After NBC suspended Williams last February, media speculation abounded about whether he would ever return to the anchor chair at Nightly News.
The consensus among industry experts was that his chances were very good, especially after NBC rehired Andrew Lack:
Former NBC News boss Andy Lack is in ‘advanced’ talks to rejoin the company in a role that would oversee all NBCUniversal news operations, several people on Tuesday confirmed to The Post.
News of the talks, which bounced around media circles, prompted speculation that Lack, a good friend of Brian Williams, the exiled anchor of the network’s Nightly News, will push early to get the fact-challenged newsman back on the air.
‘Andy Lack wouldn’t come back without Brian,’ said a source friendly with both executives. ‘‘This is all about saving Brian….’
(New York Post, March 3, 2015)
Therefore, it’s hardly surprising that Williams fully expected to return. He confesses as much in a repentant and redemptive interview that is set to air on this morning’s edition of NBC’s Today Show.
But good luck getting a single expert to admit predicting his return. By contrast, here is what I wrote back then – in “Replace Retired Jon Stewart with Suspended Brian Williams … and Vice Versa? Noooo!” February 11, 2015 – not only about his chances of returning, but also about who should replace him.
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Williams would be a fool to think that NBC would invite him back into that anchor chair…
In the eyes of the millions who watched him on TV (as opposed to the tens of millions who gossiped about him on social media), Brian’s face has become indelibly associated with boldfaced lies. The breach of trust already documented is irreparable. And I remain convinced that NBC’s internal investigation is bound to uncover other lies and practices that will seal his fate…
Who better to replace Williams than the demonstrably qualified Holt – who would also break the monopoly White folks have held on the anchor chairs of network news for far too long…?
But, mark my words, if NBC News does to Lester Holt what it did to Ann Curry (Remember that?), its president, Deborah Turness, would lose her job faster than the chairman of Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal, lost hers last month – after hackers leaked her racist e-mails about President Obama. (Remember that?)
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Well, now comes this:
Williams will not be returning to the NBC Nightly News anchor chair; his fill-in Lester Holt will become the program’s permanent anchor.
The appointment makes Holt the first black solo anchor of a weekday network nightly newscast.
So what will Williams do? ‘He will be the face of MSNBC,’ handling big breaking news stories….
(CNN, June 18, 2015)
With that I say, congratulations to Lester Holt! I hope this means he will now give up that silly moonlighting gig on Dateline NBC.
As for Williams, he should fit in quite nicely with the likes of Al Sharpton over at MSNBC. After all, like FOX News, MSNBC is a cable news station where the corporate mission seems to be to present personal opinions and/or political talking points – no matter how made up – as objective facts.
It must be noted, however, that NBC relegating Brian to MSNBC is tantamount to the Cavaliers relegating LeBron to the practice squad. Except that I cannot imagine LeBron accepting such a professional humiliation – no matter what principled/compelling reasons the Cavs might have for relegating him.
This is why it speaks volumes about Brian’s unreformed vanity (i.e., his pathological need to be seen performing) that he appears perfectly content to make the most of his new role….
NOTE: I should clarify that Holt is making history because, when Max Robinson anchored ABC’s World News Tonight in the late 1970s, he was part of a troika of anchors, which included Frank Reynolds and Peter Jennings. Robinson was never the solo anchor.
Now if the networks would only do something about the monopoly White guys have on hosting late-night shows, especially given that increasing numbers of Americans are getting their news from these shows instead of regular news broadcasts.
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