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Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.

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Speaker 1: If you watched the NBC Nightly News with anchor Brian

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Speaker 1: Williams during Hurricane Katrina, you saw a newsman both composed

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Speaker 1: and compassionate. People are dying inside the city of New

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Speaker 1: Orleans today and that city has descended further into chaos tonight.

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Speaker 1: It was his first year on the job, and Williams

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Speaker 1: was the only network news anchor to report on Katrina

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Speaker 1: and its impact from inside the super Dome. The Brian

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Speaker 1: family was sitting in the stands with thousands of others,

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Speaker 1: sound asleep when the noise started. It sounded like a

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Speaker 1: New York City subway train. Others said they thought it

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Speaker 1: was thunder or someone hammering, and in a way it was.

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Speaker 1: It was Katrina hammering away at the roof trying to

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Speaker 1: get in. NBC Nightly News has more viewers than any

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Speaker 1: other news program in the country, and average of ten

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Speaker 1: million people tune in every day to watch Brian Williams

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Speaker 1: and his team report on the day's top stories. Williams

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Speaker 1: has to be ready for anything. His briefcase always holds

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Speaker 1: a laptop, a passport, and a flashlight because he can't

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Speaker 1: predict when or where he'll be called upon to follow

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Speaker 1: a story. On the evening of August thirty one, he

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Speaker 1: was in the hospital as a visitor. I lost a

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Speaker 1: very good friend to Agent Orange related cancer. I was

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Speaker 1: in the hospital room with him. It was a Saturday night.

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Speaker 1: I had just done weekend nightly news. My pager in

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Speaker 1: those days went off, Diana carr accident Paris. I called

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Speaker 1: the office. They said, you'd better get in here. And

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Speaker 1: I had no idea that I would be announcing to

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Speaker 1: what was then. I mean, they plugged us into cable

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Speaker 1: all over Europe. I have people wherever I go to

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Speaker 1: this day say I was with you the one an

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Speaker 1: a dte Yes. So I was what's that like for

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Speaker 1: someone in your position where you have that kind of

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Speaker 1: experience like Crown Kite with JFK and you've got the

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Speaker 1: breaking story that goes all the way around the world

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Speaker 1: and it's you. I'm a very emotional guy, and I

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Speaker 1: often get a catch in my voice. I'm a very

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Speaker 1: patriotic guy. I kind of have a little schmaltz in me,

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Speaker 1: I guess, And so when I announced that I have

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Speaker 1: to kind of get ready and dig my heel into

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Speaker 1: my ankle under the desk and try to be tough.

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Speaker 1: My director, longtime director Brett Holey of Nightly News, often

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Speaker 1: knows to go to voiceover. He he will take a

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Speaker 1: picture rather than showing me on camera when I'm in

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Speaker 1: a sad place. The night of Newtown, I found it

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Speaker 1: highly difficult to get through the broadcast nine eleven. My

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Speaker 1: country had been shaken. So I have the same emotions

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Speaker 1: as everybody else, and there's no time to practice. You're

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Speaker 1: going to say you're making up the verbage as you go. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: when you do that job, I'm assuming you've got to

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Speaker 1: have people around you you trust. You know, there's people

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Speaker 1: who have done that job and have not succeeded, And

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Speaker 1: I wonder is that they don't succeed because they don't

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Speaker 1: have the right team with them. Well, the first thing

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Speaker 1: I did was get the blessing of Tom Brokaw, and

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Speaker 1: this has been extraordinary in a business where bodies are

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Speaker 1: stacked out back normally and you pass all the dead

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Speaker 1: would be future anchors in the hallway of a network.

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Speaker 1: I had a situation with a guy who went out

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Speaker 1: and got me. We had a meeting one night in

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Speaker 1: a New York Hotel. I was on local news in

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Speaker 1: New York and Tom said that he was nearing the

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Speaker 1: age when he had to think about who was going

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Speaker 1: to take over and what I consider it. Why do

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Speaker 1: you think he said that, I don't know. I went

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Speaker 1: around the corner, and in those days we use those

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Speaker 1: massive toaster oven sized motor Rola cell phones. I called

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Speaker 1: my wife and I said, either I'm getting played or

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Speaker 1: Tom Brokaw wants me to in line to take over

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Speaker 1: for him. I don't know. There are dozens of perfectly

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Speaker 1: or better qualified people in this world. I am probably

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Speaker 1: the most unremarkable holder of my job ever, and certainly

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Speaker 1: educationally the least prepared. So uh, I just shows ratings

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Speaker 1: have been very strong during the time you've done it.

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Speaker 1: I try to make it personal. It's taken me a

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Speaker 1: long time. I kept Tom's staff. I inherited the number

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Speaker 1: one newscast in America. They were doing nothing wrong and

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Speaker 1: everything right. So if you worked for Tom, you worked

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Speaker 1: for me. I brought no one in. I was his

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Speaker 1: understudy for eight years, a terrific position. I learned from

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Speaker 1: the master. Everything I enjoy in life today is attributable

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Speaker 1: to the fact that he made sure I was where

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Speaker 1: I needed to be at every given time. When it

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Speaker 1: was time to become chief White House correspondent, he said,

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Speaker 1: go south, young man, and on and on and on

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Speaker 1: with the years were your chief White House course? What

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Speaker 1: was that? The shank of the Clinton administration, the very middle,

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Speaker 1: including the mid term, the Gingish ascension. That's right, I

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Speaker 1: was on the flight that did in New Gingrich. He

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Speaker 1: complained that he didn't have a meeting with Bill Clinton.

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Speaker 1: Were coming home from the Rabine funeral. I chose to

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Speaker 1: stay up all night, and I saw the President come

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Speaker 1: into the conference room directly in front of my seat.

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Speaker 1: I saw a meeting per se take place. It was

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Speaker 1: an extraordinary airplane flight. I will occasionally do weird things

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Speaker 1: like decide everyone else in the press corps is asleep,

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Speaker 1: why don't I be the one to stay up all

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Speaker 1: night and see what I can see? Because I'll never

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Speaker 1: be on a flight like this again. But what was

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Speaker 1: your take on Clinton? Uh? Wide ranging, insatiable. Uh A

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Speaker 1: a very disciplined man with an obvious and palpable lack

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Speaker 1: of mental discipline. In other areas, It's an honor to

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Speaker 1: cover any presidency. To fly on that plane. Did he

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Speaker 1: deal with the press. Uh. He knew that I was

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Speaker 1: a fellow night owl and some of the best conversations

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Speaker 1: I had. He would walk around the aircraft people were

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Speaker 1: zunked coming back from you know, Kiev on an overnight flight.

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Speaker 1: He would see what movies were playing in which cabins,

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Speaker 1: and these presidents when you cover them into this day

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Speaker 1: and my job, there are off the record opportunities lunches,

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Speaker 1: dinners that you have so they can explain themselves more

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Speaker 1: easily to you. You can get in their head a

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Speaker 1: little bit. Never to offer advice, obviously, just to listen.

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Speaker 1: Both sides democratic, absolutely, And so when you leave in

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Speaker 1: where do you go? I go to found a new

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Speaker 1: network in Secaucus, New Jersey called MSNBC. A couple of

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Speaker 1: days into that effort, a flight crashed in the Atlantic

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Speaker 1: off East Moriwitch's Long Island, t w A. Three nights

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Speaker 1: into the birth of this network, we are handed a

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Speaker 1: huge breaking news story. Our graphics department was off the clock,

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Speaker 1: and I had someone go out and get a Rand

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Speaker 1: McNally road atlas out of their trunk, and I had

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Speaker 1: to hold up a map of Long Island and point

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Speaker 1: with my finger to where the jet had gone in

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Speaker 1: the water again. With the absent of any graphics, all

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Speaker 1: we have to go on is a a rather crude

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Speaker 1: uh Rand McNally map showing New York's Long Island uh.

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Speaker 1: When asked to report on his own life, Williams describes

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Speaker 1: his early years as a grindingly middle class upbringing. I

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Speaker 1: did not know vegetables came fresh. I thought they were

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Speaker 1: frozen bricks in the field. Salad was one eighth of

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Speaker 1: a head of iceberg let us sliced with a steak knife,

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Speaker 1: with a spoonful dollop of mayonnaise on the top. My

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Speaker 1: mother's ghoulash was one can spaghettios and one quarter pound

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Speaker 1: ground beef. We had spam. We had what everybody else had.

