Politico Reports NBC Pressures Brian Williams to Resign

Looks like NBC is trying to give Lying Brian Williams the squeeze …

According to The Politico, NBC News brass is trying to shame suspended news anchor Brian Williams into resigning. One of those not so good stories regarding Williams was that according to their internal investigation, Williams appears to have embellished reporting stories at least 11 times.

Longtime broadcast executives say a triple crown of leaks about Brian Williams late last week appear to be an effort by NBC News to shame him into resigning, to avoid the messiness and possible additional expense of the firing. The brutal leaks were designed to send the message to Brian Williams and his superlawyer, Robert Barnett: “You’re dead. Now negotiate.”

This is the effect of the leaks, if not the intention. NBC insiders say his return is still possible. Look for a resolution over the next several weeks.

Williams was reported to be under a contract of as much as $50 million (five years, at up to $10 million each). Speculation is that he’ll get $20 million to $30 million to leave. The $20 million camp says that he’s so weak, he’ll get less than 50 cents on the dollar. The $30 million camp says Brian has plenty of ways to embarrass the bosses and colleagues who threw him under the bus, and NBC should stop the bleeding/leaking. “He knows things, too,” a wise man pointed out.

THE LEAKS:

• WashPost’s Paul Farhi reported on the front of Friday’s Style section, “NBC’s D.C. news bureau opposed Brian Williams’s return as anchor” (online: … D.C. bureau strongly opposed … Williams’s return in February”)
• NYT’s Ravi Somaiya reported above fold of Saturday’s Business front (with A1 tease), “NBC Inquiry Into Anchor Is Said to Get New Grist”: “[Discrepancies are evident in accounts given by Mr. Williams in February 2011 [about his reporting from Egypt’s Tahrir Square] … In an appearance that month with Jon Stewart on ‘The Daily Show,’ Mr. Williams described his reporting from the square. …
• “Subsequent reports said that Mr. Williams was reporting ‘from a balcony overlooking Tahrir Square,’ rather than from inside the square itself … [E]mployees in the news division provided examples for the investigating team to look into, flagging instances in which they thought Mr. Williams had exaggerated.”
• Farhi reported online Saturday: “NBC News finds Brian Williams embellished at least 11 times.”

Not Looking Good For Brian Willaims … NBC News Finds Brian Williams Embellished At Least 11 Times

As Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel explains about amps and Brian Williams embellishments, this one goes to eleven!!!

When will Brian Williams return to NBC News, if ever? Back in February, NBC News suspended Brian Williams for 6 months without pay for his his faux Iraq war news story in 2003. It only took NBC News more than a decade to get to the bottom of this situation and Williams may never have been suspended at all if he had just shut his trap and stopped telling the false story. However, the NBC internal investigation of their news anchor has turned up at least 11 instances in which Williams publicly embellished details of his reporting exploits. 11!!! Good grief, the New York Times is reporting that NBC is looking into whether Williams fibbed about his reporting during Egypt’s Arab Spring.

Brian Williams’ suspension ends in August; however, I will find it impossible to believe that they could ever bring him back. All a news anchor has is their credibility to report the news and with 11 embellishments to his credit, Williams news cred is shot.

A months-long internal investigation of Brian Williams by NBC News has turned up 11 instances in which the anchorman publicly embellished details of his reporting exploits, according to a person familiar with details of the probe.

NBC undertook the examination of Williams’ statement after he apologized in early February for saying on “NBC Nightly News” that a military helicopter in which he was traveling at the start of the Iraq War had been damaged by rocket fire. His account was challenged by soldiers who were on the flight, leading to a furor that prompted NBC to suspend Williams for six months without pay and to investigate other statements he’s made.

The Iraq claim was one of the 11 suspect statements that a team of NBC News journalists has identified during the inquiry, said the individual, who asked not to be identified because he isn’t authorized to talk about an internal matter.

The investigators, led by NBC News senior executive producer Richard Esposito, have also raised doubts about Williams’ comments about his experiences covering Israel’s military action against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. In an interview with a student-run television station at Fairfield University in Connecticut in 2007, Williams said he saw rockets passing “just beneath” the Israel helicopter in which he was traveling. But Williams gave a less harrowing account of the same trip in an NBC News blog a year earlier

Daily Commentary – Wednesday, April 22, 2015 – Chief of Fox News, Roger Ailes, Opens Up to the Hollywood Reporter

• They talked to him about Hillary Clinton, Brian Williams and answers personal questions

Saturday Night Live Mocks NCAA Basketball Final and the Student Athlete Hypocrisy … “It’s like I tell all my players, college is the most important year of your life.”

CLASSIC SARCASM FROM SNL ON NCAA COLLEGE BASKETBALL.

