WEBVTT - Brian Williams 0:00:02.600 --> 0:00:05.760 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing. 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:13.760 If you watched the NBC Nightly News with anchor Brian 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.280 Williams during Hurricane Katrina, you saw a newsman both composed 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:22.560 and compassionate. People are dying inside the city of New 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:27.160 Orleans today and that city has descended further into chaos tonight. 0:00:27.480 --> 0:00:30.480 It was his first year on the job, and Williams 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.680 was the only network news anchor to report on Katrina 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.240 and its impact from inside the super Dome. The Brian 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:40.240 family was sitting in the stands with thousands of others, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:50.360 sound asleep when the noise started. It sounded like a 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.120 New York City subway train. Others said they thought it 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:56.240 was thunder or someone hammering, and in a way it was. 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.480 It was Katrina hammering away at the roof trying to 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:04.280 get in. NBC Nightly News has more viewers than any 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:07.280 other news program in the country, and average of ten 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:10.600 million people tune in every day to watch Brian Williams 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.560 and his team report on the day's top stories. Williams 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.199 has to be ready for anything. His briefcase always holds 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:21.760 a laptop, a passport, and a flashlight because he can't 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.520 predict when or where he'll be called upon to follow 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.920 a story. On the evening of August thirty one, he 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.720 was in the hospital as a visitor. I lost a 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.640 very good friend to Agent Orange related cancer. I was 0:01:35.720 --> 0:01:39.200 in the hospital room with him. It was a Saturday night. 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:43.520 I had just done weekend nightly news. My pager in 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.199 those days went off, Diana carr accident Paris. I called 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:49.440 the office. They said, you'd better get in here. And 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.600 I had no idea that I would be announcing to 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.000 what was then. I mean, they plugged us into cable 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.720 all over Europe. I have people wherever I go to 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:00.120 this day say I was with you the one an 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:02.720 a dte Yes. So I was what's that like for 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:05.720 someone in your position where you have that kind of 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.280 experience like Crown Kite with JFK and you've got the 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.079 breaking story that goes all the way around the world 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:17.320 and it's you. I'm a very emotional guy, and I 0:02:17.400 --> 0:02:20.399 often get a catch in my voice. I'm a very 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.400 patriotic guy. I kind of have a little schmaltz in me, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:27.760 I guess, And so when I announced that I have 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.240 to kind of get ready and dig my heel into 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:33.919 my ankle under the desk and try to be tough. 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.480 My director, longtime director Brett Holey of Nightly News, often 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:41.520 knows to go to voiceover. He he will take a 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.400 picture rather than showing me on camera when I'm in 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:48.080 a sad place. The night of Newtown, I found it 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.600 highly difficult to get through the broadcast nine eleven. My 0:02:52.720 --> 0:02:56.399 country had been shaken. So I have the same emotions 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.200 as everybody else, and there's no time to practice. You're 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.079 going to say you're making up the verbage as you go. Obviously, 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:06.160 when you do that job, I'm assuming you've got to 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.240 have people around you you trust. You know, there's people 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.960 who have done that job and have not succeeded, And 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.240 I wonder is that they don't succeed because they don't 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.799 have the right team with them. Well, the first thing 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.280 I did was get the blessing of Tom Brokaw, and 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:25.000 this has been extraordinary in a business where bodies are 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.320 stacked out back normally and you pass all the dead 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:30.880 would be future anchors in the hallway of a network. 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.359 I had a situation with a guy who went out 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:36.040 and got me. We had a meeting one night in 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:37.920 a New York Hotel. I was on local news in 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.400 New York and Tom said that he was nearing the 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:41.960 age when he had to think about who was going 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.560 to take over and what I consider it. Why do 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:47.320 you think he said that, I don't know. I went 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.560 around the corner, and in those days we use those 0:03:49.680 --> 0:03:54.000 massive toaster oven sized motor Rola cell phones. I called 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:58.200 my wife and I said, either I'm getting played or 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.080 Tom Brokaw wants me to in line to take over 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:05.880 for him. I don't know. There are dozens of perfectly 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.320 or better qualified people in this world. I am probably 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:14.120 the most unremarkable holder of my job ever, and certainly 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:19.679 educationally the least prepared. So uh, I just shows ratings 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:21.719 have been very strong during the time you've done it. 