Brian Williams and The Promise

I was not a big Brian Williams fan at the beginning. Frankly, I didn’t think he could shine Tom Brokaw’s shoes. For some reason at that time he reminded me of the William Hurt character in the movie Broadcast News. Hurt’s Tom Grunick with his good looks and likeable on-air presence ended up winning the day despite having “fake cried” his way into the hearts and minds of the viewing audience.

But time has a way of changing one’s mind. Williams in ten years went from the new kid on the block to the dean of a dying club, the evening news anchor. Jennings, Rather, Sawyer, etc., faded off our screens and now NBC is the go-to evening news in the Newman household.

Williams, a Jersey-loving Springsteen fan like me, is more of an “everyman’s news man” delivering the news with his emotions on his sleeve. He led us through Katrina, Iraq, and Obama, and became synonymous with his network and its ratings-leading news operation.

Until last week.

Williams made the mistake that no newsman can make. He was caught “stretching the truth” about his 2003 helicopter ride on Iraq’s front lines, which is now the subject of an NBC internal investigation.

And now it seems to be getting worse. Questions are being raised about Williams’ accounts of what happened in New Orleans as he covered Katrina.

Williams is taking some time off as the investigation continues. For NBC, this is the classic PR crisis conundrum. Can they wait this out and hope things die down as they investigate or will this only get worse as more stories come to light?

Maybe they should ask Roger Goodell how well that turned out for him.

Or maybe they should make the same hard decision that CBS did with Dan Rather.

Rather, who is backing Williams by the way, was fired after the George Bush/National Guard fiasco.

One could argue that CBS at the time had as much or more invested in Rather as NBC does in Williams. But the undeniable truth is once a news anchor loses the public trust, there is very little he or she can do to get it back. It’s that unspoken promise to always tell the truth that bonds the anchor and his or her audience. It’s no surprise then that Williams’ ratings dropped by a third on his last day in the anchor chair last Friday.

It is time for NBC to do the tough, right thing.

Brian, as Springsteen said,

The promise is broken, you go on living
It steals something from down in your soul
When the truth is spoken, it don't make no difference
Something in your heart goes cold