NBC Names Lester Holt New Anchor Of Nightly News

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Brian Williams will not return to the anchor's chair of "NBC Nightly News."

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

His temporary replacement, Lester Holt, is now permanent. This makes Holt the first African-American to be the lead anchor for a broadcast network.

CORNISH: Brian Williams's troubles began early this year. In a January report, he falsely claimed he was under fire in 2003 while onboard a helicopter in Iraq. He apologized on air several days later.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS")

BRIAN WILLIAMS: I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago. It did not take long to hear from some brave men and women in the aircrew who were...

BLOCK: The way Williams apologized just made things worse. Other exaggerations surfaced. NBC suspended him and started an internal investigation, but it has not released the results.

CORNISH: The network does say Williams made a number of inaccurate statements about his field experiences. NBC says these statements were usually made years later and mostly on late-night programs and during public events.

BLOCK: Williams's successor, Lester Holt, joined NBC in 2000. He's been one of the co-hosts of "Weekend Today" and anchored the weekend edition of "Nightly News."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW "NBC NIGHTLY NEWS")

LESTER HOLT: And hands-free driving. Would you believe a car that really takes you for a ride?

CORNISH: As for Brian Williams, in August, he'll begin a new assignment on the struggling cable channel MSNBC anchoring breaking news and special reports. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.