The Daily Nightly

Here's to the home team

Daily Nightly Editor — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

My thanks to the wonderful Garland Robinette of WWL (the Big 870) in New Orleans for sitting down with us yesterday to answer a few questions. It is impossible to express what Garland means to that City--impossible to express the role he and others took on at the height of the disaster that was Katrina. I spent hours, many of them huddled in a car, listening to Garland and the volunteer on-air staff trying to inform and calm the audience. As we discussed yesterday, radio was a lifeline during those days. Garland means more to that city than any other radio host I can think of...in any other major American city.

Tonight, snow once again approaches. Trouble may be coming in Iran. The misery continues in Haiti. The celebration continues in New Orleans. We have it all covered, and we hope you can join us tonight.

Future Shock: National Debt

Daily Nightly Editor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:33:00 GMT

By NBC Washington Bureau Managing Editor Albert Oetgen

Several reporters and producers in the Washington Bureau of NBC News were assigned last week to take a broad look at the implications of the unprecedented level of federal deficit spending and exploding national debt. Their series, Future Shock, begins with Lisa Myers' piece tonight.

The faces of Everett McKinley Dirksen and Lawrence Peter Berra were shaped for preservation on the likes of Mount Rushmore, their voices tuned for broadcast on old-time radio. Jowly, gravelly. They are American icons.

Each of these wise public men, these plain-spoken armchair philosophers, contributed significant phrases to the American language, memorable phrases that have been been mimicked and repurposed over and over and over again. In and through that repetition, the words and thoughts of Ev Dirksen and Yogi Berra have helped us understand fundamental truths about ourselves and our collective culture.

Yogi, who played on 10 World Series winners, said: "It ain't over 'til it's over."

Senator Dirksen, the influential minority leader of the Senate when Lyndon Johnson was wielding unprecedented power in the White House, said: "A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking big money."

Or so people say.

Yogi himself once said "I really didn't say everything I said." And he has made hay out of the popular reaction to his fractured syntax.

Researchers at the Dirksen Center www.dirksencenter.org say they've never been able to establish that the senator said what he was supposed to have said. In fact, they've found evidence Dirksen once said: "Oh, I never said that. A newspaper fella misquoted me and I thought it sounded so good I never bothered to deny it."

But wisdom has grown from myth since the moment we humans began organizing ourselves. And regardless of what Dirksen really said, in the same fashion that Yogi Berra, perhaps the most skilled bad-ball hitter in the history of baseball, never gave up, Senator Dirksen never gave up on talking about the threat of federal deficit spending and debt.

Here's a story he once spun to complain about a proposal in 1965 to lift the debt ceiling to $328 billion, as documented by the Dirksen Center:

"One time in the House of Representatives [a colleague] told me about a proposition that a teacher put to a boy. He said, 'Johnny, a cat fell in a well 100 feet deep. Suppose that cat climbed up 1 foot and then fell back 2 feet. How long would it take the cat to get out of the well?"
"Johnny worked assiduously with his slate and slate pencil for quite a while, and then when the teacher came down and said, 'How are you getting along?' Johnny said, 'Teacher, if you give me another slate and a couple of slate pencils, I am pretty sure that in the next 30 minutes I can land that cat in hell.' "

Last week, Congress raised the debt ceiling by $1.9 TRILLION, to $14.3 trillion. Maybe that's not hell, but it's making a whole lot of people begin to sweat profusely.

The latest prominent politician to paraphrase Dirksen was President Obama. He told CBS News on Sunday: "The package that we've put together, the Congressional Budget Office says, will cut the deficit by a trillion dollars. Even in Washington, that's real money."

Debt or deficit, there's general agreement that all this red ink is bad for us, and a lot of people think that the long run is finally here. How bad? Some pessimists say the Great American Republic is in demonstrable decline and, just as the 19th Century belonged to the British, and the 20th to the Americans, the 21st will belong to the Chinese.

But then, there's Yogi.

As American as hot dogs, apple pie and, well, baseball, the Yankee catcher is a reliable guide through all of this. The unfettered political environment, the freedom to oppose and thrive, the free-wheeling political crucible in which Everett Dirksen could flourish and influence things from a minority position, is our strength. The planned and managed economy of China might be working now, but the downside is significant.

Here's what Yogi would say about the decline of America:

It ain't over 'til it's over.

It has happened. This will help.

Daily Nightly Editor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:16:00 GMT

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

Today I get to talk to one of my favorite Americans. Garland Robinette, the voice of the Big 870, WWL Radio in New Orleans. Garland is one of the voices—one of the people—who helped New Orleanians get through Katrina, and all that has followed. He was one of the people I was thinking about last night when the Saints pulled it off. I just have to hear his reaction to this victory. It is impossible to express my emotions for that team or for that City...except to say: I wish I was there, I'm thinking of them, and what a game that was. As a cultural "milestone," it was one thing (the "long suffering men" theme of numerous commercials became comical after a while), and as a football game, it was thrilling. It took a decided turn at the top of the second half. It was all Saints after that.

Here's to the New Orleans Saints and the people of the great City of New Orleans. I'll see you soon. Enjoy this. You earned it. The hard way.

