Michael Wolff to Stelter: Brian Williams Will Return Because ‘This Is Television,’ Not Journalism

USA Today media columnist Michael Wolff told Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter that suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams would likely be just fine in the long run, as he was in the business of television, not journalism, and was good enough at the first to excuse his sins against the second.

“Is there an aspect of ‘these are journalists and these are the keepers of the truth’?” Wolff asked, very rhetorically. “Come on…This is television. This is the way television works…It is exactly what people want.”

Wolff’s performance was more of tone than pull quotes, but suffice it to say he argued that understanding the television/journalism distinction was the main reason Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was still on the air despite having committed the same essential crimes as Williams while at CBS News.

“[Fox News Chairman & CEO] Roger Ailes is a remarkably good boss, because he has his eye focused on what the audience wants, and he doesn’t allow the kind of eating of itself that we tend to do in this business,” Woolf said.

Wolff ultimately thought NBC would welcome Williams back with open arms. “It’s very hard to create another television anchor of the television anchor age,” he said. “That’s an age that’s over. So if you have it, you want to keep it.”

Watch the clip below, via CNN:

[Image via screengrab]

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