Brian Williams made his grand return to TV on Tuesday to anchor MSNBC’s coverage of Pope Francis’ arrival in the US — and immediately inspired the Twitter hashtag #BrianWilliamsPopeStories.
While a serious Williams appeared without fanfare at 3 p.m. — returning to MSNBC as a breaking news anchor — the public didn’t seem so willing to absolve him for “misremembering” stories and telling tall tales from past news events.
Under #BrianWilliamsPopeStories came humorous tweet suggestions kicked off by conservative writer Michelle Malkin: “Did you know he was grazed by the very same bullet that struck Pope John Paul II in 1981 in Vatican Square?”
From @7fairchild came, “Being the pope’s twin brother means anchoring coverage of his US visit one day and being the pope the next.” And @realtysteve posted, “When Francis was chosen, a cardinal was sick. Naturally, the Vatican flew in Brian to cast the tiebreaking vote.” And from @debitking: “When the pope was washing my feet, I told him how I invented the electric car.”
Then @awt14_ added, “Brian Williams blows more smoke than the Sistine Chapel when a new pope is selected.” @RepRepublic wrote, “The Pope confesses to me.” And from @JimmyChowda: “I was the inspiration for the movie Pope Fiction.”