Brian Williams, the disgraced former NBC Nightly News anchor, sat down with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer to start his apology tour, now that NBC News has finally set his fate in stone. As the network announced Thursday, Williams will be demoted to the cable network MSNBC.

In the interview, Williams admits off the bat that, “I said things that weren’t true.”

Williams was suspended for six months without pay in February, following revelations that his Iraq War story about being in a helicopter hit by an RPG was not true. He said it has been “torture” for him since February, but understood the network’s decision.

“I have discovered a lot of things,” Williams said. “I have been listening to and watching what amounts to the black box recordings from my career. I've gone back through everything — basically 20 years of public utterances.”

NBC’s own investigation reportedly turned up a number of other embellished stories, especially during Williams’ late-night talk show appearances.

“I was reading these newspaper stories, not liking the person I was reading about, wanting — I would have given anything to get to the end of the story and have it be about someone else, but it was about me,” Williams said. “These statements I made, I own this; I own up to this and I have to go through and see and try to figure out how it happened.”

Williams blamed a growing ego for his desire to appear sharp and witty during talk show appearances, adding, “This came from clearly a bad place, a bad urge inside me. This was clearly ego-driven, a desire to better my role in a story I was already in. That's what I've been tearing apart and unpacking and analyzing.”

Williams is “grateful” that he has been given a second chance and said that Lester Holt deserves to be named the permanent Nightly News achor.

Despite NBC News’ announcement on Thursday, the media has continued to speculate about Williams’ position at the network. Even though he will be seen by much less viewers, TheWrap claims that he will still be receiving $8 million to $10 million a year. That’s still a pay cut from the $15 million he was earning at Nightly News.

Portions of Lauer’s interview with Williams aired this morning, while more segments will be shown during tonight’s Nightly News broadcast.

image courtesy of B.Ach/INFevents.com