[Bucco]

An important and well written take on this Williams story, perhaps underscorin the seriousness of it versus something like a fictional soap opera...

"The role of the network news anchor has changed dramatically over the years.

Walter Cronkite was known as the most-trusted man in America when he presided over the "CBS Evening News." In the 1987 film "Broadcast News," Jack Nicholson played a network anchor who strode around a Washington, D.C. station like a colossus, almost a deity, and the portrayal was considered both funny and accurate by those in the news business.

Without question, the influence of the network anchors has waned over the years, with the fragmentation of news delivery. Fewer people wait for the anchors to read the news (though millions still do – just fewer millions). Why wait when you can get the latest headlines on your phone or laptop? We get the news we want now, or whenever we want it. To a growing number of people, waiting for the nightly news is so old-school as to be archaic.

Yet the one thing mainstream media, a term used with increasing derision, has been able to count on is credibility. Sure, we may not get it first, goes the argument, and it may not be as flashy, but we spend the time to make sure it is accurate. Implicit in this is a suggestion that news delivered by other sources is less reliable. Now Williams, in shooting himself in the foot with fabrications, opens the door to criticism that no media can be trusted.

It's a stunning development, really.

Brian Williams: How bad -- and how important -- is this?