The firestorm that has surrounded NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams over the last week has left me feeling very uneasy, and in conversations with others, I’ve heard similar expressions of unease. Those feelings, however, have been less over the fact that Williams gave an account about his time in Iraq that was contradicted by soldiers who were present and more about why we aren’t more upset about it. If this were any other news journalist, it’s likely that I’d want to join others in calling for their dismissal. However, I find myself in a position where I’m hoping that it will blow over, and that Williams’ self-imposed hiatus will help facilitate that. And in a few weeks, everything will go back to normal.
It’s not necessarily that I believe Williams, either, when he said that he inadvertently conflated two accounts — one of his trip in Iraq in a helicopter, and the other of a helicopter being hit by an RPG. I understand that studies have been done that show that our memories are weakest during times of stress, and I know for a fact that my recollections of my own father’s tragic death are incredibly inaccurate, but I also feel like those studies are what people like me latch on to try to use to excuse Brian Williams. He’s a journalist. It’s his job to report the facts accurately, even if those facts surround an event with which he was personally involved.
Another reason I’m not anxious to see Williams fired is that I think that, in the grand scheme of things, Williams’ sins arguably aren’t as egregious as the sins of other newsmen who have withered scandal and survived. I mean, look at Rush Limbaugh and his prescription drug addiction, or Bill O’Reilly and his sexual harassment lawsuit, or the accusations leveled against New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd — revealed in the Sony hack — of favoritism.
I’ll concede, however, that the “other journalist have gotten away with worse” is a weak argument in Williams favor, one that Williams himself would probably quickly dismiss.
Indeed, that’s not why I think Williams’ job should be saved. No, the single-biggest reason that I personally don’t want Brian Williams fired from NBC is this: There are no other great alternatives.
Look, I don’t even know who the other network’s nightly news anchors are at this point. I had to look it up to learn that Scott Pelley is the CBS news anchor, and that David Muir is the anchor for ABC Evening News. I’m barely familiar with them because, the truth is, I rarely watch the nightly news because I am under the age of 60, but when I do, it’s always Brian Williams. Why? Because, trust issues aside, he feels like the last link to legacy anchors like Tom Brokaw and Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. He’s familiar. He’s recognizable. He’s likable. He’s the rare news anchor who doesn’t make me want to turn off the news. He’s not polarizing. He doesn’t yell. He’s mild, affable and serious, but he also has a keen sense of humor.
What’s the alternative? Lester Holt? Katie Couric? Matt Lauer? Jake Tapper? Savannah Guthrie? These are not interesting choices, and in some cases, they’re either boring or they have their own baggage with which to contend. The thought that Jon Stewart might replace Williams is amazing, but also a pipe dream. I like Anderson Cooper a lot, but he doesn’t seem well-suited as a network anchor. David Gregory? That experiment already failed on Meet the Press.
Is that a facile argument in favor of sparing Williams’ job? Maybe. Well, yes. But Williams is the last of his kind, and while I hate that he misrepresented the truth on at least one occasion, I hate the alternatives even more. There are no more iconic news anchors left, and I’d simply hate to see another bland face in a sea of interchangeable journalists replace the longest-running news anchor on network TV. After all, “Slow Jamming the News with Lester Holt” or “Matt Lauer Raps ‘Gin and Juice'” simply doesn’t have the same ring to it.