July 2009 - Posts
By David Gregory, Moderator, Meet the Press
I was stuck on an airport tarmac today for three hours so at first I missed the news about signs of recovery for the economy. It shrank in the second quarter, but less than expected. This seems to a lot of people including the President like it may be the beginning of the end of the recession. But if this is recovery, with so many people still out of work and foreclosing on their mortgages, it makes you worry. We will try to sort some of it out tonight with CNBC's Steve Leisman. Also, with the administration under fire for the stimulus failing to post the results they promised, one of the rebate programs that WAS working - the so called cash for clunkers - ran out of money. Looks like Congress will act quickly enough to authorize enough money for the program for you to get your cash back over the weekend.
If you haven't heard Senator Chris Dodd has prostate cancer. He shared the news with Senator Kennedy yesterday and Kennedy apparently said, "If I can beat mine, you can beat yours."
Also tonight, Norah O'Donnell with a great story about how horses can make a difference in the life of a solider returning from war.
Brian is away today. I hope you will tune in tonight. And have a great weekend.
By Lauren Selsky, NBC News desk assistant
As a student of history, I’ve studied countless battles where horses were used to wage war. Little did I know that they’re now being used to heal our soldiers after they come back from war.
I was intrigued when I first read about the Horses for Heroes program at the Maryland Therapeutic Riding center. The non-profit organization offers free equine therapy to veterans and active duty soldiers suffering from both physical and psychological wounds of war. I’d always thought equine therapy was for people with physical disabilities. Never did I think these animals could have such an effect on people suffering from psychological disabilities.
Shortly after arriving at MTR, Norah O’Donnell, producer Adam Verdugo, and I were introduced to the soldiers. They were cordial. A quick handshake and they headed to the barn. Thirty minutes later they emerged with the horses. There was a noticeable difference in their demeanor. Shoulders straightened, faces lit up, and they walked with an air of confidence.
NBC's Norah O'Donnell with 'wounded warriors'
Courtesy Carole Morgan at the Maryland Therapeutic Riding center
In fact, everyone’s faces lit up when the horses were around – including our crew’s. As one of the soldiers said to me, “It’s hard NOT to smile when the horses are out.” That became obvious as the soldiers interacted with the horses on the way to the arena. Lots of smiles, hugs, and petting took place along the way.
It was uplifting to see the connection between the horses and the soldiers. Before we left, I asked Specialist Robert Rodriguez if he was sad to leave. His answer? “No, I’ll be back tomorrow.” Rodriguez, along with several of the other soldiers, plan to continue coming to the center…this time as volunteers.
To find out more about equine therapy and the Horses for Heroes program at the Maryland Therapeutic Riding center, please visit HorsesThatHeal.org.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I'm linking to a single item today because it's important. While you may disagree, David Ignatius has written an interesting piece for the Washington Post on our current culture of security. I see it everywhere -- and it’s become "baked in" to our society (especially in New York and Washington), and in a robust Democracy, we the people get to decide how much is too much security...or too little.
We hope you can join us tonight.
The video is truly frightening. An SUV tipped over on it's side, engulfed in flames; while panicked neighbors work desperately to free a mother and her two young children trapped inside. Out of nowhere appear two brothers; off-duty Milwaukee firefighters who assist in freeing the mom and one child. But the second child, four year old David (DJ) Harper is trapped in his booster seat. Repeatedly the brothers enter the blazing vehicle until the boy is freed. They then douse his burning body with a garden hose and prep him for the ambulance. DJ survives, but this is not where the story ends. The little boy is seriously burned and his cash-strapped family has nowhere to turn. Except now those two brothers, John and Joel Rechlitz, and their own families are spear heading charity efforts to assist DJ and his family. Milwaukee has been mobilized overnight; and everything from cash to clothing is being donated.
In a world where so many often appear willing to take the credit, here are two soft-spoken brothers and their families going far beyond the call of duty to help out another family in need. But hey, don’t try to give them credit for doing it…"Wouldn’t you do the same thing?", they ask.
That is this evening's Making a Difference.
Here are two websites where you can follow DJ's progress and find out more information.
www.helpingdavid.com
www.caringbridge.org
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Because my morning was spent attending a funeral, how about this, a great story about a guy with an interesting name, another about a guy with an interesting job, and still another about the collision between the "culture of the web" and the standards of a profession. I attended a screening last night of the new rock-n-roll film "It Might Get Loud" -- and as a lover of the art form -- all I can say to fellow music fans is: go see it when it comes to a theatre near you. I'll leave it at that...we sure hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.
By Janet Shamlian, NBC News correspondent
It looks like the hurricane hit yesterday. Those were the words of NBC Producer Al Henkel in describing the small Texas community of San Leon, torn apart last September by Hurricane Ike. I was surprised to hear it. I'd been back to Galveston a few times since the storm and the rebuilding -- while far from complete -- was well on its way. But San Leon is different. Front yards are still littered with broken appliances and water damaged furniture. Large families are crammed into FEMA trailers alongside homes where the clean-up has yet to begin.
It was the kind of neighborhood Monty and Susan Scales were looking for. The Indiana couple sat in front of their television, almost four years ago now, looking at the devastation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. People are often moved to help after a tragedy, and they were no different. They picked up a used camper and headed down to Mississippi. Both had backgrounds in construction and were determined to put that experience to use. After a few weeks it was apparent to them both, they wouldn't be going back to the Hoosier state.
After three years in the Katrina zone, they moved to Texas last year. Monty says they look for families who've fallen through the cracks, who -- for whatever reason -- are having trouble getting help. The couple do everything from helping these folks apply for federal aid to rewiring their kitchens. The hours are long, the pay is in hugs.. and they wouldn't trade it for the world. We'll introduce you to Monty and Susan and give you a look at their extraordinary labor of love, tonight on Nightly News.
you can learn more about Susan and Monty on their blog
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Leave it to the good folks at Gawker. If you watched any part of the President's AARP event today, perhaps you were bothered by the same nagging question: "What does this remind me of?" Gawker got it.
I should also thank them for the time-lapse photography of the Manhattan Bridge, which we ran on the broadcast last night -- I first spotted it on Gawker.
We have a few non-Gawker items on the broadcast tonight, and we hope you can join us.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
So today's posting is for fans of the Beloit College list -- the great yearly collection featuring gems like "This year's college graduates have always known what its like to microwave something." While what I'm linking to was written in the UK, it translates to modern life in America.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. We're about to complete the second coldest July on record here in New York, and the weather just keeps getting more and more bizarre. Last night in Lower Manhattan, I saw the closest thing to rotational, tornadic winds that I've ever seen in New York (I've seen the real thing numerous times from my years in Kansas and Missouri) with flying debris and turbine sound to match. Funnel clouds were spotted throughout the metropolitan region yesterday, and we're heading into another boisterous week. My hope, for the merchants and businesses along my beloved Jersey Shore, is that August is a "normal" hot summer month. We're counting on it.
We hope you can join us for our broadcast tonight, as we start off another week.
by Carl Quintanilla, NBC News
A fascinating chapter in recent American politics is coming to an end tonight, as Sarah Palin officially steps down as governor of Alaska. The question is: is she about to open a NEW chapter – with her plans to write books, speak out in favor of political candidates, and form a new center-right coalition?
Either way, tonight brings the kind of homespun theatre we've come to expect from the governor, complete with a Twitter message about the country music she's been listening to in her "camper full of kids & coffee." Our Norah O'Donnell is in Fairbanks tonight and will bring us the latest on what's next for Sarah Palin, and we'll talk all things politics with CNBC's John Harwood.
