Brian -

Just another example of money over service in a business that relies on serving the public.

Whatever happened to common courtesy?  

Is this why the Congress is buying their own planes?

Joan

It seems a little suspect that there are so few comments to your postings these days.  Several of the postings over the last week which were viewed by 300 to 800 people had no comments at all.  Is there something wrong with your screening processes that stops comments from being posted, are you having to eliminate most/all comments for inappropriate content, or are there really no comments at all being offered?  I don't recall that you ever had a posting last year with no comments at all.

Regarding todays item about the stranded passengers in Rochester, will NBC News dispatch reporters to get to the bottom of who is at fault and made the decision to keep the passengers on board, or for a story like this do you wait to report what AP or other print reporters uncover?

These are the stories that we used to only experience when traveling overseas in the 80s.  Only similar personal experience holds me back from being too surprised now.

I look forward to tonight's broadcast to find out how and why it happened

I am absolutely floored that this is still happening to airline passengers.  It seems tantamount to kidnapping to me.
From this mother's perspective, I can't even imagine being stuck like that with my 3 year old and 6 month old. Luckily I don't rely on formula to feed my infant, but what if those people with babies needed formula? And the diaper situation? Yikes! Most people don't pack a full day's worth of food and diapers for their children when they fly. I have a feeling they would have needed to restrain me, because I'd be making a break for the emergency exit.
This sort of situation really ought to be illegal.

The airlines should be apologizing,  BUT, you implied the airport was also to blame.  NBC must not of checked with local airport or local NBC station KTTC before producing your segment of evening news.  Let me add some details to your story,  and if you want to verify, contact RST airport manager.

1.  A NW/Delta flight had the same situation that night and landed at RST shortly before Contiental airplane.  Those passengers were left off plane and bused to MSP.  Problem solved.  I even read in one report that Delta offered the airline spaces on bus.

2.  There were personnel at airport willing to help.  They had just handled the NW/Delta passengers.   All offers of help were refused by airlines.  

3. There is a secure area with bathrooms that the  passengers could of waited in.  No need for TSA.

So get your facts right before assuming the airport was at fault.  

Laurie  

Good Evening Mr.Williams, Another fine broadcast this evening. The link to the piece about the stranded passengers aboard the Express Jet Flight 2816 told of a horrible treatment of people aboard a plane. Simpluy inexcusable. Now on to the broadcast. First of all the report by Mr.Costello about the awful deadly crash of the helicopter and plane over the Hudson River this weekend. It certainly is good the authorities found the plane, but having a body still inside is terribly grim. The shifting water is making it difficult, but possibly tomorrow they will be able to recover the plane. The airspace in that area does need more regulation simply because of the high traffic and this might prevent further accidents. One needs to have safe skies for people to fly.
On another note the violence in Baghdad is awful with so many killed in bombings just since Friday. So many innocent civilians killed in the violent attacks. One hopes that one day all the attacks will cease.

The report by Anne Thompson about the 47 passengers being stuck in the Express Jet for 13 hours told of bad conditions on the plane without any food or water and not being able to leave the plane, but sleep there overnight. Definitely not a pleasant experience for the passengers at all. At least they finally made their destination. One can agree they probably felt more like hostages then passengers on a plane.

The report by Mr.Bazell about the experimental pacemaker for controlling high blood pressure is encouraging news. It seems to be having positive effects for the patients using it. Hopefully, more people will be able to have the pacemakers to help them.

The piece by Maria Menuenos about Marines coming home and trying to find a job showed how tough it is for the Marines after there deployments to come home to a country in a recession. This program teaching the Marines welding and other skill of trades is giving these young men returning from duty some hope for the future. Now they have guaranteed job placement and that helps them and their family. Good Piece!

Thank You for the broadcast Mr.Williams. Peace to You and to All!

Lots of Love to Laurel,Jackie,Stephanie,Claudia,Celine,Anna,Lori,Cary and Matt!
Be Well Always!
Stay Extra,Extra Safe and Well Richard! Enjoyed watching all the videos of your reports on Today,Morning Joe and Hardball today! Excellent Reporting!
XOXO

Hi Brian,

I hope you had a relaxing weekend. Just a few comments here and that's it.

Mayor Bloomberg must have ice water running through his veins. He seemed so blase when talking about the air crash over the Hudson. I hope there can be some new laws passed so that people will be safer in the future. If it had been his family, I'm sure he would see a need to change the situation over the Manhattan skyline. How pathetic you are, Mayor Bloomberg!!

