Journalists react to Brian Williams NBC departure

News of Brian Williams’s departure from NBCUniversal at the end of the year has brought well wishes and praise from his friends and admirers in the business, but also reminders of his past controversies from detractors. 

Williams, who has been with NBC for nearly three decades, announced on Tuesday evening he would leave the network at the conclusion of his current contract, which expires in December. 

A longtime reporter and anchor turned evening political talk show host, Williams, 62, said he would take the time away from the airwaves to spend more time with his family but is likely to “pop up somewhere” in the future. 

“I have been truly blessed. I have been allowed to spend almost half of my life with one company. NBC is a part of me and always will be,” Williams said in a statement issued to a number of news outlets and later read on air during his “11th Hour” program on MSNBC on Tuesday.

As news of Williams’s plans to leave NBC broke, praise and words of encouragement from journalists and political media figures began to pour in across social media. 

 

Critics, meanwhile, used Williams’s announcement as an opportunity to call to mind his less flattering moments, including an incident during which the network suspended him from “Nightly News” for six months in 2015 for embellishing a story about coming under fire while in Iraq. 

 

“Brian’s time at NBC has been marked by breaking countless major stories, attracting leading journalists and guests to his programs, and most especially, great resiliency,” MSNBC President Rashida Jones said in a memo to NBC staff about Williams’s departure. “He has built a fiercely loyal following for The 11th Hour and we and our viewers will miss his penetrating questions and thoughtful commentary.” 

Williams said his move from NBC News to MSNBC and his placement in the 11 p.m. hour was his decision and that he looks forward to covering the news of the day through the rest of the year.

“For the next few months, I’ll be with my family, the people I love most and the people who enabled my career to happen,” he said. “I will reflect on the kindness people have shown me, and I will pay it forward.”