The encyclopedia · Advertising & PR · Marketing decision · 2015
NBC suspended Brian Williams without pay for six months
The anchor's embellished Iraq story cost him six months without pay — and four months later, the chair itself.
NBC News · Brian Williams · 2015-02-10
What happened
In January 2015 Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, retold a story from his 2003 reporting trip to Iraq — that a helicopter carrying his crew had been hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. It had not: a Chinook flying an hour ahead of his aircraft had been struck. Williams by his own admission had conflated the two trips, and news outlets began checking his other stories.
On 10 February 2015 NBC suspended him for six months without pay. The network's memo read: 'We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately.' Lester Holt took the chair.
Four months later the suspension became permanent. NBC said Williams would not return to Nightly News and would move to MSNBC to anchor breaking news and special reports. His statement: 'I'm sorry. I said things that weren't true. I let down my NBC colleagues and our viewers, and I'm determined to earn back their trust.'
Why it happened
- A nightly news anchor's product is the credibility of the sentences he reads — once the audience doubted one story, the network could not price the rest of his career.
- NBC's decision was made jointly by its news president and NBCUniversal's chairman within days of the story breaking, before any outside review had finished.
- The six-month suspension without pay bought the network time to investigate — and the investigation's real cost was the anchor chair, not the salary.
The lesson
A credibility business cannot tolerate a credibility failure, no matter how much the audience loved the storyteller. A sanction that starts temporary becomes permanent once the trust is gone.
Aftermath
Williams moved to MSNBC in August 2015 as anchor of breaking news and special reports, and remained there until 2021. Lester Holt became the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News and held the chair for years.
Sources
- Brian Williams Suspended From NBC News for Six Months — Variety, 10 February 2015
- It's Official: Brian Williams Out As 'NBC Nightly News' Anchor — NPR, 18 June 2015
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