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Speaker 1: You grew up in New Jersey. Right was in Ridgewood,

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Speaker 1: New Jersey. Born in Ridgewood, New Jersey. We moved for

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Speaker 1: the first eight or nine years of my life to Elmira,

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Speaker 1: New York, and then most of my life was spent

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Speaker 1: in Middletown, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, which your

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Speaker 1: dad in the television business. My dad uh former manager

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Speaker 1: of John Wannamaker department store in Philly. He took a

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Speaker 1: job with Corning Glass and Corning, New York. We lived

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Speaker 1: in adjacent Elmira. Got fired with a slew of executives

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Speaker 1: in a purge of Corning, and then really bounced from

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Speaker 1: job to job. Had a tough time heart attack at

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Speaker 1: fifty that sent us back to the Jersey Shore where

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Speaker 1: he could at least find work in New York City.

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Speaker 1: But we had some rough financial times after that. And

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Speaker 1: when you were growing up, what was the your relationship

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Speaker 1: to the news and to media where you a news

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Speaker 1: junkie when you were a kid. Dinner could not start

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Speaker 1: in our household until Walter Cronkite said, that's the way

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Speaker 1: it is. We watched it as a communal event. My

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Speaker 1: father would bring home from the train the Jersey Shoreline.

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Speaker 1: Obviously at times, the Post, the Daily News. He had

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Speaker 1: women's wear daily because he worked in the trade. There

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Speaker 1: was just stuff around. I started reading the New York

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Speaker 1: Times when I got my working papers at the age

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Speaker 1: of fourteen and haven't stopped. And when you went to school,

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Speaker 1: you went to school was in an eye toured going

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Speaker 1: into broadcasting and going into journalism. I didn't think it

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Speaker 1: was attainable. I had May she Rest in peace, A

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Speaker 1: and a bulliant Irish Catholic mother who was the corpse

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Speaker 1: at every funeral and the bride at every wedding and

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Speaker 1: was a an amateur little theater actress, always believed in

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Speaker 1: her baby boy, Brian. I remember when Channel four in

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Speaker 1: New York hired some new reporters. I remember it distinctly,

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Speaker 1: was living in New Jersey. And she pointed to the

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Speaker 1: set at one of them, still in the business. By

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Speaker 1: the way, I'm not gonna say, and said, you can

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Speaker 1: do better than you know. I see, okay, I just

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Speaker 1: know you can do better than him. Chuck won't mind

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Speaker 1: if you say that. We're here with Alec Baldwin. And

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Speaker 1: she said that she believed that, and I think that

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Speaker 1: stayed with me, and against all odds, I pursued this

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Speaker 1: in just crazy dream that I couldn't share with anybody

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Speaker 1: because it was outlandish. I mean, I'm a volunteer fireman

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Speaker 1: in Jersey. I can't sit around with those guys saying, fellas,

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Speaker 1: here's what you don't know about me in the future,

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Speaker 1: here's what I intend to do. It just wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: made any sense. None of this makes any sense. How

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Speaker 1: does it begin. I went to a Catholic high school.

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Speaker 1: I went to the local community college. I was a towny.

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Speaker 1: I had applied for a civil service job as the

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Speaker 1: nighttime Mammath County Police fire dispatcher out of Freehold. But

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Speaker 1: my life took a turn. A buddy of mine took

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Speaker 1: me to Washington, d c. Tony Loveglia. Everybody has a

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Speaker 1: Tony Loveglia. My buddy Tony said, I'm seeing a girl

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Speaker 1: down there. She goes to Catholic University. I'll fill my

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Speaker 1: van with beverages, will play loud music, come with me

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Speaker 1: for the weekend. And I Washington opened my eyes to prosperous,

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Speaker 1: earnest young people in khakis and blazers, walking swiftly with

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Speaker 1: places to go, and discussing government. Absolutely earnest at the

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Speaker 1: way Greg and Carter put it in the old spy

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Speaker 1: magazine May at Rest in Peace, earnest former student council

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Speaker 1: president's driving Honda accords. That was his way of summing

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Speaker 1: up Washington. And I was intoxicated by it. What was

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Speaker 1: the first, first first job you had? Uh? Well, fast forward.

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Speaker 1: I'm at Catholic University, having transferred my meager credits. Guy

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Speaker 1: named Rocco comes into our dorm and says does anybody

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Speaker 1: want my internship in the White House. I raised my

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Speaker 1: hand because I had a blue blazer from my job

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Speaker 1: at Sears in Middletown, New Jersey. I interviewed for it

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Speaker 1: and got it. Jimmy Carter was president. Obviously it was

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Speaker 1: a non political position. I made copies, I got shirts

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Speaker 1: at the cleaners. I I made coffee, but I also

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Speaker 1: wrote constituent letters, and I I got into it. I

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Speaker 1: got a job as a clerk typist at the broadcasting Lobby,

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Speaker 1: the n a B National Association of Broadcasters. I confide

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Speaker 1: my secret in my boss that someday I had been

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Speaker 1: my editorial page editor of my high school paper. I

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Speaker 1: had worked on my uh community college paper. After all,

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Speaker 1: someday my hope was to try television journalism. He said, well,

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Speaker 1: there's a guy coming into town. Bill Bankston runs k

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Speaker 1: o A, MTV and Pittsburgh without the h Kansas. It's

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Speaker 1: the hundred and twenty first television market in the country.

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Speaker 1: He runs a small shop. It's in the middle of

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Speaker 1: a field, but he just might if you take him

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Speaker 1: to dinner. I took him to the restaurants sevent nine

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Speaker 1: in Georgetown. I had no I have no business buying dinner.

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Speaker 1: I had no money. He said, you have to pay

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Speaker 1: your way to come out and let us look at

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Speaker 1: you on camera. I had a Dodge Dart. I put

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Speaker 1: all my belongings in the back seat. I brought my

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Speaker 1: dog Charlie out there. They thought I was crazy. She

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Speaker 1: believed in my ability. But this move to the middle

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Speaker 1: of the country, leaving all I knew and what was

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Speaker 1: the station was like going in the Marine Corps ko

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Speaker 1: A m TV. And I went back there and revisited

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Speaker 1: the place when the tornadoes hit Choplin. And good evening

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Speaker 1: from Joplin, Missouri. And this is of course now more

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Speaker 1: than any community anywhere should ever be forced to endure.

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Speaker 1: In just the space of the last hour, we have

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Speaker 1: been through where where you want it hit. I was

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Speaker 1: with my two kids in the house. How is it

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Speaker 1: You're alive? Faith in God? He's the only way. Oh

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Speaker 1: my god? How many people made it in here? How

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Speaker 1: did you hear? Abody on this block is okay? What

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Speaker 1: do you do tomorrow? Row on the next day, figure

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Speaker 1: it out when it comes, I guess. And can you

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Speaker 1: believe Mother Nature are doing this right now? It's hard

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Speaker 1: to believe she hitting middle or drop that was the

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Speaker 1: adjoining town where my efficiency apartment was. Not to brag,

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Speaker 1: you know, I was. I was a working poor I'm

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Speaker 1: on television in this market in Kansas, going home and

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Speaker 1: making an art form of slicing. And if you've ever

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Speaker 1: done this, you know, you take one can of spam,

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Speaker 1: if you fry an egg in that pan, you can

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Speaker 1: make a spam steak in a frying pan, and you

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Speaker 1: can get four or five slices out of one can

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Speaker 1: of spam. With some toast. It's a meal at night.

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Speaker 1: You can also, as my friends and I would do

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Speaker 1: back then when we were we were working actors and

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Speaker 1: I was doing a soap opera. There was a moment

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Speaker 1: when my friend leaned over and took an egg out

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Speaker 1: of the refrigerator and dropped it into some noodle ramen

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Speaker 1: and showed us that you could put an egg in

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Speaker 1: ramen and have egg drop ramen. And when we made

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Speaker 1: egg dropped rama for the first time, it was like,

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Speaker 1: don't don't bump, bump, bump. We went insane to this day.

