Random notes
Posted: Monday, June 02, 2008 4:07 PM by Barbara Raab
Filed Under:
Brian Williams
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
A few items over the transom on a Monday back at work: interesting data and findings about the news media today, and we'll see if any of them are employed by any of us.
Todd Purdum's article in Vanity Fair (Todd and I overlapped while covering the Clinton White House) is an interesting read, as is the Clinton response to it today.
What a sad weekend for us at NBC Universal -- and all those who love the history of film. The fire at Universal Studios took away a part of movie-making history that can never be replaced. I am selfishly glad I saw the back lot during a studio tour recently. What a heroic effort by Los Angeles firefighters -- and by the operator of a bulldozer, who was in the pit working to pile up the pieces of a still-hot fire -- while water was blasting past him in several streams. It was an incredible scene to watch play out yesterday, as I did on the website of LA-area television stations. I'm confident we will rebuild. At least we have our memories, and in most cases copies of the films most affected.
President Bush today awarded the Medal of Honor to an Army Specialist who gave his life to save four others. Please read his story if you can. This makes the fourth posthumous awarding of the Medal in the Iraq War.
We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast. An early warning to our friends out West: while this puts us at cross-purposes with our friends in the Sports Division, we're not happy to say that our Western time zones won't all get to see Nightly News tonight, due to hockey coverage. However, we'll try to post our webcast version on our website early to make up for it. We'll be back at full strength tomorrow evening.