Insurrection in Syracuse
Posted: Friday, August 15, 2008 4:49 PM by Barbara Raab
Filed Under:
Brian Williams, Beijing Olympics
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
While I was working on the other side of the world, my wife and son were in upstate New York touring colleges. Their plans called for them to fly from Syracuse back to JFK on Jet Blue yesterday afternoon. Then weather moved into the New York area, forcing a "ground stop" -- a fancy term for "nobody in, nobody out." All three major New York-area airports were a disaster -- and so began an 8-hour odyssey for them in Syracuse.
The biggest problem wasn't the fact that they boarded their Jet Blue flight at least once before being told to get off the plane and go back to the terminal. The problem was: the television sets in the airport were tuned (more like hard-wired) to the CNN Airport Network. Nothing against my friends at CNN, mind you (I've spent many an hour in many a lounge watching the CNN Airport Network) but: the Olympics are on. Phelps was swimming. Women's Gymnastics. Costas. Rowdy. Bella. America.
My wife apparently appealed to the airport management (in the most polite way) and was turned down at every turn in her quest to have just one television set tuned to the Games. The only other television, in the airport bar, was apparently 
not up to the task. Telephone calls were made to city officials. The crowd of viewers who wanted to see the Olympics was peaceful and civil, but growing and insistent. There was no effort to light torches, pillage or scare the good townspeople of Syracuse -- but it was close. The answer to the telephone inquiries came back saying the "Syracuse Commissioner" (is that the same as "Theodoric of York" or the "Chancellor of the Exchequer?") had turned down the outlandish and highly unusual request to change the channel, saying the city had a binding contract with CNN.
I'm proud to say that this is where the story took a turn. My 17-year-old son, showing the resourcefulness of an infantryman, literally used chewing gum to affix a coaxial cable to a t.v. monitor they discovered in a children's play area in the airport lounge. It was a vintage color t.v., and it was a scratchy local cable signal, but slowly a crowd formed to watch the Olympics. My family had skirted the law. Risking certain arrest as dissidents, they watched Phelps swim. They watched gymnastics. They boarded and were able to watch the Olympics on NBC on board Jet Blue all the way home to New York. The Syracuse Airport, combined with Mother Nature, tried to defeat them. They won. Way to go, honey. Good job, son.
We hope to see you from Beijing for tonight's broadcast. If you're in an airport and can't seem to see our broadcast, I hear chewing gum and cable might work.