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.600 I try to make it personal. It's taken me a 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:29.040 long time. I kept Tom's staff. I inherited the number 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.240 one newscast in America. They were doing nothing wrong and 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.239 everything right. So if you worked for Tom, you worked 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.400 for me. I brought no one in. I was his 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:41.640 understudy for eight years, a terrific position. I learned from 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:46.599 the master. Everything I enjoy in life today is attributable 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.240 to the fact that he made sure I was where 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:52.160 I needed to be at every given time. When it 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.719 was time to become chief White House correspondent, he said, 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.320 go south, young man, and on and on and on 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.760 with the years were your chief White House course? What 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.200 was that? The shank of the Clinton administration, the very middle, 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.720 including the mid term, the Gingish ascension. That's right, I 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.640 was on the flight that did in New Gingrich. He 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:14.400 complained that he didn't have a meeting with Bill Clinton. 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:17.640 Were coming home from the Rabine funeral. I chose to 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.080 stay up all night, and I saw the President come 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:23.719 into the conference room directly in front of my seat. 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.880 I saw a meeting per se take place. It was 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:31.919 an extraordinary airplane flight. I will occasionally do weird things 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.080 like decide everyone else in the press corps is asleep, 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.560 why don't I be the one to stay up all 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:39.839 night and see what I can see? Because I'll never 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:42.600 be on a flight like this again. But what was 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:49.800 your take on Clinton? Uh? Wide ranging, insatiable. Uh A 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.479 a very disciplined man with an obvious and palpable lack 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.080 of mental discipline. In other areas, It's an honor to 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.240 cover any presidency. To fly on that plane. Did he 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.919 deal with the press. Uh. He knew that I was 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:06.080 a fellow night owl and some of the best conversations 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.360 I had. He would walk around the aircraft people were 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.680 zunked coming back from you know, Kiev on an overnight flight. 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.919 He would see what movies were playing in which cabins, 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.560 and these presidents when you cover them into this day 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.800 and my job, there are off the record opportunities lunches, 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:25.800 dinners that you have so they can explain themselves more 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.560 easily to you. You can get in their head a 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.719 little bit. Never to offer advice, obviously, just to listen. 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:38.360 Both sides democratic, absolutely, And so when you leave in 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.159 where do you go? I go to found a new 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:46.200 network in Secaucus, New Jersey called MSNBC. A couple of 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.719 days into that effort, a flight crashed in the Atlantic 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.600 off East Moriwitch's Long Island, t w A. Three nights 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.120 into the birth of this network, we are handed a 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.560 huge breaking news story. Our graphics department was off the clock, 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.479 and I had someone go out and get a Rand 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:09.440 McNally road atlas out of their trunk, and I had 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.680 to hold up a map of Long Island and point 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.280 with my finger to where the jet had gone in 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.560 the water again. With the absent of any graphics, all 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.679 we have to go on is a a rather crude 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:26.960 uh Rand McNally map showing New York's Long Island uh. 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.640 When asked to report on his own life, Williams describes 0:07:30.720 --> 0:07:34.680 his early years as a grindingly middle class upbringing. I 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:39.720 did not know vegetables came fresh. I thought they were 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:44.240 frozen bricks in the field. Salad was one eighth of 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.440 a head of iceberg let us sliced with a steak knife, 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.720 with a spoonful dollop of mayonnaise on the top. My 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:56.840 mother's ghoulash was one can spaghettios and one quarter pound 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:01.160 ground beef. We had spam. We had what everybody else had. 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:03.280 You grew up in New Jersey. Right was in Ridgewood, 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.520 New Jersey. Born in Ridgewood, New Jersey. We moved for 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:08.840 the first eight or nine years of my life to Elmira, 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:10.920 New York, and then most of my life was spent 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:13.160 in Middletown, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, which your 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:17.440 dad in the television business. My dad uh former manager 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.520 of John Wannamaker department store in Philly. He took a 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:23.360 job with Corning Glass and Corning, New York. We lived 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:27.400 in adjacent Elmira. Got fired with a slew of executives 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.080 in a purge of Corning, and then really bounced from 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.400 job to job. Had a tough time heart attack at 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.040 fifty that sent us back to the Jersey Shore where 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.160 he could at least find work in New York City. 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.880 But we had some rough financial times after that. And 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:45.600 when you were growing up, what was the your relationship 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:47.600 to the news and to media where you a news 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.080 junkie when you were a kid. Dinner could not start 0:08:50.280 --> 0:08:54.200 in our household until Walter Cronkite said, that's the way 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:57.640 it is. We watched it as a communal event. My 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:01.000 father would bring home from the train the Jersey Shoreline. