Brian Williams is stepping aside at NBC Nightly News, for now

published 9 February 2015

In a memo to NBC News staff on Saturday, Brian Williams said that he is stepping away from the NBC Nightly News desk anchor desk for "several days," after he admitted to erroneously putting himself on a helicopter hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while covering the Iraq War in 2003. Weekend anchor Lester Holt will fill in for Williams during his absence.

"In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions," Williams told his NBC News colleagues in his memo. "Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us."

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Williams "can't be gone too long," Al Tompkins at the Poynter Institute tells The Associated Press. "The timing will be critical - too short and it won't seem like he has taken himself out of the game long enough, and too long and he looks like damaged goods." New York Times media critic David Carr argues that "American public won't abide someone putting himself into the naughty corner and setting the conditions for staying there," and that Williams needs to make "a full-throated, unmodulated apology." At the same time, Carr doesn't think Williams should be fired: "His transgressions were not a fundamental part of his primary responsibilities." NBC is conducting an internal investigation.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.