Forcing passengers to spend overnight on an airplane sounds a lot like false imprisonment. What if people had health issues and had died? And not having any food and only one bathroom! I hope they file a class action lawsuit. It would definitely not be frivolous.

Brian, when it comes to things military, I can't comment anymore, except to write that my brother has been deployed four times now, and received very little help. But I'm glad the military doesn't treat everyone the same way. It's nice that volunteers are helping the vets.

I like the little segment about Queen E and you slipping one in there about slippimg on the rug when having to back out. You're a natural born comedian.

I've done a little twitter search here:

Everybody's pumped up about you being in a regular segment of the "new" Jay Leno show. Is there any way you can give us a headsup? I don't care to watch him if you're not on.

One woman thinks your crooked eyebrows are cute. Possibly the same woman and another are wondering if your nose has always looked crooked...

Well, I'm writing that your lavender striped tie was just as nice as before. God, I wish we could send Lester and you stuff, like some of us women falling in love with a certain tie here and there- not that you'd have to wear it on air, or wear it at all. Please let us know before Xmas.

Bye for now, and have a great evening. I missed you on Fri. and Lester on Sat. This week looks more promising on my side.

Vicki

Hi Brian:

Your blog and broadcast were as usual, the best.  Thanks for the link to the story about the passengers forced to spend the night on the plane.  It was absolutely ridiculous that these passengers were made to stay on the plan for the night because the screeners went home.  They had no water, no food, 1 bathroom and no common sense used by the airlines.  Security is important and needed but enough is enough.  If the security team was gone that meant there were very few people in the terminal so why couldn't the passengers and crew og inside the terminal.  These people had already been scrrended in Texas and passed through.  What a horrible night for these passengers and crew.  There needs to be an investigation and something needs to be done to the security protocol so that this never happens again.  And the airlines wonder why their are experiencing losses in air travel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally, President Obama and the White House seem to be stepping up to the plate and speaking out on the misinformation that is being forced on the American people by those that are trying to ruin anything this President does and espeically on the health care reform issue.  It's about time the Administration has stopped the lack of responses to the GOPs and other's criticisms, unfactual ones at that.  This reminds me of the movie the "American President" which depicts the same thing, no response from the President and the White House to their issues until they realized that the people wanted to hear from them and their response was the only thing that would save their issue and they did it.  I hope the President and the White House continue to fight these angry town hall mobs, the misinformation that is put out there and all the other attacks and get this health care reform over and done with.

So sad to hear that almost 100 people have been killed in Iraq and that the situation seems to be continuously escalating.  

Such a horrible tragedy the mid-air collision was on Saturday.  I am glad that all those that perished were found.  The FAA needs to get invovled in this right away and investigate what is being said that the area is too congested, dangerous and unregulated and hopefully some changes can be made to get this under control.

Your story on the new finding that a pacemaker may help to regulate blood pressure is fantastic.  This would be such a benefit to those who cannot regulate their blood pressure even with massive amounts of medication.  Believe me high blood pressure is scary. My daughter-in-law suffers from it and no matter what she does and what medications she takes it never seems to regulate.  This would be such a blessing for her. I hope it becomes a reality soon.

No one really thinks about the men and women that come home from fighting for us as to what they are going to do once they are here. How do they survive when all they know is what they are trained for, fighting?  Giving them the skills that they need to get out into the world and function properly with the confidence they need to get a good job and support themselves and their families is the best way we can say thank you to them for what they did for us.  Great story Brian.

Thanks for the great blog and broadcast.  So glad you were here to start our week off.   I'll look for your blog and broadcast tomorrow.  

Good evening, Brian. Despite such sad news heard from New York over the weekend, I do hope you enjoyed your weekend...and hope you enjoyed some beautiful sunny weather as we did down here. I definitely took advantage of it and caught up on some much needed doses of Vitamin D.

So much news in aviation lately, I'm not sure where to begin. This weekend's tragety over the Hudson River was shocking and so heartbreaking. It shifted my attention from "Freedom of Speech" after your Friday blog, to safety in flight. Last night I read a post written by a correspondent at CBS (http://bit.ly/dRdyp) about the apparent recommentations regarding on-demand, and commercial flights. Here is last month's report from the Department of Transportation: (http://bit.ly/6PZcg) It is sad, and infuriating that after all the years of the recommendations...something has still yet to be done. Reading the report from the Department of Transportation sent chills down my spine, knowing this was written just last month. I know nothing can be done to bring back the 9 souls lost in the deadly collision over the Hudson, but something could have been done, and can still be done to prevent it from ever happening again.

