NBC is planning to announce Thursday that Brian Williams will not return to his position as the anchor of its “Nightly News” show, four months after the network suspended him for exaggerating his role in a helicopter incident in Iraq, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

两名知情者透露，NBC将于周四宣布陷入争议的新闻主播布莱恩·威廉姆斯(Brian Williams)不再担任《NBC晚间新闻》主播的决定。威廉姆斯因为夸大自己在一次伊拉克美军直升飞机险情中发挥的作用，已被停职了四个月。

Mr. Williams is expected to move to a new role primarily at the cable news network MSNBC, probably in a breaking-news capacity in the beginning, according to one of the people.

其中一人说，威廉姆斯将被安排新的职位，主要在MSNBC有线电视新闻网工作，一开始可能会负责即时新闻播报。

Lester Holt, who has been filling in for Mr. Williams as anchor, will take on the position permanently¹, one person said.

一直以来顶替威廉姆斯做主播的莱斯特·霍尔特(Lester Holt)将正式担任晚间新闻主播的职务。

NBC could not be reached for comment. Mr. Williams’s lawyer, Robert Barnett, declined to comment. News of the decision was first reported by CNN.com.

本报无法联系到NBC接受采访。威廉姆斯的律师罗伯特·巴尼特(Robert Barnett)拒绝对此置评。有关这项决定的新闻最早由CNN网站报道。

The new role is a humbling² comedown for Mr. Williams, who before the controversy³ was one of the country’s most prominent and respected broadcast journalists.

对威廉姆斯来说，新职位是略显寒碜的贬职。在此次争议事件发生之前，他是全美最知名和最受尊敬的电视新闻工作者之一。

Until early February, Mr. Williams, 56, was riding high as the No. 1 nightly news anchor, drawing close to 10 million viewers a night. His popularity extended beyond the anchor’s chair; with a quick wit and engaging manner, he was a coveted⁴ speaker at dinners and panels, and a frequent celebrity⁵ guest on entertainment shows.

直到今年2月初，56岁的威廉姆斯还高居晚间新闻节目主持人的榜首，每晚有近1000万人观看他的节目。 他受欢迎的范畴，已经不仅限于他的主播身份。他有急智，有魅力，经常受邀在宴会和研讨会上做演讲，也频繁出任娱乐节目的嘉宾。

But on his newscast on Feb. 4, Mr. Williams admitted that he had embellished⁶ his account of being on a helicopter that was hit by enemy fire in 2003, and apologized to viewers. The response put him and NBC on the defensive⁷; military veterans took him to task, and media commentators⁸ and viewers claimed he had lost the trust so critical to a network news anchor.

不过，今年2月4日，他在自己的节目上承认，之前讲述的2003年在伊拉克乘坐直升机时被敌军火力击中的经历存在夸大成分，并就此向观众致歉。观众的反应使他和NBC都陷入被动。退伍军人纷纷指责他；媒体评论人和观众称他失去了对电视新闻主播而言至关重要的信任。

On Feb. 10, Mr. Williams was suspended for six months without pay.

2月10日，NBC决定对威廉姆斯停薪停职六个月。

NBC opened an investigation⁹ into Mr. Williams, and over the last several months it uncovered as many as 10 to 12 instances where he was thought to have exaggerated or fabricated accounts of his reporting, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry¹⁰.

据知情人士透露，NBC对威廉姆斯展开了调查，而在过去几个月里，他们在他之前的报道中发现了10至12处存在夸大和杜撰嫌疑的表述。

The controversy escalated¹¹ to the very top of the corporation. Stephen B. Burke, NBCUniversal’s chief executive, played a crucial role in deciding Mr. William’s fate at NBC, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations.

这次争议事件在公司内部的重要性不断升级，连公司最高层也参与进来。据知情人士透露，NBC环球的首席执行官斯蒂芬·B·伯克(Stephen B. Burke)在决定威廉姆斯在NBC的命运的决策过程中起到了关键作用。

Television industry executives said that it would have been difficult for Mr. Williams to return to the anchor chair because he lost the trust not only of viewers but also of the people in NBC’s newsroom.

电视行业的高管表示，威廉姆斯将很难重返主播岗位，因为他不仅失去了观众的信任，也失去了NBC新闻编辑部门同仁的信任。

Before the controversy, Mr. Williams, who became “Nightly News” anchor in 2004, succeeding Tom Brokaw, was considered one of the most trusted men not only in the news business but in the country.

威廉姆斯在2004年接任汤姆·布罗考(Tom Brokaw)成为《NBC晚间新闻》节目的主播。此次事件之前，他不仅被认为是新闻界最值得信信赖的人之一，而且是全国最受信赖的人之一。

In February, Mr. Williams ranked as the 23rd-most-trusted person in the country, on par¹² with Denzel Washington, Warren E. Buffett and Robin¹³ Roberts. By May, his trust ranking had plummeted¹⁴ to 3,352, near the rapper Eminem and the Playboy tycoon¹⁵ Hugh Hefner, according to the Marketing¹⁶ Arm, a research firm whose celebrity index is closely watched by media and marketing executives.

根据Marketing Arm调研公司公布的数据，今年2月，在全国名人信任度排行榜上，威廉姆斯身居23位，与丹泽尔·华盛顿(Denzel Washington)、沃伦·E·巴菲特(Warren E. Buffett)和罗宾·罗伯茨(Robin Roberts)不相上下；至5月份，他的信任度排名已经跌至3352位，与说唱歌手埃米纳姆(Eminem)和《花花公子》大亨休·海夫纳(Hugh Hefner)相齐平。该公司发布的名人指数受到媒体和市场营销高管的密切关注。

For Mr. Williams, the fact that he is staying at NBCUniversal could be interpreted as something of a victory. Many media executives inside and outside the company had thought his continued employment at NBC was untenable.

