Brian Williams' decision to temporarily step away from "NBC Nightly News" amid a swirling controversy over false comments he made about his war reporting in Iraq won't be enough to salvage his free-falling career, say media analysts, who are calling on the high-profile anchor to answer tough questions during his self-imposed hiatus.
"He could come back and recover and it could be just fine — or we may never see him again," Kelly McBride, an expert on ethics for the journalism think tank the Poynter Institute, told the Herald. "NBC is going to have to do lots of question-asking and then come out publicly and say 'this is what we know for sure and this is what is true and this is what isn't.' Then — after all that — they're going to have to decide whether they're going stand behind him or not."
Admitting that it "has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news," Williams announced yesterday that as managing editor of "NBC Nightly News" he is taking himself off the broadcast for several days. Weekend anchor Lester Holt will fill in, he said.
"Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us," Williams wrote.
NBC News refused to comment yesterday on when or whether Williams would return and who would decide his future.
"I think it is all going to depend on what he does while he is off," said Al Tompkins, the Poynter Institute's senior faculty member for broadcasting and online. "Transparency will help them an awful lot ... He's come out and said he's going to be off the air for a while. Well, what is he going to do during that 'while' that will help provide answers to the questions? And will those answers do anything to calm the waters — that's what is going to matter."
Stressing that "going into hiding never, ever helps," Tompkins said the best course of action for both Williams and NBC will be to make the findings of the network's internal investigation public.
"They've said they're going to do an internal investigation and that's fine — but that investigation is going to have to be highly public, otherwise what value is the report," Tompkins asked. "They're going to have to release their findings and own up to them."
NBC News President Deborah Turness said Friday that an internal investigation had been launched after questions arose over Williams' false on-air statements that he was in a helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in 2003.
Since Williams' apology Wednesday, questions also have been raised about his claim that he saw a body or bodies in the Hurricane Katrina floodwaters that hit New Orleans in 2005.
"Having Brian Williams sitting there right now is just too problematic for the network," said Tobe Berkovitz, a media analyst and professor at Boston University. "You can be sure that everyone is burning up YouTube looking at every clip, quote and appearance that Brian Williams has ever made looking for more of these follies and no one can withstand that kind of scrutiny. Unfortunately for him, that's the microscope that he is currently under."
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
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