On Saturday he attended the Wyoming wedding of his daughter, Allison Williams, a star of the HBO hit Girls. His attempts at apology have been poorly received.
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Williams over the next few days will be associated with all of this.
MSNBC has been largely silent on the new former anchor giant within its midst – other than to announce over the summer that his future role at the network would be confined to MSNBC, which is now rebuilding to emphasize hard news over opinion in daytime programmimg.
Notes the Times, “Asked whether Mr. Williams could integrate smoothly into his new home in the aftermath of the controversy, Mr. Lack said he expected Mr. Williams to win back the trust of both his colleagues and his viewers”. He was surrounded by an NBC News A-list, even the return of long-ago NBC regular Maria Shriver, a major league Catholic, plopped in front of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where Francis will celebrate mass and canonize a saint. Only time will tell though whether or not the audience is ready to accept Williams as a news anchor again, or if his multiple lies will forever tarnish his career and legacy.
“I’m confident that he deserves a second chance and I’m confident that Brian is as good at his job as he was previous year at this time”, Lack said.
Too much Williams too soon would be rejected by viewers quicker than a mismatched organ transplant. Time will tell if ratings will go up now that Brian Williams is part of MSNBC. He will not participate in interviews with other reporters about his return.
Yes, his every move on will be scrutinized for signs of the flaws that brought him down in the first place. He declined to say which stories or to detail his distortions. But then that joke will get old.
His road to redemption hasn’t been completely smooth. But an MSNBC rep insisted: “These were two of the most sought-after positions in news”.
Brian Williams’ long timeout is over. This psychological defense mechanism may protect your ego, but harms your ability to understand what happened and where you could have done better.
Something else will motivate Williams to keep his nose clean. Will there be more stringent internal checks on him, or will his humiliation be deemed enough to keep him in check?
Redemption won’t come overnight, but rest assured it will come.
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“Pat’s going with Brian, but it’s being looked at like a demotion”, said a source. So before more people started to notice, he was demoted. The investigation found 11 instances of embellishment or misrepresentation by Williams. But while Rather settles for a satisfying coda, Williams can still write the third act of his own movie. At one point, he was talking with NBC correspondent Anne Thompson, who was on the plane with the pope, after it had landed.