We'll also highlight the ongoing drought in Texas, which has gone from being a very serious situation to a critical one. Lakes and rivers are drying up and cattle are going thirsty. In some cases, water levels are so low, cars and motorcycles once dumped at the bottom are now at the top and being towed. NBC's Janet Shamlian brings us the pictures and tells us how long experts say the situation will last.
Finally, I don't know if you've noticed, but Hollywood has been incorporating the nation's weak economy, lately, into their storylines. From "30 Rock" to "The Simpsons," characters are dealing with the same hardships as everyday Americans. Has Hollywood finally "gotten real"? And what happened to the escapism it has typically provided in past downturns? NBC's Chris Jansing reports from Hollywood.
We hope you'll tune in and join us.
By Amy Robach, NBC News Anchor
Thanks for checking in, I'll be sitting in or Lester tonight. We're putting the broadcast together right now, with news and live reports from Washington, to Alaska, to Honduras. But many of us are still smiling about a story you may have seen this morning on TODAY – a large dance party out on the Plaza.
If you missed it, be sure to stay tuned to the end of our program tonight, where you will see the newest Internet phenomenon. What started out as a young couple's wedding video to share with friends and family turned into an international sensation in a matter of days. Interest in the video that inspired this morning's re-enactment has ballooned. NBC's Mike Taibbi takes a look at why this video has struck such a chord with so many millions of people. We hope you'll join us this evening.
By Amy Robach, NBC News Anchor
It was a surprise showing at this afternoon's White House briefing, President Obama walked in without warning to address the growing controversy surrounding his comments over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Junior.
Earlier in the week, the president had said the Cambridge Police department had "acted stupidly" arresting Gates, and now we're hearing t expressing regret over the words he chose. He stopped short of apologizing as the Cambridge police unions had asked for, but he did make a personal phone call to the police sergeant involved. It's a story that has exploded in the media and has overshadowed the president's agenda on health care reform.
Tonight we'll have a full report from Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd, as well as analysis from “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory. We hope you'll join us for the broadcast this evening.
Brian is attending Walter Cronkite's funeral today so he will not be posting.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Mistakes are awful in our business -- whether it’s NBC News, US News or The New York Times -- we try mightily to avoid them, and try to cop to them when we discover them. As long as there's a human element in journalism, mistakes will happen. So it was with that in mind that we noticed the mother of all corrections in this morning's New York Times -- and of all things, it had to do with their coverage of the death of a man who was a stickler for detail: Walter Cronkite.
"An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors. In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day. Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30. Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches. In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26. “The CBS Evening News” overtook “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970. A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar. Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of “The CBS Evening News” in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor. Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International."
In defense of the writer(s) of the original article(s), deaths are seldom planned events, and deadline journalism has its perils. In defense of the New York Times, corrections are important in an era when the work of such a newspaper is often sourced for years and years as the definitive version of events. At least they corrected the record in detail. So -- with the "glass houses" rule fully in effect -- we will proceed with our broadcast in hopes that we get it all right. If not, we'll run a correction!
We hope you can join us tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
When I left CBS to come work at NBC, my colleagues organized a farewell gathering at a bar on the West Side of Manhattan. It had originally been scheduled for my last day of employment, February 26, 1993. However, that day, a truck bomb went off beneath the World Trade Center -- and I was on the air covering the story until my contract expired at the stroke of midnight. The party was re-scheduled for a few days later. At a certain point in the evening, as is common at such gatherings in our industry, a television was wheeled into the room and the crowd was shushed -- for the playing of the "going-away tape," a collection, usually, of well-wishers making jokes and blowing kisses goodbye. This particular tape was different, because it featured a personal message from Walter Cronkite. I had already lived a charmed enough life to be able to tell Walter that he was the guy I wanted to be when I was a small boy. He'd heard the same thing about countless other people during the course of his career, and yet because of his extraordinary kindness, there he was on my tape, with a personal message for me. He said it had come to his attention that I grew up in a household where dinner was not served until the CBS Evening News was over each night -- until the moment my mother heard him say, "That's the way it is..." He looked into the camera and said, "Brian, I never want you to miss another meal, so consider this your personal copy -- "That's the way it is." I was floored -- floored that he knew who I was, amazed that he had taken the time and the trouble...and feeling pretty lucky about life's good fortune.
I didn't know then...that just over a dozen years later, I'd be anchoring a network evening newscast... the job I watched Walter perfect so many years before. I have said for years, and to all who will listen: He's the guy I grew up wanting to be. Of course, there's only one Walter. All I can do now is hope that his example continues to guide me, and others, in work and in life. While in retirement and in his old age, he long ago left the public spotlight, now he's truly gone. As long as he was with us, there was always "Cronkite" to point to, to hold up as a living example. Now it is Walter's memory that lives with us all.
Someone asked me yesterday if Walter would have embraced blogging. I actually think, if such a thing can be measured on a real-time basis, that if Walter were in the chair today, he'd like it. I think he would find it an excellent way to communicate with the audience, to try to be transparent and to explain things like I'm about to: I wrote the above post yesterday and forgot to send it on to our editor. My wife asked me last night, "No blog today?" That's when I realized I hadn't hit "send." Some days I use this space to admit errors the night before, sometimes I learn our coverage has touched a nerve when I see the email volume on a given subject. While it’s just speculation on my part, I think Walter would have liked the daily deadline aspect and the "reporter's notebook" aspect of a blog -- for all the material that can't fit on the air and is thus normally wasted. It adds context and conversation and depth, and it’s a part of our daily drill. On days when we remember to hit "send."
We'll look for you tonight.
Brian was unable to blog today but will post tomorrow.
By Bob Witten, Producer MSNBC
He's my hero and now he is gone.
My career in broadcast journalism was just getting started in 1962 when Walter Cronkite began anchoring the CBS Evening News. I was instantly drawn to him. His work set the standard for me, and of course, countless others broadcast reporters of the time. He had been recruited by the revered Edward R. Murrow. His newscast was truly "appointment viewing". I made sure that I was home, or at least near a TV at 630 every weeknight to catch his newscast. In 1968, I was running a little four man news team at WRSC radio in State College , Pennsylvania. It was a CBS affiliate, and we were all pretty jazzed at being part of "Cronkite's team". We had his picture on the newsroom wall, for God's sake!
I am a "pre-deregulation" newsman, one who was bound at the time, by FCC rules about objectivity and community service by broadcasters. As a result, I was impressed by how clear the division was on Cronkite's newscast among news, comment, editorial and opinion. I was shocked when he gave his views on Vietnam, and staggered by how powerful one single broadcast opinion could be. I remember how embarrassed he was after he described as "thugs", those who restrained then CBS Correspondent Dan Rather at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But, I also remember his bemused smile one afternoon at that same tumultuous convention. He was anchoring one of the barely-watched daytime sessions, and promised that Commentator Eric Sevareid would be along after the next commercial. The commercial ended...no Sevareid. Cronkite ad-libbed for a while and eventually Sevareid slid into the seat next to him. If my memory serves, the conversation went something like this: CRONKITE: "So, Eric, where were you?". SEVAREID: "Well, in fact, I was in the men's room, and I discovered something very important there". [This is where the bemused smile occurred] CRONKITE:" I'm almost afraid to ask, but what was that?". SEVAREID:"The gentleman standing next to me, said, Mr. Sevareid, I think you and I are the only two people in this building, who know exactly what we are doing at this moment. I think that sums up this convention rather tidily". Watching at home, I waited for Cronkite to break up, but true to form, he didn't.