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Speaker 1: I like ramin, I do. I like ramin. Is too

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Speaker 1: much sodium and pronational hot dogs and spaghettios. My big

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Speaker 1: three who would the because I was in you were there,

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Speaker 1: you left Washington? What year? Oh, I guess this is

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Speaker 1: what were you in? D eighty one? So Carter's out,

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Speaker 1: Carter's out. I'm working at but you were there when

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Speaker 1: when Carter was there? What year to the end of Carter? Yes,

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Speaker 1: last year, very end. So it's eighty the election. He's

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Speaker 1: losing Iron Hostage, Internship over Goodnight everybody? And who were

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Speaker 1: the big three on the networks then? Rather, well, this

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Speaker 1: would have been rather I guess Brokaw or Chancellor and

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Speaker 1: either some combination of Jennings, Max Robinson, Dean Reynolds not

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Speaker 1: Dean Reynolds CNN. Yet that was kind of dawning in

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Speaker 1: eighty Yes, well that was was that Iron Hostage? No,

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Speaker 1: I guess that was dawning in eight? That was dawning

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Speaker 1: in eight. Were you watching those show as pretty regularly

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Speaker 1: as well? A preference? But you're CBS man up in

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Speaker 1: a CBS household kite people approximately our age. You can

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Speaker 1: say what household were you and people will answer it

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Speaker 1: that way. With a network. Yeah, there's a style to

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Speaker 1: that job that's changed. That old Voice of God school,

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Speaker 1: you know, Crown, Kite and chance There was very humbly

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Speaker 1: in Brinkley. You went to them because they had something

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Speaker 1: you wanted. And I venture to say that that guy

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Speaker 1: who had that kind of imperious, snooty voice of God

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Speaker 1: kind of demeanor on the air, those guys their days

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Speaker 1: are gone well and now the people are authoritative. I mean,

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Speaker 1: what I'm leading up to is the reason you work

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Speaker 1: and the reason you've been successful is you are commanding,

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Speaker 1: and you're bright, and you're all the things you need

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Speaker 1: to be and you're not pompous. I have no right

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Speaker 1: to be. But but but what I'm saying is I

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Speaker 1: think that people's attitude towards the news has changed. Where

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Speaker 1: there's a kind there's a style of anchor of the

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Speaker 1: evening news that those days are over. Now you have

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Speaker 1: to be more accessible, you have to be more accessible.

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Speaker 1: But you should know, we still select our lead story

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Speaker 1: and our story order like it was the old days,

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Speaker 1: because we have to. That's our process. And uh, the

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Speaker 1: night we happened to be sitting here having this conversation

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Speaker 1: in New York, we always say, like SNL, like any

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Speaker 1: other live show, we don't go on the air because

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Speaker 1: it's ready. We go on the air because it's time

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Speaker 1: to go on the air tonight. I was writing one

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Speaker 1: section ahead of where I was. I was writing lead

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Speaker 1: ins for the second segment while we were in the

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Speaker 1: first segment in real time on the air, so we

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Speaker 1: would go into a reporter piece and I'm on the keyboard,

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Speaker 1: sitting on the set because I got behind because of

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Speaker 1: some Rock Center business I had to attend to. I

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Speaker 1: don't like it, but I'm wired for it. It's what

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Speaker 1: I do. And if I don't write those words, form

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Speaker 1: those words, edit those words, it won't sound like me.

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Speaker 1: I won't own it. There won't be trans mauretcy, there

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Speaker 1: won't be familiarity, and it's insincere. When does the day

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Speaker 1: begin to write that day's show writing, I knuckle, I

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Speaker 1: really buckle down. At around five I start writing and

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Speaker 1: I write from the bottom up. Usually I write the

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Speaker 1: that is NBC Nightly News for this Wednesday night. I

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Speaker 1: write that first, and the last thing I write before

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Speaker 1: I go out is the first thing I say, good evening,

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Speaker 1: uh and uh. So it's freshest in my mind. I

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Speaker 1: have to I have to stick that. I have to

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Speaker 1: nail that. It should be a very fresh and genuine thoughts,

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Speaker 1: so genuine that the teleprompter can be a guide. If

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Speaker 1: other words occur to me on the fly, I'll do that.

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Speaker 1: I'm not wedded to the words I have just written

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Speaker 1: on that electronic screen. The people you work with, you

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Speaker 1: have the license to do whatever you want to do.

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Speaker 1: You write it, yes, but I'm the managing editor of it.

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Speaker 1: But I also work with great professional adults who have

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Speaker 1: license ability and often call me out. I don't think

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Speaker 1: you got the tone right on this page. I I don't.

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Speaker 1: I I read your rightem on the video that was

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Speaker 1: produced by the North Korean government. I think we're missing

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Speaker 1: something here. And they do that all the time we

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Speaker 1: were collaboratively. These are all really good friends of mine.

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Speaker 1: I love the whole room full of them. We've been

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Speaker 1: a battle together, so we're really close. And it's a

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Speaker 1: very funny. You should hear our newsroom in the hour

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Speaker 1: before air stuff flies across the room. It's wild and

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Speaker 1: it's just the way I like it. Now. I want

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Speaker 1: to go back and you're at MSNBC. How long does

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Speaker 1: that last? Six years commuting to cau Caucus, New Jersey,

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Speaker 1: and what was in the dart No, by then I

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Speaker 1: could afford a chevallet. Yeah, Um, this was a Hearts

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Speaker 1: Mountain warehouse. It is today the home of MLB Network

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Speaker 1: for baseball fans. So six years commuting to Caucus, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I screwed up my time line I left. I was

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Speaker 1: still in Kansas when we left off. I ran out

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Speaker 1: of money. I drove on a space saver hard rubber

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Speaker 1: spare on my dodged art for eight months. They recommend

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Speaker 1: never going over fifty and just using it for a

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Speaker 1: few days. I shredded that puppy, and I drove back

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Speaker 1: to Washington, where I knew I could find work again.

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Speaker 1: I bought a copy of the Washington Post again, I

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Speaker 1: circled a classified ad Chiron operator ten PM newscast w

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Speaker 1: t t G, the Metromedia owned now Fox Channel five.

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Speaker 1: I walked in the door, asked the first woman I found,

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Speaker 1: uh is the news director in and can I see him?

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Speaker 1: And she said, you're meeting with her right now, late

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Speaker 1: great woman named Betty Endicott. She hired me to type

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Speaker 1: in the letters on the screen. She did this ed

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Speaker 1: asner thing with me. I would go into her office

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Speaker 1: as her lowly typer of letters on the screen, and

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Speaker 1: I'd watched the newscast with her every night and we

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Speaker 1: hit it off, and she said to me, didn't you

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Speaker 1: do on air work in Kansas? Do you have any tapes?

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Speaker 1: And I said, Betty, those have been taken to a

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Speaker 1: licensed landfill facility long ago, and she I did find one.

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Speaker 1: She put me on the air in Washington, d C.

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Speaker 1: On a whim the last gut call in television. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was on the ten o'clock news. Months later, she says,

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Speaker 1: I'm hiring a young woman to be an executive producer.

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Speaker 1: I think you're gonna like her. And we've been married

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Speaker 1: for twenty six years. Yeah, Jane's daddard love at First

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Speaker 1: Sight control room. Hearts flying little guys with arrows. I

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Speaker 1: went into my friend Bernie's office and said that afternoon,

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Speaker 1: I'm done off the market. It's a matter of Oh

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Speaker 1: my god, the FBI what the earpiece called f B.

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Speaker 1: I was close. Yeah, I have listened to a woman's

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Speaker 1: voice in her ear Oh wow. And now my little,

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Speaker 1: our little girl, who's twenty four, one of our two children.

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Speaker 1: I think we had just have the two. I'd see

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Speaker 1: her on David Letterman's chair next to Dave, and I

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Speaker 1: see my wife at around the same age we met,

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Speaker 1: and it just blows your mind and hard. We're going

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Speaker 1: to get your daughter. But anyway, I'm on Channel five

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Speaker 1: ten o'clock news, and it was a great job. And

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Speaker 1: sooner or later it's like triple a ball. Your your

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Speaker 1: pitch improves. Scouts come around. I got hired by CBS

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Speaker 1: for their stations division. We went to Philadelphia. Jane got

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Speaker 1: a job at the local PBS station, and Jane, oh yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we got married while living in Philadelphia. I worked at

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Speaker 1: the CBS station in Philadelphia. I was called up to

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Speaker 1: CBS in New York and I did five years at

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Speaker 1: Channel two w CBS. I was the noon anchor again

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Speaker 1: you'll forgive me bragging with Carol Martin, and for a

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Speaker 1: while I was the chief correspondent at eleven o'clock. I

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Speaker 1: covered the Dinkins years and the Cotch years on the

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Speaker 1: streets of this city. That was a real experience, real experience.