Also in aviation: I can't believe what passengers of the small ExpressJet were forced to endure over the weekend. It's absolutely rediculous, and hard to imagine that this would even happen today. I just don't understand why they couldn't have thought of a single solution besides keeping all 47 passengers hostage aboard such a small, tight-spaced plane for 9 hours. Trust is everything, especially in airlines -- but how can the airlines be trusted when things like this happen? Like you said, this needs to stop.


Thank you for the broadcast. It was great, as usual.

Take care, and drive safely! God knows we should be told this every day. I'll be seeing you tomorrow evening.

Goodnight for real now,
-Cary

I'm afraid I'd have been off the plane in two hours - either under arrest, or out one of the emergency exits. I will *not* put up with this kind of unlawfull confinement.

I will not be flying again until both the TSA and the airlines realize that I, the customer, am the boss and not a head of cattle.

Oh - and since the TSA is trying to convince me that all this security is for my own protection -- they need to address un-inspected air cargo on passenger planes. We're coming up on the anniversary of 9/11 and they still haven't figured this out. It just takes one executive order - no air cargo on passenger planes without inspection. It will mean the death of the airlines, but that's immaterial here.

The Rochester Airport must be given thanks, for being available.  This is a small-market airport (I flew there a few times, over the years), and closes relatively early.

TSA, on the other hand, apparently completely failed to plan for unexpected landings, outside normal routine.  That kind of lack of foresight and obvious planning failure is unforgivable.  Planes have been diverting to alternate landings and alternate airports almost since pilots started planning their flights.

I think, though, that once on the ground Continental could have treated this like a landing at a non-airport emergency landing - and bussed the passengers to a nearby motel, or on to the Twin Cities - which would be about a two hour bus ride.  I think that regional or major airline, planning for this kind of mishap must be taken into account.

I feel it is unfair to saddle the Rochester Airport with the arrogance and control of TSA, and let TSA escape the onus for primary response to unexpected, formerly semi-routine out of the ordinary but expectable occurrences.

TSA must take responsibility for responding to unexpected needs to open the airport, or surrender their authority when they clock out at the end of the day.  Leaving the Rochester airport and the Continental Express plane, company, and passengers at the mercy of a shortsighted and rigid TSA is rude and inexcusable.

From David Gregory's July 31 Daily Nightly blog: "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."  Forget the so-called leading economic indicators.  The surest sign that the economy is recovering is the number of sponsored segments on Nightly News.  In July, Nightly News featured 12 segments ("Making A Difference" or "What Works") sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline or Pfizer, and one broadcast that was sponsored entirely by the University of Phoenix.  This beats the old record (set this past March) of 11 sponsored segments and one fully sponsored broadcast.  By comparison, in July of 2008, Nightly News featured a mere seven sponsored segments, and no fully sponsored broadcasts.  So things are definitely looking up.  If the economy continues to improve, Nightly News may soon see its first month with 15 sponsored segments.  Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

Unfortunately, this does not bode well for viewers who are interested in seeing actual news.  "Making A Difference" and "What Works" are manufactured segments.  They have no news value.  They are created for the specific purpose of attracting viewers and sponsorships.  The segments are popular, as Brian is fond of telling us, and viewers tune in to watch these mini-reality shows.  And that's the primary goal of Nightly News--to attract viewers, maintain the top rating and charge the highest ad rates.  News is an afterthought, which is odd for a broadcast called Nightly News.  With the word "news" in the title, you'd think the producers would be more concerned with presenting actual news.  But it would seem that their motto is "no news is good news".  And by that standard, the July 30 "Making A Difference" was, in all respects, the ideal segment.  It was about two Milwaukee firefighters (brothers, no less) who rescued a mother and two children from a burning car and then raised money to pay for their medical care.  It was selected not because it was newsworthy, but because of its dramatic, emotional value.  But there's so much more going on with that segment.  It was about firefighters, and we all know that when it comes to firefighters, Brian is cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.  The segment also included two prominent mentions of Ronald McDonald House, so Nightly News yet again managed to insert a gratuitous plug for a favorite sponsor.  After the segment, Brian informed us that the parents of the injured child would be appearing on Friday's Today show, and it's no secret that plugging Today is one of Brian's main jobs.  And as if all that wasn't enough, the segment was sponsored by Glaxo, so they paid NBC to plug McDonald's and Today!  Brilliant!  That is as close to a perfect MAD segment as the producers could ever hope for.  By the way, another story that night, about a 7-year-old boy who took his family car for a joy ride, also ended with a "programming note" (translation: shameless plug) from Brian informing us that the boy and his parents would be appearing on the Today show.  And a July 28 story about Michael Phelps ended with a "programming note" telling us that the swimming world championships would be airing the following weekend on NBC.  Well done, Brian.  He just keeps plugging away.