I was fortunate to meet the late Ed Bliss, Cronkite's CBS Evening News editor, and got to know him pretty well. His attention to writing, grammar, spelling and fact-checking contributed mightily to Cronkite's reputation as "the Most Trusted man in America". Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote upon Cronkite's death, "Americans will never again trust journalists how they trusted him. And that is a healthy thing". With respect, I think Kurtz has got it all wrong. I would hope all journalists could be trusted as much as Cronkite.
I shook Cronkite's hand once, at a New York reception following his final Evening News broadcast. It was a horribly sad and tense affair, not the moment of introduction for which I had always hoped. He meant a lot to me and I wanted to tell him that, but that was not the time. So, my hero is dead. But his example will endure as long as we have free and independent news media.
by Carl Quintanilla, NBC News
Two major stories have caught our eye tonight, and they both come out of Washington. The first is that of an Army private captured by the Taliban, now featured in an emotional video posted online. His name is Bowe Bergdahl, a 23-years-old, Idaho native who's been serving in Afghanistan since February.
There are questions tonight about just how Bergdahl was captured, and the Pentagon isn't talking. But either way, the video is a signal that the escalating war in Afghanistan may be taking a potential turn, one in which the Taliban heightens its use of propaganda. We'll check in with NBC's Jim Miklaszewski tonight.
The other story hits here at home, and that's health care. The Obama administration is under pressure to build support for its reform plan. But Republicans (and some moderate Democrats) are ratcheting up their criticism of some proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy, among other things. Can the administration get the House and Senate to pass bills before the August recess? NBC's Mike Viqueira and CNBC's John Harwood will spell it out for us.
Finally, if you're like me, you spent much of the weekend watching – and hoping for a Cinderella ending – as 59-year-old Tom Watson played at the British Open. We think the amazing run he had this weekend serves as a lesson to so-called "older" athletes that success can come at any time, and in many forms (some of his closest competition this weekend was two years younger than his daughter). NBC's John Yang will take a closer look at Watson's weekend.
In case you didn't get to watch the third round today, I won't give away the ending. But suffice it to say that Watson has a new generation of fans, and showed us how to perform on a high stage with style and grace.
We hope you'll join us tonight.
By John Boxley, NBC News producer
It was a special graduation for a special group of students at UCLA.
12 classmates, each with developmental disabilities, were part of a first...the first graduating class of Pathway.
Pathway UCLA is a unique 2-year program, offered by UCLA Extension and created specifically for students with special needs like autism and down syndrome, giving them the opportunity to experience college life.
For the past two years, these students have lived the dream, on the UCLA campus with 36,000 other students, attending specialty classes, internships, and football games.
Organizers say one of the primary goals of Pathway is to teach these students, ages 18 and older, how to take care of themselves, while pursuing their goals. They've lived in off campus apartments with roommates, and are responsible for not only getting to class on time, but also tackling household chores like laundry and the dishes.
The program's Executive Director, Eric Lathom, says that having the experience of living on their own, and doing all these things to make their lives function on a daily basis, is an invaluable experience. He says the Pathway students have had a college experience like millions of other young people, going off to college and learning to live on their own, taking classes and having the same struggles that everyone else has had.
I, along with Peter Alexander, had the chance to meet them in 2007 as their journey first began, nervous and excited about what they would soon be facing. Now 2 years later, you can see the many steps they have taken and the growth is truly inspiring.
Whats next for the Pathway Class of 2009? Some will be moving home, and some will be continuing their education elsewhere. Organizers say that these young graduates have been given an opportunity to chase their dreams, what they do from here is up to them.
By Bonnie Optekman, VP News technology, NBC News
Walter Cronkite never asked for the mantle of "most trusted person in America." And when asked about it in interviews, he downplayed it. But there it was. He accepted it and took it seriously.
Walter conducted himself professionally and personally in a way that not only would never tarnish his own reputation but would neither tarnish that of the profession of journalism. He wanted that trust to extend to the fourth estate. That's why you never saw him endorse a product or even consider running for office. He said he believed it would be unfair to expect viewers to know when he was putting his objectivity hat on or off. And he was concerned that journalists coming after him would be suspect if he ever made that choice - even after leaving the anchor chair.
Of course he had opinions. But he kept them out of his newscasts and speeches, save for the rare Vietnam example. While Walter was doing his job, he was defining the responsibilities, policies, & guidelines of that job.
Now, don't get me wrong. Mr. Cronkite wasn't some holier than thou selfless bore. He may have been erudite but he was also a ton of fun. After all, he appeared as himself on The Mary Tyler Moore show. Christmas parties at his home were the event of the year for his staff. And he liked saying "And that's the way it is" at the end of the broadcasts. When the American hockey team beat the Russians in the 1980 Olympics, he was thrilled that the story was in time for the broadcast but not so happy that there was no time for his catch phrase.
As Walter's executive assistant right out of college - his "number 2" as they called it - I've always considered Walter Cronkite to be my masters degree in journalism. How lucky I was to land in that chair, at that desk, right outside his office. I worked with wonderful people, many of them still friends including his "number 1," Ann Whitestone.
I'll never forget the day I interviewed for the job with him. I came home and told my parents that I wasn't sure if I should shake his hand or kiss his ring but he couldn't have been more congenial and friendly, instantly putting me at ease. When I spoke of my producer ambitions and looking forward to meeting people and learning from them, he said, "Oh you'll surely meet people. I just hope not too soon."
When Walter trusted you, he did so completely, inspiring devotion and loyalty. What a great feeling that was - whether it was research for a speech, speaking to a source or drafting correspondence. I remember one letter to a viewer who'd written to say his friend had bet him that the great Walter Cronkite would never respond to a viewer's note. I couldn't resist. I drafted a one sentence reply. "Tell your friend he was wrong." And Walter signed it.
People far more important than I have written or are writing obituaries from but their words are not more heartfelt. I treasured my enduring friendship with Walter and his family. I'm glad I got to see him one last time in January. And I will miss him.
By Savannah Guthrie, NBC News correspondent
For 19 years, Walter Cronkite told Americans the way it was from the anchor desk of CBS News. With his passing at the age of 92, tonight, the legendary newsman is the news. NBC's Ron Allen – who started at CBS News as a desk assistant nearly 30 years ago – will report on Cronkite's career. We'll take a look at all of the iconic moments Cronkite reported, as well as some personal reflections from the anchor and managing editor of Nightly News, Brian Williams.
In politics, these are critical times in the battle for health care reform and in some ways, it's the first true test of the president's political muscle. President Barack Obama hasn't let a day pass this week without making some public appeal on the issue. But even some Democrats are growing increasingly uneasy, as a pair of reports from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded the legislation now being debated would increase health care costs over the long term and add to the deficit. NBC's Mike Viqueira will report from the White House.
Also, if you have children you'll want to see Lisa Myers' report on swimming pool safety.
I hope you'll join me tonight for NBC Nightly News.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
America has lost an icon, our industry has lost its living giant, and all those who learned about the world from Walter Cronkite have lost an exceptional teacher.
He loved his country and had a profound effect on it. He told us the truth in a plain-spoken manner. He never forgot that he was one of us, and yet we admired him so. That's why I can't help but fear that his loss means we've lost a tiny bit of who we are. He was a founding father of our profession. Others had done the job before him, and yet no one before or since has had just a mystical hold on the American people. He perfectly reflected his audience and our times. Watching Walter do what he did -- better than anyone -- was a formative experience. While he was deeply uncomfortable with overstatements of his own importance, those of us watching at home were so comfortable knowing he was in that chair during those years of great change and upheaval.
