While anchoring the Nightly News, Williams received 12 News & Documentary Emmy Awards. Williams interviewing presidential candidate Mitt Romney, July 25, 2012 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. In 2009, Williams was awarded the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism by Arizona State University. In 2007, Time magazine named Williams one of the 100 most influential people in the world. The New York Times characterized Williams' reporting of the hurricane as 'a defining moment'. Vanity Fair called Williams' work on Katrina 'Murrow-worthy' and reported that during the hurricane, he became 'a nation's anchor'. NBC Nightly News also earned the George Polk Award and the duPont-Columbia University Award for its Katrina coverage. He still was allowed to continue and 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 News President Neal Shapiro vowed to redouble the company's minority hiring efforts. The year he took the helm, in December 2004, Williams had to apologize for saying there are 'bigger problems' than newsroom diversity. Williams became anchor of NBC Nightly News on December 2, 2004, replacing the retiring Tom Brokaw. Williams also served as primary substitute anchor on The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, and its weekend anchor. 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 joined NBC News in 1993, where he anchored the national Weekend Nightly News and was chief White House correspondent. Beginning in 1987 he broadcast in New York City at WCBS. 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. Williams first worked in broadcasting in 1981 at KOAM-TV in Pittsburg, Kansas. He later called leaving college one of his 'great regrets'. He did not earn a degree, ultimately interning with the administration of President Jimmy Carter. įollowing high school, Williams attended Brookdale Community College before transferring to the Catholic University of America and then George Washington University.

His first job was as a busboy at Perkins Restaurant & Bakery. He suffered an accident during a football game that left him with a crooked nose. Also while in high school, he was the editorial editor for the school newspaper. While in high school, he was a volunteer firefighter for three years at the Middletown Township Fire Department. Williams graduated from Mater Dei High School, a Roman Catholic high school in the New Monmouth section of Middletown. He lived in Elmira, New York, for nine years before moving to Middletown Township, New Jersey, when he was in junior high school. Williams is the youngest of four siblings. 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. 2.2 Rise and ouster at NBC Nightly Newsīorn on May 5, 1959, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Williams was raised in a 'boisterous' Catholic home of largely Irish descent.

News anchor background