From Brian Williams's Aug. 3 Daily Nightly Blog: "While I am not now -- nor have I ever been -- a member of the U.S. Military, I finally saw the feature film 'The Hurt Locker' yesterday.  While I found it a suspenseful, troubling, compelling story, I found a slew of technical inaccuracies based only on my few trips to Iraq during the height of the conflict.  Seeing the movie made me go back over many of the positive reviews I read after its release...and it is now clear none of them was written by anyone who had spent any time with U.S. armed forces in Iraq."  Brian then goes on to painstakingly detail all the inaccuracies he believes appear in the film.

Note to Brian: Anchors in glass studios shouldn't launch improvised explosive devices.  Nightly News broadcasts frequently contain errors, misprints, inconsistencies and inaccuracies.  Here are a few recent examples:

>During an Aug. 3 Nightly News story about possible cutbacks by the U.S. Postal Service, we see a clip of Sen. Susan Collins stating that any postal cutbacks would be shortsighted.  But Collins is never identified, either by Lisa Myers or by an on-screen graphic.  Perhaps we're supposed to play "guess the senator".  Then again, considering recent Nightly News misidentifications of Sen. Harry Reid and Reps. Barney Frank and Carolyn McCarthy (and the misspelling of Kay Hagan's name when she was running for U.S. Senate), it may have been prudent for the producers not to even attempt to identify Sen. Collins.

>During an Aug. 2 Nightly News story about the economy, Christina Romer is identified by an on-screen graphic as the "Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman".  During a July 23 story about the Henry Louis Gates arrest, Vernon Jordan is identified as a "Former Presidential Advisor".  During a July 1 story on health care, Nightly News put this sentence on the screen: "Advisers won't rule out a tax on benefits."  A June 30 story used the on-screen phrase "Drug Safety Advisory Committee".  In a June 27 Nightly News promo for Meet The Press, David Axelrod was identified as a "White House Adviser".  The next day, when Nightly News showed a clip from Meet The Press, Axelrod was identified as an "Advisor".  A July 6 Nightly News clip of Mark McKinnon identified him as a "Former McCain/Palin Campaign Advisor".  Whew!  It makes your head spin.  Both "adviser" and "advisor" are correct, but it might be nice if the Nightly News producers could pick a spelling and stick with it.  By the way, on the Feb. 26 broadcast, Romer was identified as the "Council of Economic Advisors Chairman".  The producers should also pick a gender and stick with it.

>During an Aug. 2 story about the possibility of France allowing businesses to open on Sundays, Keith Miller reported the story from Paris (at one point, the Eiffel Tower can be seen behind him).  But a Nightly News identification line stated that Miller was reporting from London.

>An Aug. 2 "Making A Difference" story profiles a non-profit organization called Goods For Good that sends school supplies to children in Malawi.  At one point, we see one of their vehicles with a "goodsforgood" logo on the side.  But in separate interviews with the organization's founder and program director, a Nightly News identification line misstates the organization's name as "Goods4Good".

>An Aug. 2 Nightly News story about people with advanced degrees who are forced to work in retail during the economic downturn includes an interview with a Wal-Mart spokesperson.  On screen, the company is identified as "Walmart".  Wal-Mart's own website identifies the company as "Wal-Mart".

>A July 31 Nightly News story featured an interview with Bruce Kasman, chief economist at J.P. Morgan.  Despite the fact that Kasman is sitting in front of a video screen that clearly reads "J.P. Morgan", a Nightly News identification line nevertheless misstates the company's name as "JP Morgan".  The company's own website identifies itself as "J.P. Morgan".

>A March 3 Nightly News story featured an interview with Efraim Levy, who was identified as a "Standard And Poor's Analyst".  During the interview, Mr. Levy was in front of a screen filled with multiple "Standard & Poor's" logos.  The most hilarious thing about that gaffe is that every night (including March 3), Nightly News displays stock market information on the screen--including the "S&P 500".  Of course, the company's own website also identifies itself as "Standard & Poor's".

>A July 21 "What Works" segment about Monks who sell printer supplies mentions a company that identifies itself as "Brighten Tomorrow's" (we see their logo on the door of their business).  A Nightly News identification line later misstates the company's name as "Brighten Tomorrows", without the apostrophe.  Although the company's name contains an unnecessary apostrophe, the Nightly News producers had no right to remove the apostrophe when showing the company's name.  If Nightly News did a story about the hip hop group Outkast, would they change their name to "Outcast"?