To use the terminology of his beloved sailboat, he was our national barometer, our compass and our rudder. With Walter at the helm of that broadcast, we knew we would sail through whatever crisis we faced as a country. He always seemed to point the wheel, with a gust of wind in his sails, toward our collective North Star.
On a personal note, Walter Cronkite was the man I grew up wanting to be. Our household, like many, came to a halt when his broadcast came on the air each night, and dinner was served only after he said good night. Knowing Walter was among the great blessings of my life.
CONTINUED >>
By Kevin Tibbles, NBC News correspondent
For kids, the summer months are filled with the sounds of swimming, summer camp and songs. To be deprived of the opportunity to run and jump, or splash and laugh is downright un-kid-like. Still, for children born with severe heart defects, those sorts of activities have traditionally been out of the question; too risky even to spend the night at grandma's house, or throw some pillows at a pajama party. That's when the medical staff at the St. Louis Children's Hospital had an idea; and that is how 'Camp Rhythm' was born. A week-long sleepover camp that comes with cardiologists as well as campfires. At Camp Rhythm those long 'zipper-like' scars down the front of each kids chest simply means that, probably for the first time in their lives, they look just like everybody else. It's a place filled with those familiar sounds of summer, where worried moms and dads can rest easy because their children are in good hands; even if those hands are covered in the post campfire chocolate residue of one too many s'mores. Camp Rhythm is tonight's Making a Difference. Kevin Tibbles NBC News.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
A few items of interest: Noonan on the Sotomayor Hearing, why Mark McKinnon is kinda happy Obama sneaks a few cigarettes now and again, and a few words from Bo Obama. And since this very building contains one of the studios long rumored to be the "location" of the Apollo 11 moonwalk, there's this from Newsweek. That should keep us all busy until Monday.
Thank you for being with us this week, and for joining us tonight. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you on Monday night.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Let's start on the moon, actually. As a self-confessed space geek, I was hooked by a great piece of writing today: on the men who've gone there and walked in that powdery soil. It's a great piece, from the author of "Apollo 13," and it discusses the not-so-simple act of walking on the moon -- and how these men have conducted their lives in the years since (answer: with mixed success).
Upon getting to know Scott Carpenter years ago, it's not hard to squint your eyes and pretend its 1966 -- astronauts in khakis (and what we'd now call "vintage" cardigans) driving Corvettes (supplied to them by Chevrolet) around the Cape. We thought they were the greatest back then. I still think they're the greatest.
When we last visited Gen. David McKiernan in Kabul, he was at the height of his command...we just didn't know it then. His remarks at his retirement ceremony (especially since I'm halfway through the book I mentioned here a few days ago) surprised me...but then I have to say his departure from that job was a big surprise as well. I guess those of us who are into this subject matter will all know the whole story before too long. I hope the General discovers there is life beyond the stars of his own job.
We hope you can join us tonight.
By Robert Bazell, NBC News chief science correspondent
Type 1 diabetes -- a condition afflicting Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sottomayor and a million other Americans -- was once called Juvenile diabetes because it can start in childhood. It differs from the far more common type 2. Type 1 is an autoimmune disease where the body's immune system attacks the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, the hormone that regulates blood sugar. In type 2 diabetes, cells become resistant to insulin, often because of obesity.
In either kind of diabetes, fluctuations in blood sugar levels can lead to nerve, eye, kidney and heart damage. But that need not occur if the sugar level is properly controlled. In our report, we talk of hope for a cure for type 1 from stem cells. The research we describe is being carried out at the University of Miami's Diabetes Research Institute. You can read more about that here: http://www.diabetesresearch.org/DiabetesResearchInstitute.htm
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (http://www.jdrf.org) also sponsors a great deal of research. The same is true for the American Diabetes Association http://www.diabetes.org/
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
So yesterday there was this on the McLuhan moment at the Sotomayor hearing. Additionally, the presence of the New Haven firefighters in the hearing room today reminded some of us (those of us who watch too many moving images and don't get out often enough) of the Frank Pentangeli Senate Hearing scene in Godfather II (the last Godfather film allowed in my home)...when his brother Vincenzo showed up.
For fellow space program geeks, there's this -- and please, if you're so disposed, luxuriate in this stuff – the "off air" comments of the Apollo 11 crew flying toward the moon. It’s just fantastic. It’s just three guys talking (make that: three freakishly talented, startlingly brave men with no guarantee of return or survival) and using phrases of another era, like "golly" and "gosh" and "fellow." Its catnip for space fans.
Back to the news: health care, Supreme Court, a remembrance, an anniversary...we'll have it all for you tonight.
By Chuck Todd, Chief White House correspondent and political director
There may be no other sport that has culturally meant more to the civil rights movement than baseball, something I was reminded of today when talking with Willie Mays on Air Force One.
Any baseball fan over the age of 50 knows this link between race and baseball instinctively; and true baseball afficianados under 50 learn this as they study the game's history -- and yet sometimes we take it for granted.
But to listen to Mays -- a man all of us in the president's traveling press corps were begging for autographs for earlier today -- describe his emotions on Election Night 2008, you couldn't help but think about the era he played in and what his great play on the field and his disciplined demeanor off the field did for African Americans both then and now.
Mays said he cried when Obama was declared the winner that November night and he said he stayed up as Election night turned into the next morning because he was too excited to sleep.
"I dreamed about this day," he said. "That someone of my race" might become president. Then he added that seeing Obama get elected made everything he went through "worth it."
And what did he go through? Some of us will never really know. Read the David Halberstam's book, "October 1964" and you'll get a taste of it. Listen to Hank Aaron talk about the death threats he received when he was on the verge of breaking Babe Ruth's homerun record, and you'll get a better sense of what Mays meant when he told us on Air Force One, simply, that it was "worth it."
During the entire Michael Jackson extravaganza, Rev. Al Sharpton desperately tried to link Jackson's ability to attract white fans to Barack Obama's successful election.
But as Pres. Obama noted in an interview with NBC, there were a lot of African-Americans who came before Michael, who were the true trailblazers. And no group of men may have done more to pave the way for the civil rights era to have success in the '60s than these baseball giants of the 50s. From Jackie Robinson to Hank Aaron to Willie Mays and countless others (Newcombe, Gibson, Paige, Banks, you name them, and I wish I could), these men endured a great deal.
And that came rushing back to me when Mays described his emotions about Obama. These aging baseball heroes are now treated like baseball gods, that was clear by the giddiness that myself and other members of the traveling press corps were showing today. But there was a time when they weren't even as they were doing amazing feats on the field.
Mays is living a good life now, as is Aaron and their stock with baseball fans keeps going up with every new steroid scandal. They didn't get the appreciation then that they deserved, but thanks to steroids, they are getting their due now. It must make them shake their heads in disbelief that old white guy baseball fans wish we could have true baseball heroes like these trailblazing black men. Then again, Mays' disbelief dissipated even more, it appears, that November night in Chicago.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I'm thrilled to have just received an advance galley copy of the upcoming book, "The Fourth Star," by David Cloud and Greg Jaffe. It profiles four contemporary U.S. Army Generals: Casey, Abizaid, Chiarelli and Petraeus. It just so happens that I've come to know all four men (in varying degrees) and have found myself at the same social and public events with several of them, in addition to having spent time with each of them individually in Iraq. I have my feelings about each of them -- a collection of my own observations and those of other former senior officers whose opinions I trust. Every American generation has its own military commanders -- and in the post-Vietnam, desert-and-mountain warfare era of today, these 4-stars will be among the big military names, and will be much-dissected. In the few minutes I've had the book in my hands, I've already speed-read a chapter or two, and there are already some familiar scenes, names and circumstances in these pages. I can't wait to get to the rest of it.
