Williams joined NPR in 2000 as host of the daily afternoon talk show "Talk of the Nation". He then served as senior national correspondent for NPR. In 2009, NPR's President and CEO Vivian Schiller requested Fox News stop identifying him as an NPR host after Williams commented on "The O'Reilly Factor": "Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going. If she starts talking...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". NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard maintained that: "Williams tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox."