With NBC News anchor Brian Williams being weighed down by #BrianWilliamsMisremembers, NBC News has some very tough decisions to make. CNN outlines the dilemma in its telling story Will Brian Williams Return? Even the British got in on the story with this cartoon and coverage:
This party suspects that the hardworking Lester Holt will steady the ratings drop; but given Brian William’s Katrina reporting and rumors of other exaggerations, the possibility of a Williams being mortally wounded as Nightly News Host is still possible.
As one might suspect, the ews media are absorbed in this story 0- just take a look at the headline media stories at the NYTimes, National Review, CNN, and the Daily Beast to mention only a few navel gazers.
The Good News
This has been a tumultuous year for NBC News. In August 2014 they lost MeetThePress host David Gregory due to severe ratings decline. The merger with Comcast has put bottom line pressure on reporting resources. But Meet the Press, NBC’s prestigious Sunday Morning Program, has taken a strong upturn in viewers since Chuck Todd took over for David Gregory. And he continues to garner better ratings. If this is the quality of conversation on Meet the Press they can count on one more viewer:
What had driven this viewer away from Meet the Press this past Summer was the numerous party hacks and political guests who could be relied upon for one and only one thing – a shrill partisan party line. The question is this – can Chuck Todd and the Meet the Press staff get such high quality observers and conversationalists [BBC’s Katy Kay, NYTimes David Brooks, Detroit Free Press Stephen Henderson and NBC’s own Andrea Mitchell]seen this past weekend in the future?