If you are -- shall we say -- less than riveted by the Sotomayor hearings, the author of this piece is of like mind -- and it may sum up your mindset as well. We'll cover it tonight, along with the missing piece of fuselage, and our popular Making A Difference segment. We hope you can join us.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I'm a Supreme Court buff, and I love the theatre and the process of Congressional hearings -- but still, today's hearing was slow going...only because of the long wait to hear from the Judge herself. It was mostly, as the first day usually is, full of speeches by the Senators.
Full disclosure: I had agreed to participate in the all-day msnbc.com live blog, but found I didn't have a thing to say that would add to the conversation! I figured the web is full of people with the same affliction (many of whom insist on writing anyway) so I held off. Tomorrow it gets (more) interesting -- we'll see if the Democrats reach their goal of having it wrapped up by week's end.
I've always said: short of declaring war or committing troops in conflict, appointing Supreme Court justices is the greatest power we give our Presidents. Committee members understand that these hearings are the last stop for the nominee before a potential life appointment to the bench, and the change that can bring to the Court.
We'll have the day's highlights, and all the rest, and we hope you can join us tonight.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
Good afternoon. They've been filming a movie today on the Plaza right below my office here at 30 Rock. Of course I couldn't resist opening my window and leaning out for a good look at the action. Little did I know, the scene they were shooting called for the actress to suddenly look up. So yours truly pops his big old head outside just as she looks in my direction and the camera tilts up the side of the building. I'm guessing there was a take two – my bad. Anyway, they've taken a break from filming, so that’s enough gawking for the day.
We've got a lot on our plate tonight including the story that is the talk of Washington – the report that the CIA, under pressure from then Vice President Dick Cheney, kept Congress in the dark about a planned counter-intelligence operation. We'll have a lot on that tonight, as well as a preview of Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, which get underway this week.
There are some big developments in the search for the killers of that Florida couple whose 16 children included 12 adopted special needs children.
Allow me to also get a plug in for a program I have coming up on MSNBC this evening. It's the premiere of “Why Planes Crash: Brace for Impact.” The documentary centers on the ditching of U.S. Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River last winter, and looks at several other airline ditching, including some that were just as successful. I also go inside an aircraft simulator to attempt my own Hudson River landing. How did I do? Let's put it this way – hats off to Captain Sullenberger! The program airs at 10 p.m. ET on MSNBC. In hope you can join me for that, and of course, the Sunday edition of NBC Nightly News on your local NBC station.
By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC News correspondent
Yesterday President Obama gave a well received speech to Parliament in Ghana's capital city of Accra. The message, intended for all of Africa, was a simple one: responsibility. "Africa's future is up to Africans," he said. The President acknowledged Africa's difficult past, but said the time for looking backwards was over. Enough excuses. Get your act together. It was a tough love message, but easily digestible coming from a man who is so beloved and respected in this part of the world.
Though the speech was directed at Africa, I saw a larger audience: African Americans. I don't think the message was intended for them, but I think it's relevant nonetheless. Like Africa, black Americans have had a tumultuous history, starting with hundreds of years of slavery followed by decades of oppression. The effects are plainly seen when you look at any number of statistical indicators; 70% of black children are born to single parents, African Americans have among the highest incarceration rates in the nation, and on and on. So much of this can be attributed to opportunities denied, and the social and cultural effects of centuries of oppression and poverty. But as Obama told Africa, the time for looking backwards is over. If anyone has proven that, it's Obama himself.
If Barack Obama wanted to make excuses for himself, he had plenty to choose from: no father, frequent moves, struggling with racial identity, and as he has said, having a funny name. Yet Obama has led a remarkably accomplished life, never allowing what he lacked to interfere with what he wanted. Like Africans, black Americns can look at Obama as an inspiration and motivation to strive for more out of life, despite the very real obstacles the community faces.
Obama isn't the only person African Americans can draw inspiration from. We need only look at our ancestors for more. While I was in Ghana this week I visited a slave castle and saw the deplorable conditions Africans were held in before being shipped to the Americas. They stayed in dungeons for up to three months, and then spent another three months in the cargo hold of the ships. It's estimated that half died en route. One of the things that struck me was the idea that those who survived such unimagineable horror were the absolute fittest of the fit, mentally and physically. Our ancestors were strong and resilient. They didn't only survive, they thrived. So many African Americans throughout history are a testament to that fact. African Americans can look to those who came before us, in addition to Obama, as an inspiration to perservere in the face of struggle. Enough excuses.
Editors note: Albert Oetgen, Managing Editor NBC News Washington, is in Ghana with the NBC News team following President Barack Obama and the first family.
By Albert Oetgen, Managing Editor NBC News Washington
ACCRA – President Obama wowed Ghana's Parliament today with an old-fashioned stemwinder, one part emotional homecoming and one part economic Sermon on the Mount. The White House message machinists billed it a "major speech," the Africa component of Obama foreign policy: Embrace democracy, build solid financial and social institutions and jettison corruption, he preached. The parliament's enthusiastic response: "Amen."
What is striking here is the apparent absence of cynicism, an institution embedded in American culture and one Mr. Obama would certainly discourage his African audiences from adopting. America's own overdeveloped brand of cynicism is largely fueled these days by increasingly tired and numbingly hackneyed media blathering. Today, one roomful of American journalists listened as Mr. Obama declared, "the 21st Century is going to be shaped by what happens not just in Rome or Moscow or Washington, but by what happens in Accra as well."
The parliament broke into enthusiastic applause. Somewhere in the press room a reporter muttered, "not so much Lagos." It was easy, and cynical, and an example of the deteriorating state of affairs in the gnarled institutions that have inherited the responsibility of preserving the Great American Republic.
The giant, heaving beast that encompasses American journalism's elite arrived here early this morning after a stop in Italy. A long look at Rome might do the beast some good – more time thinking about why the Forum is in ruins, less time perusing the wine lists and fueling the decline of our own Republic which, while far from ancient, looks substantially long in the tooth from the box seats in Accra.
CONTINUED >>
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
It’s hard to look at the pictures that have come in from Ghana today and not be bowled over by the poetic history of an American president of African roots visiting the place where slaves once embarked on a horrifying one-way journey.
This last leg of President Obama's overseas trip is steeped in symbolism, right down to his emotional farewell speech this evening. We'll be reporting on his message and challenge to greater Africa, and on the tremendous reception he received, on tonight's broadcast.
We're also getting new information about the horribly sad story of a Florida couple who had opened their hearts and home to a dozen children – most with special needs – who were murdered as many of those children slept. We will bring you the latest on that.
In addition, I’d like to extend a big thanks to our colleagues at Denver’s KUSA-TV, who put together a terrific story for us about a lady bug population explosion that you really have to see to believe.
Thanks for checking in. I hope you'll join us for the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
It seems like just yesterday General Motors was teetering on the brink of collapse. Actually it was 40 days, and 50-billion-dollars ago, and now the slim-downed auto giant is emergency from bankruptcy and it's leaders are talking about a bright future. That would be good news to taxpayers. We'll be reporting tonight on why the company now believes it can start re-paying the government ahead of schedule.