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Speaker 1: What do you think about politicians and how they've changed

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Speaker 1: in their relationship to the media. You hear people always

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Speaker 1: complaining about, you know, you know, the the press to

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Speaker 1: cozy relationship with political leaders and so forth. What's your

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Speaker 1: take on that. I was never a big socializer. I've

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Speaker 1: come to know, no like have a meal or two

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Speaker 1: with one or two politicians. For you. Um, I'm always

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Speaker 1: wary of the third rail of coziness. It's much tougher

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Speaker 1: to take a swing at a friend as it is

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Speaker 1: a political figure whose name you know, you know. One

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Speaker 1: of the most eye opening experiences in life was sitting

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Speaker 1: down with President George W. Bush over lunch at the

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Speaker 1: White House. These presidents, it it turns out, are all

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Speaker 1: quality hangs. They're all really good people. They're all extraordinary

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Speaker 1: people who have the ego to stand in from of

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Speaker 1: a mirror at some point in their life and say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you I want you to run the free world. You've

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Speaker 1: got it. You're gonna do this job. That's it. That's

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Speaker 1: unbelievable in some of the cases, is literally unbelievable. I

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Speaker 1: mean in a world of anchors and actors that you

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Speaker 1: and I know, we know egos, we know narcissism when

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Speaker 1: we see it, and that requires a lot. And it's

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Speaker 1: been fascinating. I love American history. It's been a fascinating

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Speaker 1: ride to have met every one of them. Going back

427
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,399
Speaker 1: to I don't know Reagan, I became pen pals with

428
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:34,119
Speaker 1: Jerry Ford during his retirement I've gotten to know Nancy

429
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,879
Speaker 1: Reagan in the last five years. Something. If you told

430
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 1: my mom that her little baby boy, Brian would some

431
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:44,680
Speaker 1: day get to know or shake hands with any of

432
00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:47,600
Speaker 1: these people. There was a time when I walked through

433
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:50,720
Speaker 1: the Northwest Gate as a White House intern, having no

434
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:53,720
Speaker 1: business there, and then later as a chief White House

435
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:57,200
Speaker 1: correspondent walking through that Northwest Gate every day, and it's

436
00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:04,879
Speaker 1: been an incredible life. Coming up in a minute, Brian

437
00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 1: Williams talks about his daughter Alison's current success on the

438
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:12,640
Speaker 1: hit show Girls, his love of Nascar actually anything going

439
00:25:12,720 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 1: around a circle fast, and his surprisingly difficult decision to

440
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:20,880
Speaker 1: host Saturday Night Live. Lauren gave me a great locker

441
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:26,880
Speaker 1: room speech between dress rehearsal and the live show. Mr Williams,

442
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:29,680
Speaker 1: I think you said you went to a Catholic high

443
00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,760
Speaker 1: school that correct. Did you have a talent night with say,

444
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:38,680
Speaker 1: the parish priest wearing a coconut bra, just making a

445
00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,080
Speaker 1: fool of himself wearing a coconut bra? I said, well,

446
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,080
Speaker 1: we didn't have an actual coconut bra like Bloody Mary

447
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,280
Speaker 1: and South Pacific, but we had a night like that. Yes, Lauren,

448
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:50,760
Speaker 1: I need you to be that priest. I need you

449
00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: to show these people you're willing to make a fool

450
00:25:52,800 --> 00:26:23,280
Speaker 1: out of yourself and be a good sport. This is

451
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,520
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing Today

452
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: with Brian Williams. Although loud personalities with extreme views gobble

453
00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,400
Speaker 1: up more airtime, television news is an industry that still

454
00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:42,280
Speaker 1: rewards unbiased, thoughtful and direct reporting. My work has been

455
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: so cleansed as I see it, as I've tried of

456
00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:49,199
Speaker 1: political opinions over twenty seven years. How do you do it? Uh?

457
00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: Do you have political opinions? I sometimes don't know. I

458
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 1: have the same disappointments in my patriotism as a great

459
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: man once said, I yield to no one. I love

460
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 1: this country, I love the American idea. I have profound

461
00:27:04,840 --> 00:27:07,920
Speaker 1: disappointments in in my country. I feel we ought to

462
00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,520
Speaker 1: be in space. I feel the dismantling of the Man

463
00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:14,040
Speaker 1: space program. Why should we be in space because it

464
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 1: meant so much to us? You mean just symbolically, No, technologically,

465
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:24,800
Speaker 1: there were more advance you know. I sometimes think Postwar America,

466
00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 1: post Vietnam America has kind of become exhausted. I have

467
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:34,520
Speaker 1: another theory that the growth of self. All things self

468
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:39,200
Speaker 1: has taken away our spirit of community. We can do

469
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 1: this cohesion american ness. When an average American citizen has followers,

470
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 1: I know you have your own history with social media.

471
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 1: You take a citizen who works in a restaurant, they

472
00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: now have the preoccupation of followers. There is now someone

473
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,520
Speaker 1: who cares. And this applies to all of us about

474
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:08,200
Speaker 1: our random thoughts, utterances, and that is a growth of

475
00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: self that we haven't cataloged yet. We haven't gotten our

476
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 1: arms around it. The celebration of what you mean. Go

477
00:28:16,720 --> 00:28:19,360
Speaker 1: back in the black and white movies you love from

478
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 1: the forties fifties. Listen to the language. Listen to how

479
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: first person is never used. And now it's how we lead,

480
00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: how we beget every sentence we have. We have individual

481
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,960
Speaker 1: press conferences all day long. We've changed. I tell you

482
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:38,200
Speaker 1: what I'm up to, yes, and then when I pause,

483
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: you tell me what you're up to. All of our

484
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,120
Speaker 1: media begins with a letter I, which is why I

485
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:47,080
Speaker 1: kind of like to use the letter I. I kind

486
00:28:47,120 --> 00:28:51,000
Speaker 1: of like my job. I get to do that part

487
00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 1: of my media life. Old school. No one needs another

488
00:28:56,080 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 1: blowhard yelling Adam. No one gives a rats petuity about

489
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,000
Speaker 1: my opinion in so that's nice that I don't have

490
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 1: to share it. I'd have to form one first on

491
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:08,040
Speaker 1: half of these issues and people, and I can try

492
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 1: to call it down the middle and try to be

493
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: fair about it and do adjust the facts with a

494
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,560
Speaker 1: little fun around the margins. But why do you think?

495
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:20,080
Speaker 1: Why do you think you were different? And so far

496
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,640
Speaker 1: as when I would watch Rather, I could sense very

497
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: much that Rather had his opinions, and I think it

498
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:27,440
Speaker 1: sends very much that could sense very much the Rather

499
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 1: was was straining mightily to contain those opinions in the framework.

500
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,640
Speaker 1: Broke caw as well does Brian Williams lay in bed

501
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 1: at night with his wife and that's when those opinions

502
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: come flying out. Your feelings about or do you you

503
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 1: keep all of that private? Or if you found and

504
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,959
Speaker 1: you because you because you don't exude that at all

505
00:29:45,080 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: on the air. Well, I mean, I've been married for

506
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 1: twenty six years. Jane and I talk about the people

507
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:55,080
Speaker 1: we can't stand either on television in Washington. What frustrates us?

508
00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:59,880
Speaker 1: Uh daughter's boyfriend? Yeah, sure, yeah, we like the guy.

509
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: He's a good guy. Yeah, But is it something you

510
00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:07,520
Speaker 1: consciously have worked to do your predecessors Chronkite probably know,

511
00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 1: and I know we don't need always go Conkite Cronkite,

512
00:30:10,160 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: but but he's got But many people in your business

513
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,320
Speaker 1: you could feel little belches and little fissures of their

514
00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,480
Speaker 1: opinions coming through, or a sense of that, And with

515
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 1: you there's none. Is it something you consciously have tried

516
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: to comb out of your delivery? Yes, I try to

517
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: keep it down the middle. I just don't think anyone

518
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 1: needs that from me a broadcast. You think there's a

519
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: shortage of opinionated media out there these days, and I

520
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: think people are longing to hear what makes your program

521
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,840
Speaker 1: so successful. That's why I watch it. I don't I

522
00:30:40,840 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 1: don't want anything on it is give me. I want

523
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:45,880
Speaker 1: the news now. I have this populist streak. And you know,

524
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 1: tonight we had an item that I ended up killing

525
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: for Time about Australian schools banning birthday cakes with candles

526
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,920
Speaker 1: because of the blowing of germs over the surface of

527
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: the cake, and they're recommending parents bring only a single cupcake.

528
00:31:02,440 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 1: And I said at our editorial meeting this afternoon, well,

529
00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: the world had a good run. You know, we're done.

530
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: We're over. We're done. Just put a candle on us,

531
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: because we're over. When that kind of stuff happens, I

532
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:14,960
Speaker 1: go ahead and I usually we have a portion of

533
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: the broadcast where I can I can have more liberties.

534
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,360
Speaker 1: You know, I do a little I borrow from Seth

535
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,480
Speaker 1: Myers a little bit, a little bit, a little bit

536
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: right there in the middle of NBC Nightly damn News

537
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 1: in a studio famous for the young actor who acted

538
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,360
Speaker 1: in the Doctor's soap office in the studio where we

539
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: do nightly news and Young Alec three's and uh, you know,

540
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 1: a night about a year ago, I said that they

541
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:45,200
Speaker 1: had a problem in a school cafeteria in Lexington, Kentucky.

