NewsChannel 5 Chief Investigative Reporter Phil Williams is one of the most highly acclaimed investigative journalists in America. He has been recognized with journalism’s most prestigious honors on multiple occasions throughout his 40-year career. He is a five-time recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award and a five-time recipient of the duPont Columbia Award, both considered broadcasting’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

He was inducted into the ranks of some of America’s best-known reporters in 2023 when he was honored with the highly coveted John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism. That award is administered by Columbia Journalism School. That same year, on his Last Week Tonight show, HBO’s John Oliver presented a 10-minute segment about Williams’s reporting, famously dubbing him “Nashville’s Nosiest Bitch” and citing his work as the type of unflinching journalism desperately needed in America.

He joins us for Local News Day to discuss the importance of local media, his own pro-democracy reporting, and why for the last few years he and his team have refused to surrender to the fascist mob and continue to center their work on investigating and reporting about hate groups and political extremists looking to seize power and grow their influence in Tennessee (and beyond).

Listen on Apple, Spotify, and iheart

READ:

• Hate Comes to Main Street - Phil’s Newsletter

ALSO LISTEN TO:

• Journalist Jordan Green on Why the Neo-Nazi Movement Is an Escalating Threat to US Democracy
• The History of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in America, with Bill Mullen and Christopher Vials
• From Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to Bucks County’s Fred Harran: Why ICE 287(g) Partnerships Are So Dangerous, with Jessica Pishko
• Katherine Stewart Discusses Her New Book ‘Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy’
• Former FBI Agent Who Once Infiltrated Neo-Nazi Groups and Militias Explains Why Law Enforcement Fails to Take Far-Right Extremism Seriously
• How Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement Will Legalize and Deploy Vigilantes to Push Their Agenda, with David Noll
• Unmasking Moms for Liberty’s Extremism, with Olivia Little and Diana Leygerman

Music by Maf é Tulà and Cartas a Felice, "La Loca." Panela Music.

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