NBC has sentenced Brian Williams to six months suspension without pay for conduct unbecoming an anchor. It is a rather strange outcome to a rather strange series of events. Williams has been caught in a series of lies and this undermines the supposed "integrity" of NBC News. (I'm sorry but I have to take a break. Using the word "integrity" in a sentence about the organization that produces MSNBC is just too much to handle.)
OK, I'm back. Think about the punishment from NBC. Williams has now been branded a liar by NBC, so the remedy is to take him off the air for six months? Won't he still be the same liar six months from now? Will people suddenly decide that they can believe him because he was gone for half a year? The man either has credibility or he does not. Credibility does not grow back during an absence from the airwaves.
I could have seen NBC decide to censure Williams and let him continue as anchor. That would have been a value judgment that the lies told by Williams were not so bad that he had to be removed. I could have seen NBC fire Williams on the basis that his credibility was destroyed. But a suspension for six months is silly. What is the point? NBC is punishing Williams but ignoring its own credibility. It seems that NBC management (and Comcast too) decided that they had no choice but to take strong action against Williams, but they really did not want to do so. Someone then came up with the crazy compromise.
Maybe they will give Williams time off his sentence for good behavior and bring him back in three months.
One last note: we are now supposed to get six months of Lester Holt as anchor. It won't matter to me, because I don't watch the NBC Evening News, but did they really have to do this to their viewers? Lester Holt? Really?
OK, I'm back. Think about the punishment from NBC. Williams has now been branded a liar by NBC, so the remedy is to take him off the air for six months? Won't he still be the same liar six months from now? Will people suddenly decide that they can believe him because he was gone for half a year? The man either has credibility or he does not. Credibility does not grow back during an absence from the airwaves.
I could have seen NBC decide to censure Williams and let him continue as anchor. That would have been a value judgment that the lies told by Williams were not so bad that he had to be removed. I could have seen NBC fire Williams on the basis that his credibility was destroyed. But a suspension for six months is silly. What is the point? NBC is punishing Williams but ignoring its own credibility. It seems that NBC management (and Comcast too) decided that they had no choice but to take strong action against Williams, but they really did not want to do so. Someone then came up with the crazy compromise.
Maybe they will give Williams time off his sentence for good behavior and bring him back in three months.
One last note: we are now supposed to get six months of Lester Holt as anchor. It won't matter to me, because I don't watch the NBC Evening News, but did they really have to do this to their viewers? Lester Holt? Really?
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