542
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: Uh something, somebody was stealing food. They set up a webcam.

543
00:31:50,280 --> 00:31:53,280
Speaker 1: The good news is they caught an adult male squirrel

544
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,920
Speaker 1: living in the school kitchen. The bad news is those

545
00:31:57,080 --> 00:32:04,600
Speaker 1: weren't raisins in the rice pudding. Um, and whoever got it,

546
00:32:04,720 --> 00:32:07,560
Speaker 1: got it, whoever didn't. We went by quick. We had

547
00:32:07,600 --> 00:32:11,160
Speaker 1: a moment of fun. It's a serious world. It's a

548
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,160
Speaker 1: crushing worm someday. Good night, everybody, take care of your

549
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: Bartenderson waitress now, you know, you know when you do

550
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: that do you sometimes sit there and say, when Leno's done,

551
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: I want that job. No, I'm at I'm a dilettante.

552
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: I get it out of my system. I call these offices, yeah,

553
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:33,160
Speaker 1: I call them the extracurriculars. I have managed it and

554
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:37,320
Speaker 1: me alone. I've never been asked to appear on one

555
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:41,280
Speaker 1: of these other shows I have done. I think eighteen

556
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: David Letterman John Stewart has had me on a slew

557
00:32:44,280 --> 00:32:47,880
Speaker 1: of times. We have a blast and what it has done,

558
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 1: it has not been a concerted effort. There's no white

559
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 1: board with a strategy. I turn more down than I accept.

560
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon has been very kind to me. The roots

561
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 1: have been very kind to me. Um In the construct

562
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:04,280
Speaker 1: of a twenty two minute newscast, especially in the post

563
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:09,600
Speaker 1: nine eleven, very serious era, you would never know who

564
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 1: I was. My daughter will tell you if the guy

565
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: who anchors nightly news is no one she knows at all.

566
00:33:16,880 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 1: And when Lauren in Oh seven invited me to do SNL,

567
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:26,200
Speaker 1: I did this talmudic six month, I just it would

568
00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:29,360
Speaker 1: crushed me. This decision. I worried that I was gonna

569
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,880
Speaker 1: flush twenty five years of all I knew credibility down

570
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:36,840
Speaker 1: the toilet and I finally I had never met Chevy Chase,

571
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 1: and he was in the hallway, along with the cursory

572
00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:41,480
Speaker 1: to lamas a show girl and whatever is in the

573
00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: hallway upstairs at SNL, I was headed to my final

574
00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:47,720
Speaker 1: meeting with Lauren. I had pulled everyone in my life

575
00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 1: should I host Saturday Night Live? And it was a

576
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 1: It was a resounding yes. Everyone was a cautious yes.

577
00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,200
Speaker 1: And I asked Chevy after I shook my hand and

578
00:33:59,240 --> 00:34:02,400
Speaker 1: introduced myself. His answer was fascinating. He said, I watched

579
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: Dan Rather for twenty years, and the day he retired,

580
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 1: I was no closer to knowing who he was than

581
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,120
Speaker 1: he was the day he started. I think you should

582
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,920
Speaker 1: do it, And so Chevy, in a way he does

583
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:18,799
Speaker 1: not yet know, decided that. And that was a big

584
00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 1: That was a big damn to break in my life.

585
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: The courage that required that is not my trade. I

586
00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: don't know what you do for a living, and I

587
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: don't know how you do it for a living. I

588
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 1: sit home and I want you with my family, with

589
00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:36,760
Speaker 1: Martin Short doing, Tony Bennett and his unknown little brother,

590
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:42,319
Speaker 1: honest to God, being constipated like sitting on a bag

591
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: of tangerines. Come on, he is he Well, first of all,

592
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:48,320
Speaker 1: it's it's that's very kind of you to say. But

593
00:34:48,440 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 1: the the the I think what you since from what

594
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 1: you've been doing is is it is just how much

595
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:56,680
Speaker 1: fun it is. You know, so much of this it's

596
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 1: not fun. It's not it's not horrible. I mean like

597
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,719
Speaker 1: when I would make movies, movie making, when you when

598
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:05,759
Speaker 1: you would do look if you're gonna do Lincoln, when

599
00:35:05,800 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: you're going to have and I was offered, you were

600
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: offered Lincoln. Everyone knows business, Tony Kushner and Spielberg and

601
00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:15,400
Speaker 1: Daniel day Lewis, and you were at the apex of

602
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: the whole game and everything comes together to feed virtuosic

603
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 1: acting great. I mean I I did not have those

604
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:28,240
Speaker 1: kinds of experiences. So it's funny how your broadcasting career

605
00:35:28,880 --> 00:35:31,880
Speaker 1: is not that different from my filmmaking career, where there

606
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,239
Speaker 1: was another thing I had to go do to go

607
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:36,239
Speaker 1: have fun. But think of what it's like. I get

608
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,959
Speaker 1: to walk in as the closer. I get to work

609
00:35:40,080 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 1: with people for whom it's their life's work and be

610
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:47,800
Speaker 1: Joe talk show, comedy dilettante. I get to work with

611
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: the cast of Saturday Night. I get to sit next

612
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:54,840
Speaker 1: to David Letterman and engage him and make Jon Stewart

613
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 1: laugh or die trying. It doesn't matter how you get there.

614
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,360
Speaker 1: It matters what you did and what you leave. But

615
00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:02,760
Speaker 1: it's like walking into the middle of the best school

616
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,800
Speaker 1: assembly ever, the creative kids. And it's fun for me.

617
00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,560
Speaker 1: But it's dilettanti is um, it's uh, it's just another

618
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 1: side of me and the viewers. This is an important point.

619
00:36:15,800 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 1: They know, they know the difference. We had some harrumpas executives.

620
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,040
Speaker 1: We had some executives who got all sweaty. Yeah, how

621
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:24,399
Speaker 1: will we How will they know that they separate? Well,

622
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 1: guess what they know access Hollywood from Nightly News, the

623
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:30,440
Speaker 1: show that comes on after us. They make that clean break,

624
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:33,279
Speaker 1: and they're gonna know if I'm not behind the set

625
00:36:33,440 --> 00:36:36,800
Speaker 1: on nightly News, if I'm coming out from behind Dave's curtain,

626
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:40,920
Speaker 1: or dressed as a farmer on SNL, or dressed as

627
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:46,080
Speaker 1: a lottery winner. Um, they're gonna understand that's the other Brian, Oh,

628
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,920
Speaker 1: that guy who does the news. They don't have to

629
00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:53,239
Speaker 1: like it. Uh, they can watch Diane or Scott Pelley. Uh,

630
00:36:53,400 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 1: they can watch Justin Bieber host SNL. But it's um,

631
00:36:57,640 --> 00:36:59,800
Speaker 1: I get an enormous kick out of it. People have

632
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: very very kind of now when you do those things

633
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,800
Speaker 1: what you call the extracurriculus, and you do have a

634
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,800
Speaker 1: very important job in media. Whose idea was rock Center?

635
00:37:11,880 --> 00:37:13,719
Speaker 1: And why did you put that on your shoulders? It

636
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 1: was the idea of Steve Burke, our new CEO came

637
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:21,319
Speaker 1: in when Comcast bought the majority share of NBC. He Uh,

638
00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:23,680
Speaker 1: the first meeting he had with me said I think

639
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:27,680
Speaker 1: you're underutilized. That was a very flattering quote, but that

640
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 1: was the quote. And so was he trying to take

641
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:31,960
Speaker 1: in your mind? Was he trying to take some of

642
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:35,399
Speaker 1: the charm what you invest in other things you're doing.

643
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,800
Speaker 1: Did you want to make this the extracurricular Yeah? I

644
00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,880
Speaker 1: think he wanted to get in some more of my interests,

645
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,800
Speaker 1: not not the kind of take my wife, please, but

646
00:37:46,080 --> 00:37:49,640
Speaker 1: do try prime time, try longer form, cross talk with

647
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:52,400
Speaker 1: some of the correspondence, just back from the stories, do

648
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:57,960
Speaker 1: something else. The viewership has been fluctua waiting. We've been

649
00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 1: bounced around for five time slots were now Friday's at

650
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:04,879
Speaker 1: ten PM and towards once a week to stay. Yeah,

651
00:38:05,320 --> 00:38:08,799
Speaker 1: and an hour of television is some weeks an absolute

652
00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:12,080
Speaker 1: second job. And what's been the biggest lesson for you

653
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:15,840
Speaker 1: about doing Rock Center? Ah, that prime time is different.

