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Brian Williams' coverage of Pope Francis' U.S. visit was mocked on Twitter with #BrianWilliamsPopeStories.
Brian Williams is not living down his mistakes anytime soon. The disgraced former NBC Nightly News frontman returned to an anchor desk, this time at MSNBC, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, offering live coverage of Pope Francis’ highly anticipated visit to the United States.
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The gig was Williams’ first since his suspension earlier this year. And though he didn’t make any big announcement about coming back to TV news after seven months away, people on Twitter certainly noticed, starting the hashtag “#BrianWilliamsPopeStories.” Using the trending topic, tweeters joked about fake Pope stories that Williams could tell.
The hashtag was inspired by Williams’ false stories surrounding his fieldwork during the Iraq War that earned him a six-month suspension, and after an internal NBC investigation, ultimately caused him to lose his job.
Some tweets included:
#BrianWilliamsPopeStories Did you know he was grazed by the very same bullet that struck Pope John Paul II in 1981 in Vatican Square?
After a 10-year career covering the Nightly News, Williams, 56, was forced to step down in February and accept a job covering live events for MSNBC. He was replaced by longtime colleague Lester Holt.
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“I love the granularity and the breaking nature of live news coverage,” Williams told Today’s Matt Lauer of his new role in June. “Those moments where you can feel people tuning in.”
