Brian Williams Popular Books

Brian Williams Biography & Facts

Brian Douglas Williams (born May 5, 1959) is an American retired journalist and television news anchor. He was a correspondent for NBC Nightly News starting in 1993, before his promotion to anchor and managing editor of the broadcast in 2004.In February 2015, Williams was suspended by NBC News for six months for "misrepresent[ing] events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003". Four months after the incident came to light, the network removed him from NBC Nightly News permanently and reassigned him as the breaking news anchor for MSNBC.In September 2016, Williams became the host of MSNBC's political news show, The 11th Hour. Williams announced in November 2021 that he would be leaving MSNBC and NBC News at the completion of his contract the following month, when he hosted his final episode of The 11th Hour. Early life Born on May 5, 1959, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Williams was raised in a "loud" Catholic home of largely Irish descent. He is the son of Dorothy May (née Pampel) and Gordon Lewis Williams, who was an executive vice president of the National Retail Merchants Association, in New York. Williams is the youngest of four siblings.He lived in Elmira, New York, for nine years before moving to Middletown Township, New Jersey, when he was in junior high school.Williams graduated from Mater Dei High School, a Roman Catholic high school in the New Monmouth section of Middletown. While in high school, he was a volunteer firefighter for three years at the Middletown Township Fire Department. Williams was also the editorial editor for the school newspaper during his high school years. He suffered an accident during a football game that left him with a crooked nose. His first job was as a busboy at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery.Following high school, Williams attended Brookdale Community College before transferring to the Catholic University of America and then George Washington University. He did not earn a degree, ultimately interning in the White House Press office during the administration of President Jimmy Carter. He later called leaving college one of his "great regrets". Career Early broadcast career Williams first worked in broadcasting in 1981 at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas. The following year he covered news in the Washington, D.C., area at then-independent station WTTG, then worked in Philadelphia for WCAU, then owned and operated by CBS. Beginning in 1987 he broadcast in New York City at WCBS. Williams joined NBC News in 1993, where he anchored the national Saturday Nightly News and was chief White House correspondent. In the summer of 1996 he began serving as anchor and managing editor of The News with Brian Williams, broadcast on MSNBC and CNBC. Williams also served as primary substitute anchor on The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and its Saturday anchor. He reported the accident and death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Rise and ouster at NBC Nightly News Williams became anchor of NBC Nightly News on December 2, 2004, replacing the retiring Tom Brokaw. In December 2004, when Williams took the helm, he had to apologize for saying there are "bigger problems" than newsroom diversity. NBC News President Neal Shapiro vowed to redouble the company's minority hiring efforts.His coverage of Hurricane Katrina was widely praised, particularly "for venting his anger and frustration over the government's failure to act quickly to help the victims." The network was awarded a Peabody, the committee concluding that "Williams, and the entire staff of NBC Nightly News exemplified the highest levels of journalistic excellence." Williams accepted the award on behalf of the organization.NBC Nightly News also earned the George Polk Award and the duPont-Columbia University Award for its Katrina coverage. Vanity Fair called Williams' work on Katrina "Murrow-worthy" and reported that during the hurricane, he became "a nation's anchor". The New York Times characterized Williams' reporting of the hurricane as "a defining moment".In 2007, Time magazine named Williams one of the 100 most influential people in the world.In 2009, Williams was awarded the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism by Arizona State University. At the announcement of the award, Cronkite said he was one of Williams' "ardent admirers" and described him as a "fastidious newsman" who brought credit to the television news reporting profession. While anchoring the Nightly News, Williams received 12 News & Documentary Emmy Awards. For "outstanding" work as anchor and managing editor of the Nightly News, he received one Emmy in 2006 (for Nightly News coverage of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina), two in 2007, one in 2009, two in 2010, one in 2011, one in 2013, and one in 2014. The 2014 Emmy honor was awarded to Nightly News for its coverage of a deadly series of tornadoes in Oklahoma, for which it also received the duPont-Columbia University Award.Williams also received a 2012 Emmy for his interview program Rock Center and a 2013 Emmy for being one of the executive producers and editors of a documentary on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. He also shared a 2014 Emmy awarded for an NBC News Special on the Boston Marathon bombing.Based on Nielsen ratings results from late 2008, Williams' news broadcast consistently had more viewers than its two main rivals, being ABC's World News Tonight and CBS Evening News. On this note, NBC Nightly News beat the other two network programs in the Nielsen ratings all but one week from late 2008 to late 2014.In February 2015, Williams was suspended for six months from the broadcast for misrepresenting and lying about his experience in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At the time, his salary was $10 million a year, with a five-year contract signed in December 2014. Rock Center with Brian Williams On October 4, 2011, it was announced that Williams would be the host of Rock Center with Brian Williams, a news magazine program premiering on October 31, 2011, at 10:00 pm Eastern, replacing the canceled drama series The Playboy Club.Named after the nickname of Rockefeller Center, the New York City landmark where NBC Radio City Studios are located, the program would become the first new NBC News program to launch in primetime in nearly two decades.NBC cancelled Rock Center on May 10, 2013, due to low ratings. Additionally, the network was also having trouble finding a permanent time slot for the program. The last show aired on June 21, 2013.Williams reportedly felt "insulted" by the program's cancellation. Iraq War helicopter fabrication On February 4, 2015, Williams apologized for and recanted his then-disproven Iraq War story, which he had told on a Nightly News broadcast on January 30, 2015. He claimed that while he was flying in a military helicopter it had been "forced down after being hit by an RPG". Soon after it aired, Williams' story was criticized by Lance Reynolds, a flight engineer on board one of the three Chinook helicopters .... Discover the Brian Williams popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Brian Williams books.