654
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:17,840
Speaker 1: It's not for the faint of heart. A lot of

655
00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:21,120
Speaker 1: very good people have died trying a lot of gallant

656
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 1: projects have died trying. And you have to find a

657
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:30,279
Speaker 1: way of doing very good television news pieces, interesting television

658
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:35,320
Speaker 1: news pieces without giving in to an entertainment format. You

659
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:37,840
Speaker 1: could easily say it's Friday night at ten o'clock. You know,

660
00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 1: people are, they're tired from the week. Give them a break.

661
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:49,480
Speaker 1: Do poppies? Do starlets? Do starlets who have had bad

662
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,080
Speaker 1: photo exposures on red carpets? And we're not going to

663
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: do that because we you know, we'll keep doing what

664
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:59,640
Speaker 1: we do and hopefully it will find an audience. Look,

665
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:02,960
Speaker 1: I did six years at MSNBC when I could have

666
00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:08,200
Speaker 1: walked down any major city street and got just talking loudly,

667
00:39:09,120 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 1: had a larger audience. In the early days, we were

668
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,120
Speaker 1: literally in like something like twenty cable homes. That didn't

669
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:18,000
Speaker 1: matter to me. I was doing something. I was writing

670
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:21,000
Speaker 1: an hour long primetime newscast every night. I was getting better,

671
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:24,400
Speaker 1: you know, in the in the words of John Cougar Mellencamp,

672
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,719
Speaker 1: we were young and we were improving. What do you

673
00:39:27,840 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 1: think about the media online? I mean, I'm assuming you

674
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:35,640
Speaker 1: have your menu of what you know? You read the Times,

675
00:39:35,719 --> 00:39:38,160
Speaker 1: and do you read everything online? Or you a paper person?

676
00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:40,840
Speaker 1: I read a lot. I saw Tina Brown recently admit

677
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:45,719
Speaker 1: read online online or coy I wake up. I have

678
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 1: a paper copy of the New York Post. I'll admit it.

679
00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:51,120
Speaker 1: Paper copy of the New York Times, which I I

680
00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 1: do the New York thing. I stick sections in my

681
00:39:53,239 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 1: briefcase and they attract silverfish over the last couple of years. No,

682
00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,399
Speaker 1: I'm kidding, but I get to them when I can.

683
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,880
Speaker 1: And uh, I read. I'm always aware of what's on

684
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:06,160
Speaker 1: the Times website. You read the Post? Why do you

685
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:07,919
Speaker 1: read the Post? I read the Post, the daily News.

686
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:09,960
Speaker 1: I've been you just read all the New York papers. Yeah,

687
00:40:10,239 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 1: this is a habit. Yeah, you'd be you'd beat the

688
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Eagle if it was still coming out. Yeah, but

689
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,680
Speaker 1: you know I I I read page six like everybody,

690
00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:20,320
Speaker 1: and like everybody who doesn't admit reading page six, and

691
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,960
Speaker 1: I read the sports section. If it's around, I don't

692
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,000
Speaker 1: necessarily go get it. Yeah, but do you have any

693
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:27,920
Speaker 1: history with the New York Post? With none, I've been

694
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 1: I've been really lucky. I've laid low. You know. I

695
00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:33,120
Speaker 1: like reading the New York Tabs sports section after the

696
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,040
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and you know, wondering who post has a

697
00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 1: great sports section? Yeah, who was going to hit Jim

698
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 1: Nance over the head first. It's just I don't know.

699
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 1: It's part of living here. But I'm always aware of

700
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: what's on the Time's website, dirty guilty, huffing the posts. Yes,

701
00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:51,200
Speaker 1: not as much as I used to that. I don't

702
00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 1: click through. I get angry at the headlines. I get

703
00:40:53,520 --> 00:40:55,759
Speaker 1: I wonder what she's done there. I mean, obviously she's

704
00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:58,960
Speaker 1: passed it. Yeah, I just I didn't. I didn't want

705
00:40:58,960 --> 00:41:02,359
Speaker 1: to see the uh, you know, pictures of and we're

706
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 1: gonna get to this later. It could be your daughter

707
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:07,200
Speaker 1: next where it's like Silobe. Everything is like a shot

708
00:41:07,239 --> 00:41:09,520
Speaker 1: of Kate Hudson, this one, that one popping out of

709
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 1: their dress, wardrobe malfunction, my pleasure, Bryant um. But but

710
00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:20,040
Speaker 1: the uh, well, let's get to that subject, which is um,

711
00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:25,200
Speaker 1: your daughter is gorgeous, thank you, and she's talented. I

712
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:27,680
Speaker 1: say thank you like and she's gorgeous than you, and

713
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 1: she's talented, thank you. She's a great and but at

714
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 1: the same time, at the same time, she's a young

715
00:41:34,719 --> 00:41:38,080
Speaker 1: woman who is speaking to on that show. I mean

716
00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:40,400
Speaker 1: that's not just the purpose of the show is to

717
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:43,200
Speaker 1: be entertaining and funny, but they do speak in a

718
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:46,160
Speaker 1: language that is the contemporary young woman. Do you sometimes

719
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 1: watch that show with your wife and like you grab

720
00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:49,359
Speaker 1: each other by the forum and go, oh my god,

721
00:41:49,800 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: don't we watched the whole bunch of us? Uh? Do

722
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,439
Speaker 1: you have an HBO is sometimes nice enough to share

723
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,400
Speaker 1: a cluster of the next episodes, And when her brother's

724
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:01,959
Speaker 1: home from college, we watch the thing is she came

725
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 1: out of the womb doing there's no she just we

726
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:11,360
Speaker 1: always yeah, she's my mom long enough to see this.

727
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 1: But she's my mom, so uh. And she's also my wife,

728
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:19,920
Speaker 1: and she's she's so many things. She's also a kid

729
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:23,840
Speaker 1: who flew through Yale. She's a kid as good at improv,

730
00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:28,560
Speaker 1: can do an improv musical. If you yell out one word,

731
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,360
Speaker 1: she'll compose it, sing it, write the plot as she

732
00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 1: performs while you watch. I thought her first talent that

733
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:38,360
Speaker 1: the public saw was gonna be singing. She has a

734
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:41,720
Speaker 1: voice like a bird, like an angel, and so she's

735
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:44,719
Speaker 1: she having a good time. She's having a blast. And

736
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:49,320
Speaker 1: she's been given this material by Lena, by Jenny Connor

737
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 1: and Judd, but mostly Lena's vision. And the people who

738
00:42:54,560 --> 00:42:57,000
Speaker 1: come up to me now and say, I'm a Marnie,

739
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:02,480
Speaker 1: I'm I'm such a Arnie And I love watching Allison

740
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:06,480
Speaker 1: and it's it's it's overwhelming. What does she does? She?

741
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 1: I mean that that show obviously won't last forever. I mean,

742
00:43:10,120 --> 00:43:11,239
Speaker 1: what does she want to do? Is she gonna go

743
00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:13,359
Speaker 1: out there La, She's gonna make films, She's gonna think

744
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 1: she would love of future in feature films. But recognizes

745
00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:24,319
Speaker 1: this for everything. It is a fantastic platform. As my people,

746
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:27,840
Speaker 1: the Irish Catholics say, I'm felling all the time. I

747
00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:31,520
Speaker 1: was doing a film once and Rob Briner, although this

748
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:34,160
Speaker 1: doesn't relate to TV as much, but there's a there's

749
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,799
Speaker 1: a a comparison to be made. And Rob Briner said

750
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:40,720
Speaker 1: to me, he said, I had to do a speech,

751
00:43:41,120 --> 00:43:43,480
Speaker 1: a very long courtroom of speech. And this movie goes

752
00:43:43,560 --> 00:43:45,239
Speaker 1: to Mississippi that I did with him about the Med

753
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 1: Grevers murder trial, and in his inimitable New York accident,

754
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,000
Speaker 1: he said, do you mind doing it again? I want

755
00:43:53,040 --> 00:43:54,960
Speaker 1: to go again. I know it's a long speech, it's

756
00:43:55,000 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: like three pages long, but I want to put a

757
00:43:57,680 --> 00:44:01,000
Speaker 1: camera in the back of the court whom and shoot

758
00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,319
Speaker 1: you doing the speech again. Just one take will just burn,

759
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:07,319
Speaker 1: you know, one take, maybe two. It's been a long day.

760
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:09,640
Speaker 1: We've covered it from every angle. We'll just do one more.

