Scroll down for updates…
NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams is toast. Stick a fork in his career; it’s done.
Not since Dan Rather has a respected newsman’s career unraveled so spectacularly in real time.
Williams took himself off NBC Nightly News last week while NBC execs launched an investigation into accusations that he lied about experiences on board a military chopper during the Iraq invasion in 2003.
Tapped to replace Williams on the air temporarily was mixed race NBC news veteran Lester Holt (above), who paused midway through Monday night’s broadcast to explain why Williams was not on the air. Holt said Williams was taking a few days off “amid questions over how he recalls certain stories he covered.”
While apologizing to his viewers last week, Williams told even more lies and claimed he “misremembered” events on board the chopper.
Williams said the chopper he was riding on was hit by a missile and forced to land. His tall tale was debunked by a soldier on another chopper that was actually hit by a missile and small arms fire.
Internet sleuths uncovered even more fabrications told by Williams over the years. Such as the time he claimed he saw a body floating face down past his hotel during Hurricane Katrina.
Myra DeGersdorff, the hotel’s manager at the time, doesn’t recall any bodies floating past her hotel.
“Maybe he misremembered,” she told The Washington Post. “I’m not going to judge him, because it was such an unpleasant week and there were times to be concerned. … And when there is that kind of concern, you can misremember. And maybe he was out there, and it wasn’t impossible he could have encountered a body, but I don’t think it was in the French Quarter. The French Quarter only got inches” of flooding.
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie has emerged as the network’s mostly likely choice to replace Williams permanently at NBC Nightly News, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Guthrie, a 43-year-old attorney, brings 20 years of experience to the table. She is a former White House correspondent, who most recently was named co-anchor of Today. She is married with one child.
UPDATE: This just in! CNN is reporting that NBC News has suspended Brian Williams for 6 months without pay. Lester Holt will remain at the anchor desk in the interim. Williams will reportedly lose $5 million in salary.
This is cop out for NBC. Williams is a pathological liar. He can’t be cured. It’s not like he will return a new man in months time. Clearly NBC does not have any professional standards.
More from Sandrarose.com: