NBC Head Steve Burke ‘Wanted to Fire’ Brian Williams

Deadline: Pundits offer conjecture on the meaning of Brian Williams’ dispatch to the unfertile pastures of MSNBC and the questionable tack of naming him the person who will cut into network programming with breaking news when his own replacement is unavailable. Some point out that anyone other than Williams would have been summarily fired given his offenses. “From the day this blew up, Steve Burke wanted Williams fired,” said a person who knows. But the news anchor-cum-comedy-show guest apparently was too big and too expensive for corporate defenestration.