There is a lot more to report on that shameful desecration of graves at a Chicago area cemetery. We'll have that, plus the diminishing worth of some of those I.O.U. notices cash strapped California has been doling out.
I hope to see you later for the Friday edition of NBC Nightly News.
By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC News correspondent
In just a few hours President Obama arrives in Ghana's capital city for his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as President. Make no mistake about it, his visit is being hailed as a homecoming. We all know that Obama's father was Kenyan, not Ghanaian. But for the people living here, it makes absolutely no difference. He is their native son just the same.
"We are African," said street vendor Dea Mor. "Kenya is part of Africa so we're part of him."
"There's not one African who would say he's a Kenyan," said Dr. Erieka Bennett of the Diaspora African Forum. "They all say he's African."
Ghana is eagerly anticipating Obama's arrival. Signs proclaiming akwaaba - welcome - are everywhere. Vendors are selling everything from African cloth with Obama's face on it, to handpainted portraits.
But along with the excitement is some frustration. Some are disappointed that Obama won't be holding a large public event like Clinton did, and that for the most part, he's being kept behind closed doors. He'll also be here for a very short time: just 21 hours. Many would like him to stay longer. He's most certainly beloved here, and the country wants as much of him as they can get.
By Albert Oetgen, Managing editor, NBC News Washington
L'AQUILA, ITALY -- You first see this city from up high as you wind around a mountain highway and this is what you think: It's a city in a bowl.
It's name means "The Eagle," and there is plenty of room for eagles to soar here. L'Aquila is encircled by enormous ridges that are part of the Appenines, that "spine" of mountains that grade-schoolers learn runs down the middle of the boot of Italy.
It's a lovely place, this bowl, set in a fertile valley and protected by those mountains -- a safe and secure place that played a strategically important role in the medieval struggle for control of central Italy.
L'Aquila is not big and famous like Milan, or Venice, or Florence. It is not even a small but famous place like Assisi. But it is Italy. The real Italy. There is a university here, not a world-famous one, but one where Italian families confidently send their children for a good education. There is a ski resort in the distance, one frequented not by deep-pocketed Americans or Europeans, but by ordinary Italians who live within an hour or two.
We are here because of an earthquake, and we are here because of Italian politics. But we are really here because of history.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi decided this was the place where he would host a meeting of the leaders of the G8 -- the successors to the leading industrial powers that assigned themselves the task of coordinating the world economy about 25 years ago and find themselves struggling for control today, as the rest of the world catches up and begins to pass them by -- so they could see the strength and resilience of the people of L'Aquila, and perhaps agree to lend them a hand.
CONTINUED >>
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I've been flooded with comments from friends and co-workers about the redeye experience involving the lone, lonesome canine in a cage in the cargo hold of our 737 for a night flight to Newark. People are expressing amazement that it was audible, en route, all the way across the country...and while I tried using noise-cancelling headphones, just knowing the noise was there...and where it was coming from...proved to be a heart-tugging distraction, as it was to other passengers in the darkened cabin.
We've fortunately never had to fly our beloved Lucy anywhere, but I know she wouldn't like it. It was just an odd aviation sidebar -- one I'm sure others have experienced, but it was a first for our traveling team.
We hope you can join us for the broadcast tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
We are always looking for good news, especially in this economy. Specifically, here's our request: nominate people who are doing good things where you live or work... perhaps a random or regular act of kindness in a cruel economy. Please leave us a suggestion below.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Our travelling party of three took our seats on a redeye last night, from LAX to Newark on Continental Airlines. As we were getting settled in, we heard it. At first, we thought it was a ring tone. It was the district, instantly identifiable sound of a dog barking. Even people who KNEW they didn't have a "dog bark" ringtone checked their phones anyway...it was disjointed, eerie and sad...clearly the sound make by a dog in distress. Then we all seemed to realize it at the same time: the dog was in the cargo hold, in a cage, and not happy about it. The barking didn't stop after takeoff -- or even in mid-flight. As a dog lover, it was especially painful to hear, picturing someone's best friend in a dark cargo hold surrounded by luggage and in the cold temperatures of almost 40,000 feet.
On to music: Anyone who's interest in the Smokey Robinson song "Who's Loving You" was perhaps sparked by hearing several versions of it in conjunction with the Michael Jackson memorial and should listen to the version by the vocalist Terence Trent D'Arby. His personal story is interesting (former boxer in the Army) and his gifts were extraordinary...but his recording career was far too short.
With several of us shaking off the redeye, we're preparing tonight's broadcast...and we hope you can join us from New York tonight. We will end with a great Making A Difference report.
By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC News correspondent
I’m in Ghana working on some stories related to the President’s upcoming visit. Friday Obama arrives in the capital city of Accra for his first stop in sub-Saharan Africa as President. As producer Anthony Galloway and I have been going around gathering elements for our stories we’ve also had some interesting cultural moments. Nothing serious or important; just a few experiences that don’t happen everyday.
Like this one: After sitting own at a restaurant for lunch, we realized that we were surrounded by crocodiles.
Some folks at the market taught me a new balancing act.
And we’ve noticed that here in Ghana, everyone – even government ministers – has a unique way of shaking hands.
Please tune in to Nightly News Friday and Saturday for my reporting from Ghana.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
Today's post will have to be quick, as time is short and there's more travel ahead. After arriving in LA last night (early this morning) and then broadcasting from the Staples Center, we're back at our NBC News Los Angeles Bureau for Nightly News, then on a plane back to New York for tomorrow's broadcast. I just read one writer on the Web who summed up today's Michael Jackson proceedings as "exciting, sad and confusing all at the same time." While it's early yet where assessments are concerned, I guess I concur. Tonight we'll cover the meetings between President Obama and Putin... and Palin and Mitchell (no relation) and all the other news of the day, which we're compiling now, unsure of exactly what time zone we're in. I hope you can join us tonight from Los Angeles.
By Albert Oetgen, Managing Editor NBC News Washington
MOSCOW -- President Obama squeezed in sit-down interviews with network White House correspondents here today, an opportunity that comes up periodically and one the correspondents cherish because it tends to generate news and, even when it doesn't, almost always yields them a prime place in their morning and evening news broadcasts.
Almost always. Today, we weren't so sure.
The ritual begins with a drawing to see which order NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and CNN sit down for the exchanges that last, generally about 10 minutes. Today, NBC won, so Chuck Todd went first.
The president arrived energized after a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Less than 24 hours earlier, Mr. Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev had announced a broad agreement to reduce nuclear arms. He appeared ready, eager even, to talk.
Chuck Todd is a master schmoozer, capable of warming up the most reluctant of interview subjects in a few short moments. As Jim Long and Rodney Batten made last-minute adjustments to their cameras, Chuck launched his customary patter.
"It's quite the news day. These interviews are up against ..."
The president, picking up on Chuck's theme instantly, interrupted, displaying that now-familiar wry Obama wit: "I know," he said. "I got briefed that if you want to get on the air, don't talk about nuclear weapons. Talk about Michael and Sarah."
CONTINUED >>
By Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News Pentagon correspondent
After leading several US warships around the South China Sea for more than two weeks, the North Korean cargo ship Kang Nam arrived back at a North Korean port at Nam Po today. Although the ship was suspected of carrying weapons or missile parts banned for sale under the latest UN resolution, U.S. military and intelligence officials still say they have no idea what is in those shipping containers stacked on the ships deck.
