Brian Williams
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
It struck us as fundamentally wrong that the Postal Service would no longer accept or deliver letters from kids written to Santa at the North Pole—but we, along with others, reported last night that the program was being halted. Apparently the good folks in North Pole, Alaska (Santa's helpers...the good people of that town who have been volunteering since 1954 to read and answer children's letters) have met to alleviate the crisis, and we will read their response on the air tonight. Believe me, when stories involve Santa (or similar topics), I automatically switch to parent mode—and I try mightily not to ever say anything during Nightly News that I would not have wanted my own young children to hear. You will often hear me warning viewers of a particularly tough topic—fair warning to hit mute, turn the TV off or escort the kids out of the kitchen—because there's nothing more annoying than getting caught without warning when something awful comes on the television when little ones are in the room.
As I say, we'll re-visit this topic tonight—and hopefully, we'll clear all this up. As someone who worked long and hard on letters to Santa as a child... and sent them off while trying to picture him reading them—I firmly believe that experience should be available forever.
We hope you can join us tonight! Have a good weekend, and I'll see you back here on Monday.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Our own Andy Franklin did some digging and came up with this, from the last time mammograms were in the news this heavily. It’s fascinating viewing, and we'll air a portion of it tonight.
My thanks to everyone at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State, and at our NBC Station KPNX-TV in Phoenix -- I am honored beyond my ability to express it. It’s the greatest honor of my professional life.
We're back in New York and I hope you'll be watching tonight.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
If it’s Tuesday, it must be Phoenix. We are here on the campus of Arizona State University for an awards ceremony—I had a great time with journalism students this morning, and there's more planned for later in the day. It’s an emotional experience being here, at an institution that bears the name of Walter Cronkite.
My email is getting flooded with the personal stories of women, many of them our viewers between ages 40 and 50—telling their personal stories. We are going to take on the breast cancer guidelines again tonight…and having lost my only sister to this disease, I have my own motivation and feelings concerning this development.
We hope you can join us—and we hope you will continue telling us what's important to you. We'll see you tonight from Phoenix.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Not much time to post today. Sharp-eyed viewers will notice we're in our Los Angeles bureau tonight–a remote broadcast necessitated by a visit we must pay to Arizona later this week. We apparently just had a 4.6 earthquake here in Southern California, but no one here felt it. Our lead story tonight is a major medical story, about a new Federal guideline which I'm afraid might result in a lot of confusion for millions of Americans. So—welcome back for another week, and we hope you can join us for the broadcast tonight, from Los Angeles.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
My favorite headline today, hands down, is on the New York Times website: "Water Found on Moon, Scientists Say." For some reason, it made me think of Walter Cronkite. We've become so blasé about space travel—and worlds other than ours (and we spotted sending human missions to other places, aside from the International Space Station) that it’s not even the lead story at this hour.
And yet, for those of us who were alive during the "space race," and those decades when we simply could not learn enough—fast enough—about places like the moon...this is shocking news. I expect a Page One headline more along the lines of the Times' famous "MAN WALKS ON MOON." Alas, it’s a different time. It’s only water. It’s only the moon, after all. It’s only one of several editorial decisions facing us as we prioritize today's news for tonight's broadcast.
I hope you've enjoyed this week's superb "Making A Difference" series of reports -- if you missed any one of them, you can catch up with them here.
We hope you can join us tonight. Please have a good weekend, and I'll see you on Monday.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
I guess because of my recent immersion in the military and the attention on veterans over these last few days, today I'd like you to read someone else's work.
While in Kabul, I had dinner with David Ignatius of the Washington Post, and this piece was brought to my attention too late yesterday to post it here, but he gets it. He has spent a lot of time around the military, and this piece he wrote spoke to the details I've always noticed when around them. So...please read and enjoy. It's important.
We hope you can join us tonight.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
A few minutes after 1pm, I put on my coat and walked to the corner of 5th Avenue and 50th Street. From my office, I could see bits and pieces of the Veteran's Day Parade passing up 5th Avenue, and I wanted to see it up close. I was gratified to find people standing 8 deep along Fifth Avenue.
Seniors, parents with children, a smattering of normally-scurrying office workers out for a mid-day errand...all stopping behind the barricades to watch a bit of the parade pass by. What thrilled me was to see and hear spontaneous applause break out. With each passing float, each collection of veterans, I watched as people started to clap...with enthusiasm...up and down the Avenue. The bagpipes, as always (God Bless the FDNY Emerald Society -- you guys sounded great today) put us over the top. It put a lump in my throat. I was fortunate enough to host a big dinner for Veterans here in New York last night, so it’s been a great 24 hours on that front.
As I walked back to 30 Rock, I witnessed an incredible moment: As I watched, the tree platform was being lowered into place, directly over the logo on the sidewalk that shows off-season tourists where the legendary tree stands each holiday season. What a great moment to witness -- in all, quite a day here in Midtown Manhattan, considering it was a 20-minute outing from start to finish.
I sure hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast. I'm off to greet a visiting group of female military veterans. And I couldn't be happier.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
I was proud of the fact that we offered live coverage on both the NBC Television Network and MSNBC today of the sad memorial service in front of the massive III Corps Headquarters at Ft. Hood, Texas. Just think: III Corps has lost over 450 souls in two overseas wars...and now 13 on base.
One aspect of the day that I wasn't able to mention on the air: at the end, while the President and Mrs. Obama paid their final respects before the stark boots-and-rifle-and-helmet memorials of each of the 13, the President left something at each of the displays.
It was the Presidential "challenge" coin--which can only be handed out by the Commander in Chief. This is the one the President gave out today:
We did a segment on challenge coins (which featured my own collection, now easily 25 percent bigger than it was) a few months back and received a huge response. They are a great military tradition. Now those families will have at least one tangible token of the President's visit. We are thinking of them and praying for them after this wrenching day.
We hope you can join us tonight.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
Twenty years ago tonight, I was sharing a cherry picker with Dan Rather. I was working for WCBS-TV in New York, doing reports from the Berlin Wall for the CBS Television Stations. Dan had flown there to join Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings -- covering the biggest night any of us had ever seen. We were all using rented cherry pickers, hoisted above the party with a clear view of the wall behind us. I will never forget it -- or the scene the next day, as the East Germans (as they were still called) streamed into the West on foot and in small Eastern Bloc automobiles. Competitively, the other two networks were behind NBC on the story -- Tom and his team opted to fly in early on a hunch, and they were right. Its nice to now be on the same team, as we look back 20-years tonight!
The thesis behind our popular "Making A Difference" series of reports has been: ordinary folks doing extraordinary things. We've done stories on incredible people. The only problem is, we've left out famous people who are ALSO doing extraordinary things.
This week, we fix that. Starting tonight, with my profile of Jon Bon Jovi...we will chronicle one notable American each day who is helping out and giving back. Let us know what you think. I hope you had a good weekend, and I hope you can join us here this week...starting with tonight's broadcast.
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor
The awful Ft. Hood shooting incident has saddened everyone -- and we're feeling it acutely perhaps because we just spent a week with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. I've often said that one of the great blessings of my job (as someone who didn't serve) is the exposure it has given me to our superb all-volunteer force. I have been to Ft. Hood, and cannot imagine the shattering effect this will have on that post and community. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the dead and wounded -- and we hope you can join us tonight as we attempt to further de-construct what happened there.