We hope you can join us tonight.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Major explosion

Ian Sager — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:21:00 GMT

By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

We're live from Vancouver again tonight. Here, and in our New York newsroom, we are monitoring that massive explosion at a Middletown, Connecticut power plant that was under construction. Early reports are that as many as 50 workers were inside. There are fatalities and injuries. We've had reports of people feeling it 10 miles away. Ron Allen is there and will bring us up to date on the broadcast tonight.

We're also following the recovery and dig out from yesterday's East Coast blizzard, and it looks like more is on the way later this week.

By the way, that wasn't a "green screen" image behind me on last night's program. Our anchor location with the Vancouver harbor and mountain backdrop is really that gorgeous, though we've got low clouds and drizzle here this afternoon. Hopefully it's dropping serious snow in the higher elevations where they could really use it for some of the Olympic events. Tonight we're counting down to Friday's opening ceremony with a look at the top 5 athletes to watch in the 2010 games.

We'll look for you tonight on NBC Nightly News.

Snowbound

Ian Sager — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:27:00 GMT

By Lester Holt, NBC News anchor

Greetings today from Vancouver, Canada where the city and NBC are gearing up for Friday's opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

For the time being however, the U.S. mid-Atlantic States seem to be reaping all the winter medals -- at least for snow totals. One my colleagues sitting next to me here in Vancouver, who is normally based in Washington, has been on the phone with his family back home who are without power, and along with a lot of other folks, expect to be in the dark and cold for some time.

Our White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosted TODAY with me from New York this morning, just e-mailed to let me know she is still on the train trying to get back to D.C., but says they are "still powering through." This storm has brought the region to a virtual halt, affecting airports, highways and the power grid. We plan full coverage on tonight's Nightly News.

This will be our first Nightly News from our broadcast position along Vancouver's picturesque harbor. In contrast to the East Coast, it is unseasonably warm here, which is not necessarily a good thing for some of the Olympic events. Ron Mott will tell us a lot more about that and what they are trying to do about it.

I hope you will join us, live from Canada for NBC Nightly News.

Your pictures of the snow

Daily Nightly Editor — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 16:29:00 GMT

We asked our @nbcnightlynews Twitter followers to send us their photos of today's big snowstorm. Here's some of what we received:

@TheNortherner sent this photo of Capitol Hill:

@DawnieMom in Martinsburg, WV sent this (who can blame her for taking the photo from inside?!):

@AmandaChanguris snapped this shot in Frederick, MD. Not a good day for sitting on her front porch.

We got this series from @KYounger in northern Delaware. There goes the picnic table!

From @DailyProgress in Charlottesville, VA:

@Saradb82 describes herself as a "Nebraska girl in Washington, DC." Here's her backyard this morning:

And from @librarydad in King George, VA:

Thanks to all for your photos. Now, start shoveling!

Update: @AmandaChanguris also sent us this short video. Thanks for your extra effort, Amanda!

Who Dat? A few words about that

Daily Nightly Editor — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:43:00 GMT

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Not since 1968 has change this big swept the country

Daily Nightly Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:13:00 GMT

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

It may be the smallest item in our broadcast tonight—but it may also be the biggest news to some of our viewers. A game-changer in the fast food business. Heinz is changing its ketchup packet. For the first time since 1968.

Here's the new one.

Just think of all the ketchup packets you've done battle with over the years. I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here—but this is the kind of minor item we try to find the time to tell each night—because it’s interesting, and because life is full of them. We have a few of them tonight. I'm in the midst of writing the final words of the Cory Booker profile, which will air tonight.

My excuse: I was having lunch with the mayor

Daily Nightly Editor — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:14:00 GMT

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

No post to speak of today, because I just got to work...and I'm way behind. I was with Newark Mayor Cory Booker all day, taping a segment that will air later this week. I think a lot of my fellow New Jerseyans (I was raised 18 miles due south of the City) regard Newark with an odd combination of hope and resignation. Mayor Booker is a maniacal booster of the City.

The Mayor was kind enough to tweet about our lunch afterward. He's an interesting politician, which I hope our segment will make clear. For the record (since he opened the door by tweeting), his lunch consisted of: a huge plate of egg whites scrambled, a salad of lettuce and broccoli topped with fried onions. I had a cheeseburger, fries and cole slaw and two cokes. He's a vegetarian. I, clearly, am not. There you have it. I'm afraid that's all I've got!

We hope you can join us tonight.

Dispatches from Vancouver

Sam Singal — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:37:00 GMT

Nightly News digital correspondent Clare Duffy is in Vancouver ahead of the Olympics and files these dispatches on tidbits she is learning about the host city.

How do some Vancouverites tell time? Notes of "Oh Canada" let them know when it's lunch.

Special street food - Japadogs - include mayo and seaweed. We sampled and give it two thumbs up.

Clare also found out that Vancouverites like coffee. Kyle Straw, Canada's champion barista, says "it might have something to do with the weather."

Popular sportswear/yoga brand Lululemon Athletica is having a bit of fun with having the Olympics in their backyard.

Check back for more dispatches from Clare Duffy in Vancouver. You can follow her on Twitter at @cduffy4.

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