Some Pentagon officials claim the Kang Nam was forced to return to North Korea because the U.N. sanctions "worked" and denied the ship a place to put into port to unload its cargo or to refuel. It was believed the Kang Nam, which has a history of delivering weapons to various countries, was destined for Myanmar (formerly Burma) with a cargo of weapons or missile parts. It's been reported however that Myanmar informed North Korea it would be denied access to its ports. U.S. officials tell NBC News that Singapore also informed North Korea that if the Kang Nam attempted to put into port and refuel, Singapore's security forces would be required to board the ship and inspect the cargo under the current U.N. resolution.
Another theory floating around the Pentagon is that North Korea sent the Kang Nam to sea, only days after the U.N. passed the tougher resolution on North Korean weapons sales, with a totally innocuous cargo of "sand or ball bearings" to test the U.S. response, or worse yet, force a confrontation at sea over what may have been a harmless cargo.
The U.S. Navy has three separate destroyers tailing the Kang Nam as it putt-putted along at 6 knots south through the Strait of Taiwan, round the South China Sea and back again. But U.S. military officials report there was never any intent to attempt to board the Kang Nam on the open seas, but to force the North Koreans to put into port where U.N. sanctions would supposedly require a thorough inspection of the cargo.
Now that the Kang Nam is safely back in port at Nam Po, Pentagon officials acknowledge they may never know for sure what the Kang Nam was carrying. But U.S. spy satellites are still locked on the ship, searching for even the slightest clue.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
A rare sunny day in New York -- and first I'd like to thank Lester Holt for filling in for me last Friday so that I could enjoy a long weekend away with my family. Little did Lester -- or anyone -- know that they'd be landed a late-breaking story that day, by way of Alaska. It's one of our stories tonight, along with the President's day in Russia (Chuck Todd just called me from inside the Kremlin, where it was still light outside at 11pm) the preparations in Los Angeles, and the death of Robert McNamara...one of the key figures of the Cold War and Vietnam War.
We'll see you tonight from New York, tomorrow night from Los Angeles, and then, owing to the "miracle of the jet age," as Lady Bird Johnson used to call it, Wednesday night from New York again. To quote Vonnegut, "So it goes..."
We'll look for you tonight. We hope you can join us.
Editors note - Albert Oetgen, Managing Editor NBC News Washington, is in Moscow with the NBC News team. He visited the Kremlin today.
By Albert Oetgen, Managing Editor NBC News Washington
MOSCOW -- The Kremlin, for all its mystery and grandeur, began modestly as a hilltop hunting lodge strategically positioned above a river running through the thick Russian woodland, a place where adventurous men could conquer their fears and take home some big game at the same time.
For more than 10 centuries -- through horrid winters, brutal sieges, devastating fires and wildly conflicting ideological struggles -- two persistent characteristics have emerged to define this ancient fortress and the Russian culture itself: Mystery and complexity. The medium: the Kremlin, is the message: Kremlinology.
It overlooks the Moscow River. Its walls and towers appear impregnable, though the Russian people live with the painful knowledge they are neither physically nor symbolically so. History has reminded them, repeatedly, that anything you set up on this hilltop is vulnerable and temporary. Everything here is either citadel to some hard-forgotten past, or tenuous monument to an uncertain present.
The Soviets seemed to get it. They didn't wait for fires and wars. They simply began tearing things down -- though with characteristic inefficiency, they managed to leave most of it standing.
They also employed a ritualistic practice that rendered the mystery and complexity of the centuries alive and vibrant. American government analysts watched intently as Soviet leaders lined up on Kremlin balconies to review their grim-faced troops and frightening weaponry. Who stood next to whom? Who stood a little bit in front of the others? Who is there that wasn't there last time. More ominously, who is missing?
It was another example of totalitarian inefficiency, now reflected in the confusion over the real pecking order in their nascent democracy: Is President Dimitry Medvedev in charge? Or Prime Minister Vladimir Putin? The convenient convention of the parade reviewing stand is no longer in play. The Kremlin is, as usual, being the Kremlin.
But there was one brief moment when clarity displaced mystery; simplicity trumped complexity.
When it came to nuclear weaponry, the Soviet stewardship of the hilltop fortress matched that of the proud hunters who first staked the place out and expelled the bears: They produced enough weaponry to destroy us all multiple times, efficiently matching the strategic capability of the American arsenal and creating a global standoff that elevated the Kremlin to the heights the Russian imagination had conjured longingly but the Russian people had never managed to reach.
President Obama paid tribute today to the ironic effectiveness of the nuclear standoff and the unambiguous threat of Soviet Russia:
"Part of what got us through the Cold War was a sufficient sense of parity and deterrent capability; that both sides during those very difficult times understood that a first strike, the attempt to use nuclear weapons in a military conflict against the other, could result in a extremely heavy price."
Looking to the future, his counterpart, Mr. Medvedev summed up what they agreed to:
"We have discussed measures of cooperation in the nuclear field and the most important is that we will continue our cooperation in every area."
The two presidents made their announcement of a new nuclear agreement in an elaborately gilded room, Andreyevsky Hall, in -- of course -- the Kremlin. And so the question, the real question about what to expect from this agreement, the question on the tip of the tongue of every Kremlinologist (and everyone here is a Kremlinologist to some degree) is this:
Is Mr. Medvedev Mr. Obama's true counterpart? And does he have the influence to make the nuclear arms reduction "framework" they announced develop into something concrete?
Or, as the hunters returning from the woods to their cozy hilltop enclave might ask:
We know he's out there hunting. So what exactly did Mr. Putin bag today?
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By Mara Schiavocampo, NBC Nightly News digital correspondent
I have just landed in Ghana's capital city, Accra. On Friday, President Obama will also touch down here, for his first presidential visit to sub-Saharan Africa (he was in Egypt last month). If history is any guide, he will be greeted like a rock star, times ten. When Presidents Clinton and Bush 43 visited (in 1998 and 2008, respectively), thousands swarmed the streets to welcome them. Because Obama is the son of a Kenyan, many Africans consider him a native son, and they can't wait to give him a hero's welcome when he arrives as the US' first African-American President. Just the announcement of his upcoming visit was front-page news.
This trip is not only significant for Africans, but for African-Americans as well. While in Ghana, President Obama and the First Lady (and maybe their girls, Sasha and Malia) will be stopping at a former slave castle along the coast. These dungeons are where Africans were brought and kept - sometimes for months at a time - before making the horrifying trans-Atlantic voyage to the Americas. Africa's west coast is lined with these remnants of a tragic past. They all have a so-called "door of no return," the doorway through which Africans passed before being loaded onto ships. An estimated 12-25 million people passed through those doors. Not one of them ever saw their home or their families again. Not one.
Imagine then, the symbolic significance of the descendant of one of those slaves, returning as First Lady of the world's superpower. What a powerful moment it will be.
Producer Anthony Galloway and I will be covering this historic trip as many different ways as possible. Of course there will be tons of video which we'll be filing for Nightly News and the Nightly News Web site. We'll be blogging regularly right here and posting original text pieces at www.TheGrio.com. And what would any multi-media reporting trip be without the media's new best friend, Twitter? You can follow our tweets here or directly at Twitter: @NightlyNews.
By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent
Tonight's report on Nightly News about the ravages of prescription drug abuse is in response to a powerful phone call from a mother in Kentucky.
The day after we aired a report in May about pain clinics in Florida supplying prescription painkillers to drug addicts and dealers from around the Southeast, I got a call on my cell phone while driving to work at our Miami office.
