Money and position may be important, but ethics should always come first. Brian Williams, “NBC Nightly News” anchor and manager, violated of one of the most important and ethical rules in journalism, honesty. Williams traveled to Iraq and returned with a harrowing story of how the helicopter in which he was flying came under enemy fire.

“In the end, it did give us a glimpse of the war being fought as few have seen it. We asked the U.S. army to take us on an air mission with them, they accepted. We knew there was risk involved, we knew we would be flying over Iraq, we discussed it. We weren’t cavalier about it. We took off and that is right about when things started to happen,” Williams stated on NBC news in 2006. He went on to tell a story of a RPG (rocket propelled grenade) that hit the helicopter directly in front of his helicopter while his own helicopter took on fire from AK-47s.  All helicopters in the convoy, he added, were then forced to land immediately, and were isolated to the north of the U.S. army for two days.

Williams went so far in his embellishment that he even spoke about how he remembered seeing the RPG getting fired from the barrel of its launcher. Recently, years after the story aired in 2006, one of the pilots and others in the three helicopter convoy, stated that Williams was not actually in the convoy at all, but in another helicopter that was in flight an hour before the convoy took on the enemy fire. William’s career is now under scrutiny after recanting this story, as it should be.

Williams stepped down for a few days, but during that period NBC suspended him from his high ranking position for six months. Williams fabrication of the story from Iraq has caused more of his broadcasting past to come under scrutiny as well. He claimed on NBC News to have seen a body floating past an area that was largely dry during Hurricane Katrina, according to the News Orleans Advocate. The area where Williams supposedly saw the floating body was near the Ritz Carlton, and no other people have substantiated his claim of seeing any floating dead bodies in that area, according to CNN. With a front of accusations, the question facing Williams and NBC, is whether he may be able to continue onward in his broadcasting career at all.

As the helicopter story continued to unravel from the further accounts of the other pilots, so has the public’s trust in Williams. As a representative of one of the largest news sources, Williams should be held to at least the same standard, if not higher, than every other journalist in every other medium.  Journalists from around the world are waiting to see what precedent will be set. The public is waiting to see what will come of Williams after his blatant departure from the truth. Will he be able to come back to broadcasting and continue his previously successful career, or will he be forced to retire?

Williams, after admitting guilt in the Iraq story, and still under question in the Hurricane Katrina story said,  “Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.”

But will the public be able to accept Williams back after his suspension, and if so, can he fill the role of a trusted journalist after mis-reporting a story for his sole benefit? Furthermore, it becomes a question of whether or not NBC will allow their honor to be forever tarnished if they do not fire the broadcasting icon. A six month suspension for the multi-millionaire may not be enough to satisfy the public.

No matter his importance at NBC, I feel that such conduct should lead to a permanent dismissal of Williams as a broadcaster, rather than a six month suspension. While he may be of great financial importance to the network, it is necessary to let public know that what they are reading and seeing is the truth, and with Williams still on the NBC team, we may never be fully sure. The final decision, if it falls upon NBC (rather than Williams himself) will be decidedly one of the biggest reflections on NBC’s core values in their history.

Being an aspiring journalist myself, I personally think it important for the company to keep true to rules of journalism and not let the downfall of Williams affect them as well. In my first day in Journalism, we wrote the journalism guidelines which must be obeyed at all times, and truth is at the top of the list. If a high school journalism class must keep to the ethics, so must NBC. As one of the biggest and most prevalent news sources in the world, they should be setting the example. In order for NBC to maintain its integrity in journalism, Williams must be fired.