During college, Williams worked for three years as a reporter intern for the
Philadelphia Bulletin. He also won a Dow-Jones Newspaper Fund Award for outstanding young journalists and worked for a summer as an editor at the
Providence Journal before returning to finish college. After graduation, he won an internship at
The Washington Post. He worked at the paper from 1976 to 2000. During his tenure at the
Post, he held several positions, including metropolitan staff writer. While on the local staff he wrote a prize winning 6 part series on the problems in the DC public schools that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His investigative reporting on corruption in Mayor Marion Barry’s administration also won several awards. He later served on the Post’s national staff — covering every major political campaign from 1980 to 2000 — and as a political analyst. He also wrote as the paper’s White House correspondent, as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist and for the
Post Sunday Magazine.
While at the Post he became a regular panelist on
Inside Washington, a leading weekly Washington political affairs program. In 1990 CNN signed him to be a host for its highly rated
Crossfire program with co-hosts Bob Novak, Michael Kinsley and Pat Buchanan. He also regularly appeared on
Capitol Gang and hosted
Crossfire Sunday with Lynne Cheney.
In 1996, Williams became host of the syndicated television program,
America’s Black Forum. The show’s regular panelists included Julian Bond, Niger Innis, Deborah Mathis and Armstrong Williams.
Williams joined the Fox News Channel as a political contributor in 1997. He is a regular panelist on
Special Report with Bret Baier and
Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace. He also regularly appears on
The O'Reilly Factor and has served as a guest host on the top rated cable news show.
Due to Williams' commentary on the Fox News Channel, NPR requested that the FNC stop identifying him as an NPR host. NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard maintained that: "Williams tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox." Williams' following comment triggered the move:
- Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking, as Mary Katharine [Ham, a conservative blogger] is suggesting, her instinct is to start with this blame America, you know, I'm the victim. If that stuff starts coming out, people will go bananas and she'll go from being the new Jackie O to being something of an albatross.
"As a result of this latest flap, NPR's Vice President of News, Ellen Weiss, has asked Williams to ask that Fox remove his NPR identification whenever he is on O'Reilly."
Williams joined NPR in 1999 as host of the daily afternoon talk show
Talk of the Nation. During his nearly two years as host the show gained its highest ratings. He then served as senior national correspondent for NPR, interviewing newsmakers as well as providing analysis of major events in interviews with the anchors for the newsmagazines
Morning Edition,
All Things Considered and
Weekend Edition Saturday and Sunday.