Best Seller Brian Williams Books of 2024

  • Amazing Tales from the New York Yankees Dugout synopsis, comments

    Amazing Tales from the New York Yankees Dugout

    Ken McMillan, Ed Randall & Bruce Markusen

    When it comes to baseball glory, no other team comes close to the New York Yankees, winners of forty American League pennants and twentyseven World Series championships. Amazing Ta...

  • The Lion in the Living Room synopsis, comments

    The Lion in the Living Room

    Abigail Tucker

    A New York Times bestseller about how cats conquered the world and our hearts in this “deep and illuminating perspective on our favorite household companion” (Huffington Post).Hous...

  • Freddie Mercury synopsis, comments

    Freddie Mercury

    Laura Jackson

    THE DEFINITIVE, UPTODATE BIOGRAPHY OF FREDDIE MERCURY'An outstanding biography. . .a fitting testament to the creative genius' Daily Mail'Touches all manner of intriguing rock 'n'...

  • Hall of Smoke synopsis, comments

    Hall of Smoke

    H.M. Long

    Epic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses, and fickle gods at war, for readers of Brian Staveley's Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne.Epic fantasy featuring warrior priestesses and f...

  • AFP 2013 Conference E-book Sampler synopsis, comments

    AFP 2013 Conference E-book Sampler

    Wiley

    Whether you are new to the field of fundraising and need to get quickly up to speed or you’re a seasoned professional looking for new ideas on how to reach donors in a connected so...

  • A Funny Thing About Love synopsis, comments

    A Funny Thing About Love

    The Estate of Rebecca Farnworth

    The funny thing about love is that just when you think you've got it sorted, it turns round and bites you on the behind.Which is exactly what's happened to Carmen Miller.Her ex hus...

  • Becoming a Lion synopsis, comments

    Becoming a Lion

    Johnny Sexton

    Johnny Sexton the man who pulled the strings for the Lions gives an intimate insight into the rugby life in Becoming a Lion.With three Heineken Cups and one British and Irish Li...

  • The Furthest Horizon synopsis, comments

    The Furthest Horizon

    Gardner Dozois

    It is the essence of science fiction to chart the possibilities of the future, but it takes the hand of a master to capture the farthest reaches of timefutures almost unimaginably ...

  • Our Story Begins synopsis, comments

    Our Story Begins

    Elissa Brent Weissman

    From awardwinning author Elissa Brent Weissman comes a collection of quirky, smart, and vulnerable childhood works by some of today’s foremost children’s authors and illustratorsre...

  • Graphic Content synopsis, comments

    Graphic Content

    Brian Singer

    63 top creatives speak out on art, inspiration, life, and random things that happened."We watched as 60 yards away this man fought for his life. And I felt like a coward.""The pole...

  • Temple of No God synopsis, comments

    Temple of No God

    H.M. Long

    Epic fantasy followup to HALL OF SMOKE, featuring crumbling empires, secretive cults and godlike powers to be claimed, for readers of Margaret Owen, Brian Staveley, V. E. Schwab an...

  • Rugby Folklore synopsis, comments

    Rugby Folklore

    Matt Elliott

    From superstitions to sendoffs, All Black nicknames to onfield battles: Rugby Folklore is a miscellany of stories, quotes, and facts that are part of the fabric of New Zealand rugb...

  • Centre Stage synopsis, comments

    Centre Stage

    Jamie Roberts & Ross Harries

    In a nation of rugby heroes, Jamie Roberts has become a legend.Jamie Roberts is your quintessential hard man: a 6 foot 4, 17 stone slab of rippling muscle, conditioned to run hard ...

  • Light A National Poetry Day Book synopsis, comments

    Light A National Poetry Day Book

    Gaby Morgan

    A poetry book to celebrate National Poetry Day 2015 with poems on the them of light from Deborah Alma, Brian Moses, Chrissie Gittins, Liz Brownlee, Michaela Morgan, Jan Dean, Paul ...

  • Shake Some Action synopsis, comments

    Shake Some Action

    Stuart Coupe

    For over four decades, Stuart Coupe has been at the heart of the Australian music scene, experiencing the giddy highs, crushing lows and everything in between that comes along with...

  • How Life Imitates Sports synopsis, comments

    How Life Imitates Sports

    Ira Berkow

    Memorable Stories From a Half Century of Sports Journalism For the last half century, Pulitzer Prize–winning sportswriter Ira Berkow has been at the center of some of the most memo...

  • A Life with Ghosts synopsis, comments

    A Life with Ghosts

    Steve Gonsalves

    NATIONAL BESTSELLERThe debut book from paranormal investigator and Ghost Hunters TV star Steve Gonsalves! Steve Gonsalvesalready considered to be one of the top paranormal investi...

  • The Periodic Table synopsis, comments

    The Periodic Table

    Paul Parsons & Gail Dixon

    The Periodic Table is one of the most recognizable images in science and in our culture. Its 118 elements make up everything on our planet and in the entire universe. But how many...

  • Tod is God synopsis, comments

    Tod is God

    Tod Gordon & Sean Oliver

    The uncensored inside story of ECW’s founder Tod Gordon’s journey from jewelry store owner to one of the three most powerful promoters in pro wrestling.“An incredible, entertaining...

  • My Best Mistake synopsis, comments

    My Best Mistake

    Terry O'Reilly

    The host of CBC Radio’s Under the Influence, Terry O’Reilly, uncovers the surprising power of screwing upThe Incredible Hulk was originally supposed to be grey, but a printing glit...