Brokaw to Williams: You've sullied the legacy, dude, and now you must go

The National Broadcasting Company's woes have been piling up of late.  There's MSNBC's most recent ratings slide, leading to talk of a "bloodbath."  There is, of course, Brian Williams's lie about the Chinook helicopter.

Now, its news division's last anchor of old-school stature, Tom Brokaw, is ratcheting up the pain a notch:

You know you’re in trouble when Tom Brokaw is out for your blood.

NBC’s most revered journalist is furious that Brian Williams is still in the anchor chair after he sheepishly admitted he hadn’t traveled on a helicopter hit by enemy fire.

“Brokaw wants Williams’ head on a platter,” an NBC source said. “He is making a lot of noise at NBC that a lesser journalist or producer would have been immediately fired or suspended for a false report.”

Brokaw was still the anchor in 2003, and has seethed about this for years.  Now that the truth has been made public, he doesn't want his successor, whose legacy is going to be He Who Damaged The Brand Irreparably, to stick around for another moment.

Other NBC folks are none too keen on Brian, either:

One longtime NBC employee who has worked with Williams on several occasions had a few dirty words to describe the celebrated anchor, calling him a “real pompous piece of s–t.”

“He’s an a–hole,” he fumed. “He’s not a journalist. He’s a reader.

“Oh, the fireworks that are going off inside,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. He’s the face on NBC. He’s a liar.

“Everyone knew it.”

The suits are still talking a good game about standing by their man at the moment, but something will have to give, sooner than later.