>Another story on the July 21 Nightly News uses the on-screen phrase "out-of pocket".  Apparently, someone forgot to include the dash between "of" and "pocket".

>During an Aug. 5 Nightly News story about Russian submarines off the east coast of the U.S., we were shown a clip from the movie "The Hunt For Red October".  Unfortunately, the credit line on the screen read "The Hunt For Red For October".

>In David Gregory's July 31 Daily Nightly blog entry, he misspelled the name of CNBC correspondent Steve Liesman as "Leisman".  Last December 28, Amy Robach misspelled Barack Obama's first name (as "Barak") on her blog entry.  Brian Williams himself has misspelled the names of Condoleezza Rice and Alison Krauss on his blog.

>During the intro to the Aug. 9 Nightly News, we were shown a photo of the mid-air crash between a helicopter and a small plane.  The photo was credited to the "Fox New Channel", rather than the "Fox News Channel".

>Also on the Aug. 9 broadcast, we were shown an on-screen statement taken from Sarah Palin's Facebook page.  Although the Nightly News producers began and ended the statement with quotation marks, the phrase "death panel" (in quotes) appeared in the middle of the statement.  Any junior high school student knows that a quote within a quote is set off with single, not double quotation marks, so the phrase should have read 'death panel'.  Maybe the producers need to hire some junior high schoolers to help with the editing.

This is just a representative sampling of recent errors by the Nightly News editors and producers.  It is by no means exhaustive.  (Viewers should feel free to search for their own errors each night.  Try it--it's fun!)  So the next time Brian gets the urge to point out the inaccuracies in a film, he might want to hold off on doing so until he corrects all the inaccuracies in his own broadcast.

Brian,
Whatever happened to simple LOGIC? The passengers were screened and were allowed on the plane. Nothing happened on the flight to question anyone's "cleanliness" once they landed and were stranded on the tarmac. Let them get off the plane and wait inside. It's the right thing and the decent thing to do. When are they going to wake up? I believe that passengers need a loud vocal advocate so that we can get a Passenger's Bill of Rights passed. The lobbyists have a bunch of loudmouths, we as passengers need to start opening ours. This whole incident was disgraceful.

Brian,
The story about Hilliary Clinton was terrific
when she lost her cool in Africa over the
question about what her husband thought about
an international fiancial matter. "My husband
is not Secretary of State.  I am.  I am
not channeling my husband."  Of course not,
she is channeling Isis.  All women are channeling
Isis now.  It's not that we don't love and
respect our husbands, but we have wised up:o)
Well, anyway, it was the translator's fault,
and Hilliary made light of it.   Whatever,
"all's well that ends well."
Phyllis

Hi again Brian, (Tues.)

I'm off today so I get to watch Pres. Obama's town hall meeting in N.H. Evidently he will be there first.
I was watching MSNBC and they were showing "peaceful" protesters waiting for thr Pres. They're allowing one man to keep his gun! Can you believe it! They say because it isn't a concealed weapon he has a right to keep it. Ron Allen is reporting and saying of course the Secret Service won't allow the man to be near Pres. Obama in any way. Please cover this story tonight. Things have gotten out of hand at these town hall meetings and for people to be able to take their guns! It just doesn't make sense.

I'll definitely see you tonight.

Vicki

Big Corporations and senseless regulations tend to rule the day....Everyday...From Healthcare to Wallstreet, Insurance corporations and banks we are treated as droans...We the people, have no rights, Corporations have bought them all and dictate what happens in this country...If more rights are given to the corporations in the current case infront of the Supreme court we will see more and more of this with less and less to say....I believe we all need to be addressing this issue....Maybe you could cover this and how all of it is interconnected.  Most people don't know what is going on...But then again maybe not because you work for who???  GE.  True reporting and journalistic integrity is owned by large coporations who sit on each others boards and dictate what the American people hear and see.  Enough said.

I came to the U.S. after the Hungarian revolution of 1956. Because we had a 7 months old baby in April 1957, we were flown from Vienna (Austria) to McGuire AFB. First stop: Shannon, Ireland. Due to weather conditions, could not land in Keflavik AFB in Iceland, nor at Gander in Newfoundland/Labrador. Finally, the pilot had no choice (lack of fuel), we landed at St. Johns AFB also in Newfoundland. All in all, it took a four-engine propeller plane full of pregnant women and crying babies nearly 24 hours to get from Vienna to New Jersey. After 52 years in the U.S., I can say that it was worth every minute of it.

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