THE WRITING ON THE WALL
Posted: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 4:38 PM by Daily Nightly Editor
Filed Under:
Brian Williams
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
I've been fortunate to get to know British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the past few years -- we shared a trip to Africa as part of Bono's work to eradicate poverty and disease, and have remained in touch since. The Prime Minister generously granted us his first American television sit-down interview early this morning (the 6 a.m. start time owing to his schedule at the U.N. immediately following our chat). It is always interesting to read the take of the wire services following such a conversation, as it was today.
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| M.L. Flynn / NBC News |
| A plaque at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel noting the meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Pope Paul VI in 1965. |
As proof that leaders come and go while our physical landmarks and institutions are left to absorb the history, a plaque on the wall of the suite we'd rented for the interview at the Waldorf-Astoria indicated our conversation took place on the very spot where President Lyndon Johnson first met Pope Paul VI in 1965. The Waldorf holds so much history -- as the former, permanent residence of President Hoover, Gen. and Mrs. MacArthur and so many more -- and as of this week, it has now hosted another Prime Minister.
We hope you will join us for the prime bits of the interview tonight. We're also happy to report that the
Chief Justice has gone home from the hospital in Maine -- his condition, and the need to get the reporting exactly right, made for some challenges last night. At one point we were very sure we knew more than we could say -- and thanks to Pete Williams working the phones in Washington, we were able to update the second feed of the broadcast with confirmation that he had indeed suffered a seizure. We'll have an update tonight, along with reporting on the status of the
Murdoch/Wall Street Journal saga.
Just as I ask you all to read our daily biographies of the nation's now 109 living recipients of the
Medal Of Honor, today I ask that you read the post from my friend and co-worker Albert Oetgen, who writes about
our friend and co-worker Eric Wishnie. Albert is a former newspaperman who writes beautifully. More important: he knew Eric better and for longer than most -- and so he writes with great passion and beauty and insight.
We were just blessed by a visit from Eric Wishnie's father and stepmother, a truly lovely couple, in great pain but somehow able to show such graciousness to us all. We were truly a sorry lot. After they had departed, following an emotional visit to our newsroom, I heard what sounded like the roar of a crowd, and I went to the window. It was Robin Williams, makeup tissue stuffed in his shirt collar, on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 50th Street, waving to the people who had gathered six-deep on the sidewalk to take the obligatory cellphone pictures and watch the filming of a movie he's making with John Travolta. Life goes on outside, even if it stands still in here.
We hope you can join us for this evening's broadcast.