The caller was Lynn Kissick of Morehead, Kentucky, who saw our report and then took the initiative to reach out to the Broward County Sheriff's Office in Ft. Lauderdale, where we had done much of our reporting. Lynn was determined to find me, and asked if the deputies had my phone number. Because I had left several of my business cards behind, they were able to give it to her. CONTINUED >>
By Lester Holt, NBC News Anchor
East-West relations have thawed considerably since the Cold War, but like summit meetings of old, when President Obama and Russia's President Medvedev sit down in Moscow tomorrow, the control of nuclear weapons will still be on the table. Our Chuck Todd is already in Moscow and will have much more on the summit and the commander in chief’s agenda.
The police in Nashville offered up a bit more information today about the murder of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and the 20-year-old woman who was found dead with him. Ron Mott is working that story for us.
In addition, we'll check in with Andrea Mitchell up in Alaska where she is trying to fill in the puzzling blanks regarding Alaska governor Sarah Palin's decision to resign from office.
Thanks for checking in. I hope you'll catch us later for NBC Nightly News.
By Albert Oetgen, Managing editor, NBC News, Washington
Moscow – It’s a very gray day in this very gray city.
A planeload of reporters arrived here this afternoon in advance of President Obama's first trip to Russia as Chief Executive, full of anticipation and American preconceptions about this vast and complicated land.
As the 767 banked on its final approach to Vnukovo Airport, acres and acres of dull concrete high-rise apartment buildings loomed in the distance, echoes of Soviet-era regimentation and Cold War discipline, reminders that the blinding speed of change in the 21st Century – of any century – can never erase the indelible effects of history and experience.
Inside the terminal, reporters were hustled through customs. Efficient uniformed clerks rarely made eye contact, conjuring the persistent, lingering feelings of mistrust that aging baby boomers learned during the early days of the Cold War when, as impressionable schoolchildren, they were taught the absurd lesson that crouching under classroom desks could somehow protect them from nuclear fallout. CONTINUED >>
By Lester Holt, NBC News Anchor
Happy July 4th, I hope you are enjoying this day.
Earlier this week a friend of mine, a decorated military veteran, passed along an e-mail that's been making the rounds. It describes the steep price many of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence paid; torture and imprisonment to the shedding of blood on the battlefields of the Revolutionary War. The point of the e-mail was that amid our July 4th celebrations and gatherings, we should each take a minute to remember that our freedoms are not free.
We're putting together a broadcast tonight that will include more on Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's stunning announcement that she is stepping down at the end of the month. There has also been another death connected to an apparent serial killer in a small South Carolina town.
I hope you will join us later for NBC Nightly News.
By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor
It's suddenly becoming a busy Friday, with late word Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is resigning from office. This opens up a host of questions about what's behind the timing and what's next for a woman who's been seen as a formidable force in national Republican politics.
We're also finally getting some firm guidance as to plans for a Michael Jackson public memorial.
Brian is taking the holiday off, and I will see you later for NBC Nightly News.
By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent
Philadelphia, MISS. -- In the 1960s, when he was a child, James Young used to hide behind the couch in his family home as armed Ku Klux Klan thugs prowled through town terrorizing blacks after nightfall. Decades later, Young was elected the first black mayor, by a multi-racial majority in a much different time and place. His swearing in was this morning. "It's just unbelievable that it could happen to me," he said. "Who would have thought that I would be the mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi?"
Although Philadelphia has changed dramatically since the '60s, much of the world still remembers it as the site of one of the worst moments in the history of the U.S. civil rights movement. In June, 1964, three young civil rights activists-- Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner-- were murdered on a dark and lonely road by Klansmen, after the three had come to town as part of the Freedom Summer movement, an effort to register blacks to vote. (See archival video from iCue here.)
The killings threw a harsh national spotlight on Philadelphia and led to an intense FBI search for the bodies and the killers, which was dramatized in the 1988 movie, "Mississippi Burning."
Philadelphia is intent on revising its image and washing away the stain. "I've always believed in this town, this community and know that there was an underlying decency," said Jim Prince, the publisher of the Neshoba Democrat, the local newspaper. "I think you've seen that sort of decency raise up here in electing James Young."
"The community has emerged together to make things better for everybody in Philadelphia," said Nettie Cox, a long-time resident and political activist who is African-American.
Watch an interview with James Young
Mayor Young, who is also a minister at an area church, agrees that times have changed for the better and that his election is an important symbol of that. "It's a heart change. Has every heart changed? No. But the majority are moving in the right direction."
With his election in a town that is 55 percent white, Young insists he will govern fairly and represent everyone here. The memory of the slain civil rights workers weighs heavy on him. "We can't forget what they gave up and sacrificed, their families. It's a constant reminder."
That memory is also why so many people from around the world have been electrified by Young's election. He has been called from all over the United States, Europe and Japan. "After listening to so many calls and e-mails from elderly, white, black crying on the phone and me being choked up because they're crying, and the more they do it, the more I realize, my God, this is something extraordinary that happened before us," he said.
Watch the NBC Nightly News report here.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
I found this to be the most amazing piece of journalism I ran across today -- believe what you will of Saddam's comments, but if true, it certainly changes the arc of history a bit and clears up some fictions, perhaps. It's well worth a read.
Great posts from all our readers last night. I join you in mourning Karl Malden -- what a giant. I was glad to see that most of those who took a "swing" at the issue agreed with me on grunting in tennis -- except for Sam Maier, who committed the ultimate e-mail sin, the incomplete dis! Sam, I get that it was intended as a dig, but help a brother out...what did you mean? I can take a punch...I just didn't know how it was supposed to hurt.
Anyhoo -- I imagine this is getaway day for all those of you lucky enough with somewhere to go and relax and enjoy the July 4th weekend. If we don't see each other: have a happy and healthy holiday. Perhaps this, sent to me by a Medal of Honor recipient, will help you keep the true meaning of Independence Day in mind:
***
4th of July
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men
who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors,
and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;
another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or
hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.
Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers and large plantation owners;
men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence
knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and
trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the
British Navy. He sold his home and properties to
pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British
that he was forced to move his family almost constantly.
He served in the Congress without pay, and his family
was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him,
and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that
the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson
home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General
George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed,
and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed.
The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying.
Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill
were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests
and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his
children vanished.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.
Remember: freedom is never free!
I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many
people as you can, please. It's time we get the word out that patriotism
is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer,
picnics, and baseball games.
***
Keep our troops in your thoughts as well, past and present. I hope you can join us for the broadcast tonight.
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
We're going to mark the anniversary of the Walkman tonight, and we came across a piece of writing from Hans Fantel in the New York Times, December 20, 1979. Can you imagine reading this passage today, about the effect of a personal stereo?
"The listener is sonically isolated and psychologically removed from his surroundings. Schubert on Conrail unquestionably helps in traversing the South Bronx."
Where to begin? The gender specificity of "his" surroundings? Conrail? Remember Conrail? You can still see the old logo on a couple of grizzled veteran engines along the track siding. Best of all, what did he just say about the South Bronx?
It's wildly unfair to apply modern standards to criticize a piece of journalism written in another era -- but my intent here is merely to show, using just 21 words, how much change there's been since then.
To another change: nobody used to grunt in tennis. Ever. While my theory is that it's a tributary of our societal trend toward the celebration of self (I will throw down over any challenges to my theory, but without grunting), it has reached ridiculous levels at Wimbledon this year. While I don't play or follow tennis, I thought former NBC Sportscaster Len Berman had some good, provocative reporting on the subject on his blog today.
We're preparing the broadcast for this Wednesday night, and we sure hope you can be with us.