对威廉姆斯而言，今后还能留在NBC环球就可以被解读为小小的胜利。公司内外的许多媒体高管之前认为，他在NBC将无立足之地。

A person close to Mr. Williams, who spoke¹⁷ on condition of anonymity¹⁸, said that his supporters saw the decision as, if not quite an exoneration¹⁹, a signal that any wrongdoing investigated by NBC was not so egregious²⁰ as to prevent a return.

与威廉姆斯关系密切的一名要求不具名的人士透露，他的支持者认为，这项决定就算不能看做是对威廉姆斯的免责，也说明NBC调查出来的其他问题并没有严重到让他无法回归的地步。

Other NBC employees were not surprised by the controversy and said that Mr. Williams had a reputation for exaggerating stories. They said he was not widely loved in the newsroom.

其他一些NBC员工对于发生这样的争议事件并不感到奇怪。他们表示威廉姆斯出了名地喜欢夸大事实，而且他在新闻编辑部门里的人缘并不太好。

The investigation was conducted in an almost legalistic fashion, said one person close to the process. Though there was one work room that had printouts of web jokes featuring Mr. Williams on the walls, the person said, the work was rigorous and detailed²¹. It generated hundreds of pages of material, based partly on interviews with Mr. Williams’s colleagues inside NBC who had firsthand knowledge of his reporting.

据一名知情人士透露，这次调查是以一种接近法律调查的方式进行。他表示，尽管有一个办公间的墙面上贴有打印出来的有关威廉姆斯的网络笑话，但调查工作本身非常严格而详尽。这次调查搜集了数百页资料，其中有部分是基于和NBC内部对威廉姆斯的报道有一手了解的同事的谈话 。

But those who scrutinized²² the various allegations against Mr. Williams feared, as they were working, that their analysis might be peripheral²³ to any decision that was made, this person said.

不过，这名人士还表示，那些对威廉姆斯受到的指控进行详尽调查的人员在工作中就表示出担心，觉得他们的分析可能不会对决策产生多大影响。

Richard Esposito, the senior executive producer for investigations²⁴ who was leading the effort, did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment Wednesday evening.

牵头进行此次调查的资深执行制作人理查德·埃斯波西托(Richard Esposito)没有接听本报在周三晚上拨打的几次电话，也没有回应请求置评的多条讯息。

Finding an appropriate role for Mr. Williams at NBC posed a challenge, television executives said. Mr. Williams built a reputation as a master storyteller and news reader but wasn’t known for his interviewing skills or journalism²⁵ chops.

电视行业的高管表示，给威廉姆斯在NBC内部换一个合适的职位，是个不小的挑战。威廉姆斯以擅长讲故事和解读新闻而出名，但他的采访技巧或挖掘新闻的能力并不出色。

Television executives said that NBC would stand to benefit by keeping Mr. Williams from going to a competitor and talking publicly about the controversy.

高管们表示，让威廉姆斯留下而非跳槽到竞争对手那里，避免他公开谈论这次争议事件，对NBC更为有益。

In the coming months, MSNBC is expected to introduce more hard news and more reporting from NBC News talent during daytime hours, which would be something of a break from its more opinion-based programming during the evening, according to a person briefed on the plans.

知情人士透露，接下来几个月，MSNBC计划在白天时段引入更多硬新闻和来自NBC新闻台的报道，以求和主要以观点类节目为主的晚间时段形成反差。

His departure from the anchor chair leaves NBC in an awkward position for the national newscast. In December, Mr. Williams, 55, signed a new five-year contract reportedly worth $10 million a year, and the network was not expecting to have to replace him so soon. No one in the news ranks was being groomed²⁶ as a successor.

威廉姆斯离开主播职位让NBC在全国性新闻方面陷入尴尬境地。去年12月，55岁的威廉姆斯和NBC签订了为期五年的合同，据称年薪达1000万美元（约合6200万元人民币）。电视台没料到这么快就要找人替代他。论新闻资历，也没有合适的接班人选。

While Mr. Holt has mostly held steady in the ratings, the network has been in a neck-in-neck race for viewers with ABC’s 6:30 p.m. national newscast.

尽管霍尔特基本保持了稳定的收视率，但NBC一直在和ABC晚6点半档的全国性新闻节目激烈地争夺观众。

The crisis surrounding Mr. Williams’s embellishments is another blow for the NBC News division.

此外，因为威廉姆斯夸大事实引发的这次危机并不是NBC新闻部门近期遭受的第一次冲击。

In the last year, it replaced David Gregory as host of “Meet the Press,” and fired an executive hired to oversee²⁷ the “Today” show after only 10 weeks. NBC Universal’s cable news channel, MSNBC, also has been saddled by sharply declining ratings.

去年，他们替换了《会见媒体》(Meet the Press)的主持人戴维·格雷戈里(David Gregory)，并解雇了一名负责《今日》(Today)节目的主管——在其入职仅十周后。NBC环球旗下的有线新闻频道MSNBC也一直受困于急剧下降的收视率。

In March, NBC hired Andrew Lack to lead its news division as part of a broader shake-up at the top of the management ranks. Mr. Lack previously²⁸ was president of NBC News from 1993 until 2001.

NBC正在进行更大范围的最高管理层的人事变动。今年3月，NBC聘用安德鲁·拉克(Andrew Lack)领导其新闻部门。此前，拉克曾在1993至2001年间担任NBC新闻台的总裁。