Investigative reporter Michael Isikoff, who left NBC without much explanation last year, reportedly clashed with “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams before departing the network.
In a long piece about the chaos inside NBC before and after Williams’ recent suspension, media reporter Gabriel Sherman wrote about the dispute in the March 9 issue of New York magazine.
Sherman reported that staffers at NBC chafed at the anchor’s clout at “Nightly News,” writing that many “complained about Williams’s unwillingness to go after hard-hitting stories.”
In particular, Sherman wrote that former NBC investigative reporters Michael Isikoff and Lisa Myers “battled with Williams over stories.”
In 2013, Williams reportedly dismissed Isikoff’s story on a confidential Justice Department memo, which concluded that the government could order the killing of American citizens if they are suspected to be in league with terrorist groups.
Isikoff ended up taking the scoop to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
“He didn’t want to put stories on the air that would be divisive,” one source told Sherman.
In 2014, Iskikoff departed NBC News for Yahoo, for reasons that were not specified at the time.
“I had a good ride at NBC and I’m glad I did this,” Isikoff said about his departure. “But it’s fair to say there was a mutual agreement that this was a situation was no longer working out.”
Sherman wrote that Myers was similarly frustrated after Williams punted on a story about how some Americans would lose their insurance policies during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
According to the piece, Myers shot off several “scathing memos” to the company’s vice president complaining of Williams’ heavy hand. She left NBC News in January 2014 after 33 years at the network.
Is anyone surprised that Brian Williams is a namby pamby wuss?
NBC idiots strike again. Isikoff as a journalist runs circles around Williams.
But was Brian Williams there when it happened?
Good shot, Eustace: the more this thing goes on, the more the parallels emerge. Soon folks will refer to Brian O’Reilly and Bill Williams.
Really? A network anchor, of long standing, doesn’t want to report news that may be “divisive”? So, instead, the “happy news” pablum of local news programming will now be served to a national audience? What a disgrace.
No wonder the American public is so ill-informed and many turn to pseudo-science, Fox News, or conspiracy theories with respect to national and world events. Forget Brian Williams’ exaggerations, this revelation regarding his dismissal of important news because of its potential to be “divisive” is what should disqualify him from returning to NBC News.
The American public is being purposely made more ignorant by the deceitful actions of its politicians and its corporate media.