761
00:44:10,080 --> 00:44:11,400
Speaker 1: I go, I don't mind, I said, it would be

762
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:13,680
Speaker 1: Greating goes. Yeah, I understand how you feeling. How you feel,

763
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,480
Speaker 1: he said, You've got a good piece of material. You

764
00:44:16,560 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: want to do it, You do it all day. You

765
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 1: don't care, he said, because you know your next movie,

766
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:23,000
Speaker 1: you're you're gonna have one line all day, and the

767
00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:26,719
Speaker 1: line's gonna be get down, Everyone, get down as you're

768
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 1: firing the gun in the parking structure. And the same

769
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:33,600
Speaker 1: is true in that comparison and contrast between film and television,

770
00:44:33,719 --> 00:44:35,680
Speaker 1: which is you want to go into film, if you

771
00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 1: want to go into film, and you want to make movies,

772
00:44:37,400 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: but they're not all Spielberg and Lincoln and Tony Kushner,

773
00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:45,920
Speaker 1: what about you? Do you I'm addicted to kind of

774
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:50,400
Speaker 1: projecting my own psychological machinations on other people. And I

775
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,080
Speaker 1: look at you and I think you're gonna do this

776
00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:54,960
Speaker 1: job until you're dead. Is it is like it is

777
00:44:55,040 --> 00:44:58,080
Speaker 1: indefinite to you when you just do it indefinitely. You're young.

778
00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:04,839
Speaker 1: I'm fifty th and younger. Thank you. Like you, I'm

779
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:09,320
Speaker 1: trying to take care of myself. Um, I'll be doing something.

780
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:13,040
Speaker 1: I do have a deal with my wife that when

781
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:17,040
Speaker 1: it's time, she's going to tap on her right forearm

782
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:20,360
Speaker 1: as a baseball manager would asking for someone from the bullpen,

783
00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:23,640
Speaker 1: and we're gonna go, and I'm gonna go and kind

784
00:45:23,680 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 1: of not come back and leave it walk away. You know,

785
00:45:28,239 --> 00:45:30,319
Speaker 1: there is such a thing. It's as staying too long

786
00:45:30,400 --> 00:45:35,360
Speaker 1: at the fair. And um, I can also be happy

787
00:45:36,360 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 1: editing a town blog somewhere, as long as I'm around

788
00:45:41,440 --> 00:45:44,200
Speaker 1: things that are happening, reading news on the web, able

789
00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:47,680
Speaker 1: to write something. The siren in the back of my

790
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:51,280
Speaker 1: head is we have a little place on the Jersey shore.

791
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,839
Speaker 1: And it's all I ever really wanted from a life

792
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:59,759
Speaker 1: that's been beyond a dream sequence in a movie was

793
00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:02,239
Speaker 1: to go back and plant a flag in the sand

794
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:04,600
Speaker 1: of the Jersey shore. And that's kind of where I

795
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 1: see happy days, you know, when you have a happy

796
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 1: place to go and a and a nice loving situation

797
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:13,680
Speaker 1: at home and now a daughter to watch. And my

798
00:46:13,719 --> 00:46:16,520
Speaker 1: son's gonna come rocketing out of college. He's looking forward.

799
00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:19,920
Speaker 1: What's doing. He wants to do sports journalism on television.

800
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:22,480
Speaker 1: And he's really good, and he's got a He's a

801
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:25,880
Speaker 1: great kid with a ton of personality. You know, sometimes

802
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 1: I say, could you guys have chosen like insurance or something,

803
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:32,239
Speaker 1: could you get your own line of work? But you know,

804
00:46:32,320 --> 00:46:38,400
Speaker 1: Alison could not have done anything. Well, she's a fine human.

805
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: Your son, he's going to be finished when Douglas Williams,

806
00:46:41,520 --> 00:46:44,040
Speaker 1: the male heir to the Williams fortune, is finished. In

807
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:47,319
Speaker 1: late May. He just came home from college for a week,

808
00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:50,600
Speaker 1: did his first round a job, interviews, entry level stuff,

809
00:46:50,640 --> 00:46:55,240
Speaker 1: looking for night shifts, day shifts, writing for breasts, shooting

810
00:46:55,280 --> 00:46:59,160
Speaker 1: his own stuff. That's our poor children, because my wife's

811
00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:02,840
Speaker 1: trajectory is a like mine. They've had this work ethic

812
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:05,640
Speaker 1: speech like one of your films. Oh my god, I

813
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:07,640
Speaker 1: know their life, am I not me too? So they're

814
00:47:07,680 --> 00:47:10,120
Speaker 1: just doomed, I said, I said, my daughter, my ex

815
00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:12,880
Speaker 1: wife and I. I mean, we laid it on him

816
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:17,600
Speaker 1: and you you I would out Tom Joad, Tom Joad,

817
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:21,200
Speaker 1: we're talking about it. I'm like, do you understand what

818
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:23,800
Speaker 1: life was like for me when I was your age

819
00:47:24,640 --> 00:47:29,480
Speaker 1: growing up in massive Piqua. My mother made me wash

820
00:47:29,680 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 1: my own football uniform. Well, a lot of it is

821
00:47:32,560 --> 00:47:35,279
Speaker 1: just cultural and how much things have changed and how

822
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:39,239
Speaker 1: much kids know. I was in adulthood before I knew

823
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 1: what the Ivy League was, before I knew what a

824
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:45,280
Speaker 1: prep school was. Again, before I knew there were fresh vegetables.

825
00:47:45,320 --> 00:47:47,920
Speaker 1: It's just it's it was my worldview. I was working.

826
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:50,320
Speaker 1: I thought I was always just going to be working.

827
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:53,799
Speaker 1: I've always worked. I've always had as many jobs as

828
00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:56,759
Speaker 1: I could have. And that's what you do. You work,

829
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:00,440
Speaker 1: you die, And if you're really lucky to spend some

830
00:48:00,520 --> 00:48:02,840
Speaker 1: summers on the Jersey Shore, your wife's going to be

831
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:06,640
Speaker 1: the one that's gonna tap. Yeah, Well, I think we'll know.

832
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:09,640
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of living. I and we

833
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:11,920
Speaker 1: want to do a lot of places we want to go.

834
00:48:12,160 --> 00:48:14,719
Speaker 1: Do you and she liked to do? Were your European

835
00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:18,840
Speaker 1: travelers travels of any kind. That sounds very Parillo have

836
00:48:19,000 --> 00:48:23,400
Speaker 1: your bags out at nine am now, But my parents

837
00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:25,839
Speaker 1: used to go on Perillo tours. Just not our cup

838
00:48:25,880 --> 00:48:28,520
Speaker 1: of team. Um no, we just I mean like we

839
00:48:28,640 --> 00:48:30,799
Speaker 1: went out to Utah for four days and just sat

840
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,840
Speaker 1: there and just did nothing. Because it's the anchor of

841
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:38,200
Speaker 1: the NBC Nightly News and your view, you view European

842
00:48:38,239 --> 00:48:40,840
Speaker 1: travelers kind of snobbish. No, no, no, we never have

843
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: the time. You have time, but would you would you

844
00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:46,120
Speaker 1: like to have time? Yes, we'd love to have time,

845
00:48:46,160 --> 00:48:48,000
Speaker 1: and that's part of our figuring. You know, there's a

846
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:49,480
Speaker 1: lot I want to do. I want to take an

847
00:48:49,520 --> 00:48:52,920
Speaker 1: insanely fast car across the Bonneville Salt Flats before I

848
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:55,759
Speaker 1: Don't you do love this Nascar thing? Oh yeah, why

849
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:58,760
Speaker 1: I just I've My dad took me to the Shaman

850
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,640
Speaker 1: County speed Drone in in Horseheads, New York when I

851
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:05,800
Speaker 1: was a little kid Moriday night races to watch the

852
00:49:05,880 --> 00:49:08,800
Speaker 1: Bodine Brothers race. I'll watch anything go around on a

853
00:49:08,800 --> 00:49:10,359
Speaker 1: circle too. Fan. What's the name of the place near

854
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:13,640
Speaker 1: aal Myra, Chamun County speed Rome? It was called I

855
00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:15,279
Speaker 1: think it's now just the fair ground, is it an

856
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:17,600
Speaker 1: amazing that. The thing I'm going to take away in

857
00:49:17,800 --> 00:49:20,560
Speaker 1: this interview, I when I look at you, you you

858
00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:23,800
Speaker 1: have You're a very very very important person to me.

859
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,040
Speaker 1: Be a news jucky. You're you know, it's like pitching

860
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:31,359
Speaker 1: for the Yankees. I'm not chattered. I'm just sitting there thinking.

