It’s official. – 1:30p.m. ET Thursday
NBC News is reportedly set to announce an agreement that will make embattled anchorman Brian Williams “the face of MSNBC” and make Lester Holt the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News.
The news broke Wednesday night on CNN.
Under the agreement, it is expected Williams will have to make some sort of public apology for embellishing stories about his reporting escapades. Assuming the apology is accepted, he will become the Wolf Blitzer of MSNBC as the cable network attempts to make programming changes that will move it away from a left sided version of Fox News and more toward a hard news source(at least during daytime hours).
The network is expected to make an official announcement today(Thursday). Holt happens to be on vacation this week. It’s unclear whether coverage of the mass shooting in South Carolina will force NBC to re-think the timing of the announcement.
Update: Williams has reportedly given an interview to Matt Lauer as part of the effort to explain himself and express remorse. It’s not known when the interview will air, but it appears it is being held at the moment because of the shooting in South Carolina.
Meanwhile, Savannah Guthrie is anchoring Nightly News(from Charleston) this evening substituting for Holt.
