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

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."

The New York Times cobbled together Williams' shifting story of his harrowing helicopter ride, from what appears to be an accurate report after it happened to gradually placing himself in the Chinook hit by an RPG, rather than one following behind:

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

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.