In interviews with The Daily Beast, NBC News insiders—who spoke on condition of anonymity, for fear of jeopardizing their jobs and compensation—expressed shock, mixed with gallows humor, that Williams has fallen so far so fast—astonishingly enough, due to tall tales and shaggy dog stories that the anchor has told publicly, notably on his own newscast…
The anchor was said to be in a bad place, under self-imposed house arrest in the gilded suburb of New Canaan, Connecticut, conferring with his Washington-based agent/attorney, Williams & Connolly senior partner Robert Barnett, and taking phone calls from a few sympathetic colleagues offering advice as well as from the news division’s PR department. Besides negotiating on behalf of Williams, the ubiquitous Barnett also has represented Turness, possibly creating a thorny situation should talks about the anchor’s future become contentious. Barnett, who answered other questions from The Daily Beast off the record, didn’t respond to an email requesting comment on the potential conflict of interest.
Should Williams somehow fail to pass muster in the probe and be judged damaged goods, Holt—who, like Williams, is 55—is in line to replace him, at least temporarily. Holt, who anchors the Nightly News and the Today show on weekends as well as the weekly magazine show Dateline NBC, has solid journalistic chops and—unlike Williams, who is seen internally at NBC as a remote, insular figure—is widely liked by colleagues. He is also African American. “He’d be a home run in terms of diversity,” says the NBC News veteran. “I think the senior executives have always underestimated him.”
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