Brian Williams will soon be reporting back to work at NBC News, although with a much different job to do. The disgraced former NBC Nightly News anchor is the network’s last-ditch hope to save struggling MSNBC.
In February, Williams was suspended for six months without pay after it was revealed that he had embellished a story about being in a helicopter during the Iraq War in 2003 that was hit by a rocket. An internal investigation and other media outlets discovered that Williams embellished other stories during his regular late night talk show appearances.
NBC News finally made a decision about his future in June. Lester Holt will permanently anchor Nightly News and Williams will be demoted to anchoring at MSNBC.
It’s not clear how soon Williams will be back. The network told CNNMoney> that he should make his MSNBC return in mid-September, although no firm date is set.
The Wall Street Journal reports that NBC News hopes that Williams can lead a shift to more straight news to become less of a left-leaning network. It was reported last month that Chuck Todd will start hosting another daily show, in addition to hosting NBC’s Meet The Press on Sundays. NBC News has also cancelled several underperforming shows hosted by pundits during the day.
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