861
00:49:31,800 --> 00:49:36,399
Speaker 1: Brian Williams, the anchor of the NBC Nightly News, when

862
00:49:36,480 --> 00:49:39,320
Speaker 1: his wife indicates it it's time to retire. They're not

863
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:42,440
Speaker 1: going to Rome, They're not going to Madrid. They're going

864
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:48,279
Speaker 1: to the Chimunk County Motor Speedway. Yeah, oh yeah, that's

865
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:51,160
Speaker 1: all we have time for Tonight. I recommend Walled Township

866
00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:53,640
Speaker 1: Speedway on the Jersey Shore for a great Friday night.

867
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:55,680
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take your word for it. One third of

868
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,799
Speaker 1: a mile paved oval, great action under the lights. I'm

869
00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,719
Speaker 1: telling you for your admission charge, there's no more a

870
00:50:01,880 --> 00:50:03,440
Speaker 1: great night of energy. You know what I want to

871
00:50:03,480 --> 00:50:05,359
Speaker 1: do one day? I'm gonna say this right now. Will

872
00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:06,759
Speaker 1: you come with me? If I thought I was going

873
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:09,399
Speaker 1: to have dinner with you and your wife, I would

874
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:13,239
Speaker 1: have thought the Four Seasons restaurant, and we go see

875
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:16,759
Speaker 1: something at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I get an

876
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,200
Speaker 1: suv with a bunch of bodyguards. We go out to Bam.

877
00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:21,799
Speaker 1: But no, we're going to the what the Wall trip?

878
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 1: What's it called? Right? First of all, you'll get an suv,

879
00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:27,640
Speaker 1: I drive a Chevy Yukon and you'll have dinner, maybe

880
00:50:27,760 --> 00:50:29,680
Speaker 1: on our deck in Jersey, or we'll take you to

881
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:31,880
Speaker 1: a favorite place. But then we'll cap off the evening.

882
00:50:32,239 --> 00:50:35,239
Speaker 1: Around dusk they start the first heat races and then

883
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: the main races. After dark, we'll go to the Wall

884
00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:40,759
Speaker 1: Township Speedway Route thirty four. This is family racing. I

885
00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:44,879
Speaker 1: raised my kids going to small tracks, saying never criticize

886
00:50:44,880 --> 00:50:48,240
Speaker 1: a driver because there's a very good chance their parents,

887
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:50,440
Speaker 1: a family member, a friend is sitting in front of

888
00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:55,440
Speaker 1: us or behind us at a small track. It's absolutely heaven.

889
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:58,560
Speaker 1: You really haven't lost touch with your roots, have you? Well, no,

890
00:50:58,719 --> 00:51:00,920
Speaker 1: it's my kid from Ridgewood is for me. I completely

891
00:51:01,000 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: sold out. My idea this summer is to be on

892
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:06,440
Speaker 1: a boat and try to find, like, have a meal

893
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 1: with Plimpton or someone I wanted to do with some

894
00:51:08,360 --> 00:51:10,799
Speaker 1: kind of the Other thing that's changed in the time

895
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:13,080
Speaker 1: you and I have been in the game is haters.

896
00:51:13,680 --> 00:51:19,440
Speaker 1: The rise of haters being as close as a send button.

897
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 1: Comments on the Internet are the cheapest currency there is.

898
00:51:24,239 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 1: The most hurtful thing is someone thinking you're a fake

899
00:51:29,960 --> 00:51:35,439
Speaker 1: populist when you're a rich guy. And at route, I'm

900
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:39,359
Speaker 1: a populist who's had to fake being a rich guy

901
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:43,759
Speaker 1: who has I'm surrounded by fancy people and people wanting

902
00:51:43,840 --> 00:51:47,040
Speaker 1: to sell me very nice clothing and all that. But

903
00:51:47,200 --> 00:51:49,879
Speaker 1: I you know, this week I got a phone call

904
00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:53,239
Speaker 1: from a guy who was my lieutenant at the Old

905
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:57,520
Speaker 1: Village Fire Company in Middletown. Firehouse needs a new generator.

906
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:01,440
Speaker 1: We're wondering if you donate one post Sandy. And I

907
00:52:01,560 --> 00:52:04,840
Speaker 1: say to Mike Lee, like, twenty years haven't passed. You

908
00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:07,680
Speaker 1: can't get that money out of the township still as

909
00:52:07,680 --> 00:52:09,279
Speaker 1: we used to go door to door and solicit money

910
00:52:09,320 --> 00:52:11,680
Speaker 1: for our our engine company. And he said, no, it's unbelievable.

911
00:52:11,719 --> 00:52:14,040
Speaker 1: Can you believe it? And you know, I'm so happy

912
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,560
Speaker 1: to be able to donate a jenny to my old

913
00:52:16,760 --> 00:52:20,160
Speaker 1: fire But I can go back like that much easier

914
00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 1: than I can walk into certain social circles here in

915
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:26,880
Speaker 1: New York or any fancy I've never I feel the

916
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:31,440
Speaker 1: same way I've I think one thing that you and

917
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,480
Speaker 1: I haven't come and that is it's a decision you make.

918
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:38,400
Speaker 1: It's it's like, literally to me, it's always the same image.

919
00:52:38,719 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 1: And then as I'm in a ski shoot, I'm in

920
00:52:41,560 --> 00:52:43,720
Speaker 1: the shoot of a ski run, of a black diamond

921
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:46,759
Speaker 1: ski run, of a very very tough ski run, and

922
00:52:46,840 --> 00:52:49,680
Speaker 1: I say to myself, there's only one way down, and

923
00:52:49,760 --> 00:52:51,279
Speaker 1: I get a sense that you're the same way, which

924
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:54,320
Speaker 1: is that we you know, we as much as we're like,

925
00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:56,439
Speaker 1: pinch me, pinch me, pinch me. One of the ways

926
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 1: we succeeded was we just jumped out of the plane

927
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:00,560
Speaker 1: and we pulled the ripcord and we just took it

928
00:53:00,680 --> 00:53:02,400
Speaker 1: one step at a time, and we turn around the

929
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:08,160
Speaker 1: next you know. Yeah, there's I got this syndrome, I guess,

930
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:11,359
Speaker 1: I do say to myself and to others, Yes, I can.

931
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:14,640
Speaker 1: I've got this. And I don't know where that unbridled

932
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:19,840
Speaker 1: confidence came from. And I've done some ridiculously stupid things

933
00:53:19,960 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 1: under that banner, like being in a helicopter. I have

934
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:26,960
Speaker 1: no business being in in Iraq with rounds coming into

935
00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:33,040
Speaker 1: the airframe. But I don't think you would die briefly. Sure,

936
00:53:33,120 --> 00:53:39,000
Speaker 1: there have been probably hand, But can you tell yourself

937
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 1: that's the job? Oh? Absolutely, you have still job and

938
00:53:43,880 --> 00:53:48,480
Speaker 1: not go and sense and cover and feel these dual

939
00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:54,040
Speaker 1: wars that we have asked these millions of terrific Americans

940
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 1: to go fight and they've raised their ends and volunteered

941
00:53:56,680 --> 00:54:00,120
Speaker 1: for the honor of it would be uh malprac this.

942
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:03,320
Speaker 1: But on an average night, when the red light comes on,

943
00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:08,120
Speaker 1: two things happen. Our announcer is Michael Douglas. You know

944
00:54:08,360 --> 00:54:11,719
Speaker 1: this is NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. And I

945
00:54:11,840 --> 00:54:14,320
Speaker 1: hear that, and a part of me every night of

946
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:19,320
Speaker 1: my life says, wow, that's funny. This podcast is anchored

947
00:54:19,400 --> 00:54:22,719
Speaker 1: by someone with my name, because they sure as hell

948
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:26,040
Speaker 1: and the light comes on, I'm on, and then the

949
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:36,720
Speaker 1: I've got this gene kicks in, host of the NBC

950
00:54:37,000 --> 00:54:40,160
Speaker 1: Nightly News and Rock Center. You know where to find

951
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:43,080
Speaker 1: Brian Williams on the weekend. So I'm gonna come see

952
00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:45,480
Speaker 1: the speed right, I would love it. I will host

953
00:54:45,520 --> 00:54:49,080
Speaker 1: you Township Speedway Route thirty four in Wall Township, New

954
00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:52,480
Speaker 1: Jersey off the Garden State Parkway. How do we sign

955
00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:55,480
Speaker 1: up again? I hope to see you right back here

956
00:54:55,520 --> 00:55:03,800
Speaker 1: tomorrow night. This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to

957
00:55:04,040 --> 00:55:04,839
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing