident crooning....And that's not enough. Everybody in the news business is replaceable, but TV news people even more so because they're ultimately judged not by the quality of their work but by the ratings they attract.
Shafer's harsh assessment of Williams's prospects followed a spate of stories detailing several lies from the network anchor:
NBC Investigation Uncovers 11 Brian Williams Lies So Far
Brian of Arabia: Brian Williams Also Fibbed About Arab Spring
Report: NBC DC Bureau Pushed Hard Against Brian Williams Return to 'Nightly News'
Vanity Fair: NBC Investigation Finding More Fabrications by ‘Shell-Shocked’ Brian Williams
