Report: NBC D-C Strongly Opposed Williams' Return

Brian Williams

Journalists in NBC News’s Washington bureau expressed strong opposition to the potential return of suspended anchorman Brian Williams during a contentious meeting with the head of the network’s news division in February, accord to media writer Paul Farhi at The Washington Post.

In a sometimes angry series of comments, the journalists told NBC News President Deborah Turness in the private meeting in Washington that Williams’s embellished statements about his reporting exploits had damaged NBC’s credibility and that he should not be permitted to return to the anchor chair.

The bureau staff offered a strong rebuke of Williams, whose troubles were still fresh in the news at the time. Among those who spoke against him were two of the network’s on-air correspondents, attendees said.

NBC’s Washington news bureau is a critical player in the production of “Nightly News.” Its reporters and producers staff beats that generate the bulk of the stories on the newscast, such as the White House, Congress, the Justice Department, the State Department and the Pentagon. The bureau also produces “Meet the Press” on Sundays and NBC’s political and election-night coverage, which Williams traditionally has anchored.

As such, the bureau must work in close concert with Williams and the program’s New York-based producers. In addition to anchoring the program, Williams was its managing editor, which gave him the authority to decide which stories got on the air.

NBC employees in New York, however, caution that the meeting took place during a period of peak stress for the division and that some of the more extreme sentiments may have calmed down in the weeks since then.

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