 Saturday Night Live nailed last night’s cold opening … as SNL not only mocks NCAA college basketball and the notion of the student athlete, but gets it 100% correct. Just minutes after the second game of the NCAA Final 4 ended that saw the previously undefeated University of Kentucky Wildcats fall to the Wisconsin Badgers, 71-64, SNL began their cold open with a complete mockery of the NCAA’s so-called “student-athlete”. The best line of the skit was when Taran Killam, playing Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said,  “It’s like I tell all my players: college is the most important year of your life.” The premise of the sarcastic skit was that Duke was holding out freshman center Jahlil Okafor from Monday night’s NCAA College basketball game, not because he was hurt, sick or tore an ACL, but because he has a big Biology test on Tuesday to study for. Ha, ha, ha … that is just too funny.

When asked whether Mike Krzyzewski/Taran Killa was relly going to hold Okafor out of the Championship game because of a Biology exam he said, “Of course I am, guys these are student-athletes [emphasis on student]. Students! If they only came to college to play basketball, then we all would look pretty silly”.

The only thing that would have made this funnier and even more truthful was if they used Kentucky head coach John “one and done” Calipari instead of Mike Krzyzewski, but UK lost, so that ended that.

As MSNBC’s Ratings Crater … What is Next for the Liberal, Democrat, Obama Propaganda News Network?

AMERICA IS FINALLY LEARNING WHAT MOST HAVE KNOWN FOR A WHILE, MSLSD MSNBS MSNBC IS UNWATCHABLE …

As reported at Deadline Hollywood, MSNBC is pretty much on life-support as the TV ratings of the liberal left leaning, Democrat party bias, Obama propaganda network is at all-time lows. Simply speaking, the product that is put forth on MSNBC is unwatchable. Not only does the network suffer from the fact that it is completely bias for the LEFT, but its reporting of the news is suspect as well and falls for along a liberal ideology than the facts, see coverage of Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman, Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson and any of their political coverage.) As correctly stated by Hot Air, “Strident demagoguery may sell for a short period of time, but it has little staying power. In contrast, the talking head shows on Fox and CNN deal with dissent in a much more mature manner, and usually features more of it than MSNBC prime-time shows do.”

Talk about a tale of two cable news networks. With its 53rd consecutive quarter total audience win, Fox News Channel saw a 10% primetime rise among adults 25-54 in first-quarter 2015 over last year. In fact, with 321,000 on average among the 25-54s in primetime, Fox News thrashed rivals CNN (187,000) and MSNBC (132,000) with more news demo viewers than the other two combined, according to Nielsen.

Contrast that to the fate of the NBCUniversal-owned MSNBC, which  not only saw a 39% drop in the demo compared to Q1 2014 but its worst quarterly result in the category since Q2 2005. If that almost decade-old result wasn’t enough of a blow, and rising CNN’s fourth consecutive win over MSNBC in prime didn’t cut deep enough, take a look at the gutting the cabler newser’s nighttime offerings are suffering.

With just 145,000 viewers among the 25-54s on average over the December 29, 2014 – March 29, 2015 period, the once-proud flagship The Rachel Maddow Show hit an all-time quarter low with the worst result since its September 8, 2008 launch. Not only is Maddow down 46% in the demo, but her 9 PM show is also down 19% in total viewers. Fellow primetime show All In With Chris Hayes and Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell fell to their worst quarterly demo ratings since their respective 2013 and 2010 debuts. O’Donnell’s show also had its lowest total quarterly viewership results. And 7 PM’s Hardball With Chris Matthews had its lowest-rated quarter in the demo since 2Q 2005 with an average viewership of 126,000.

With ratings like this, who does not think there are Internet websites and blogs that have a higher viewership?

But what else would one expect for results when you are marketing to a fringe group of an audience? Check this out from 5 pm to 11 pm MSNBC has the following shows to watch. Serious, this is a prime time line up? Unless I am looking to watch liberals lose their minds on election night and the insanity that comes from their mouths when they get routed in an election, the only show in their entire morning, afternoon and prime time schedule I can stomach is ‘The Morning Joe’. Check out their prime-time lineup below and some suggestions we have as replacements that would draw a higher audience.

• 5-6 – The Ed Show [reruns of Mr. Ed would of course, of course get better ratings]
• 6-7 – Politics Nation with Rev. Al Sharpton [Simply unwatchable and painful to listen to this man butcher trying to read a teleprompter. Although as a comedy show, maybe just having Rev. Al read important speeches in US history would be a good laugh for a short period of time. Or they could just show an endless loop of Al Sharpton getting knocked on his ass by Roy Inis.
• 7-8 – Hardball with Chris Matthews – He has lost that tingly feeling running up his leg. These days Chris is just becoming more and more bitter as he sees his career fade into obscurity. Hardball, hell, just run a continuous lop of Die Hard.
• 8-9 – All In with Chris Hayes – Honestly, a TV test pattern would get a higher ratings.
• 9-10 – The Rachel Maddow Show. Nuff said, just play reruns of Law & Order.
• 10-11 – The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. How about no word with Lawrence O’Donnell or maybe they could just have Jennifer Lawrence or maybe Chris O’Donnell.