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.080 Obviously at times, the Post, the Daily News. He had 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.160 women's wear daily because he worked in the trade. There 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.800 was just stuff around. I started reading the New York 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:15.000 Times when I got my working papers at the age 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:19.560 of fourteen and haven't stopped. And when you went to school, 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.880 you went to school was in an eye toured going 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:25.440 into broadcasting and going into journalism. I didn't think it 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.480 was attainable. I had May she Rest in peace, A 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.640 and a bulliant Irish Catholic mother who was the corpse 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:35.560 at every funeral and the bride at every wedding and 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:39.880 was a an amateur little theater actress, always believed in 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.560 her baby boy, Brian. I remember when Channel four in 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:47.920 New York hired some new reporters. I remember it distinctly, 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.280 was living in New Jersey. And she pointed to the 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.959 set at one of them, still in the business. By 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:57.640 the way, I'm not gonna say, and said, you can 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:00.280 do better than you know. I see, okay, I just 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.960 know you can do better than him. Chuck won't mind 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:09.920 if you say that. We're here with Alec Baldwin. And 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.360 she said that she believed that, and I think that 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.760 stayed with me, and against all odds, I pursued this 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:21.200 in just crazy dream that I couldn't share with anybody 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.560 because it was outlandish. I mean, I'm a volunteer fireman 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.040 in Jersey. I can't sit around with those guys saying, fellas, 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.000 here's what you don't know about me in the future, 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.679 here's what I intend to do. It just wouldn't have 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.040 made any sense. None of this makes any sense. How 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:40.079 does it begin. I went to a Catholic high school. 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.520 I went to the local community college. I was a towny. 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:46.120 I had applied for a civil service job as the 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:50.800 nighttime Mammath County Police fire dispatcher out of Freehold. But 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:52.920 my life took a turn. A buddy of mine took 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.319 me to Washington, d c. Tony Loveglia. Everybody has a 0:10:56.400 --> 0:11:00.240 Tony Loveglia. My buddy Tony said, I'm seeing a girl 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.120 down there. She goes to Catholic University. I'll fill my 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.160 van with beverages, will play loud music, come with me 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:10.480 for the weekend. And I Washington opened my eyes to prosperous, 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.480 earnest young people in khakis and blazers, walking swiftly with 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:20.440 places to go, and discussing government. Absolutely earnest at the 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.640 way Greg and Carter put it in the old spy 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:27.280 magazine May at Rest in Peace, earnest former student council 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:31.360 president's driving Honda accords. That was his way of summing 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:35.120 up Washington. And I was intoxicated by it. What was 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:39.880 the first, first first job you had? Uh? Well, fast forward. 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.520 I'm at Catholic University, having transferred my meager credits. Guy 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.880 named Rocco comes into our dorm and says does anybody 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.720 want my internship in the White House. I raised my 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:54.959 hand because I had a blue blazer from my job 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.240 at Sears in Middletown, New Jersey. I interviewed for it 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.360 and got it. Jimmy Carter was president. Obviously it was 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.720 a non political position. I made copies, I got shirts 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.439 at the cleaners. I I made coffee, but I also 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.560 wrote constituent letters, and I I got into it. I 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:16.400 got a job as a clerk typist at the broadcasting Lobby, 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:20.640 the n a B National Association of Broadcasters. I confide 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.440 my secret in my boss that someday I had been 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.080 my editorial page editor of my high school paper. I 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:31.680 had worked on my uh community college paper. After all, 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:36.320 someday my hope was to try television journalism. He said, well, 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:39.320 there's a guy coming into town. Bill Bankston runs k 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.319 o A, MTV and Pittsburgh without the h Kansas. It's 0:12:43.360 --> 0:12:47.400 the hundred and twenty first television market in the country. 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:49.480 He runs a small shop. It's in the middle of 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:52.079 a field, but he just might if you take him 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.040 to dinner. I took him to the restaurants sevent nine 0:12:55.040 --> 0:12:58.040 in Georgetown. I had no I have no business buying dinner. 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.680 I had no money. He said, you have to pay 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.240 your way to come out and let us look at 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.200 you on camera. I had a Dodge Dart. I put 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.680 all my belongings in the back seat. I brought my 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:13.719 dog Charlie out there. They thought I was crazy. She 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.360 believed in my ability. But this move to the middle 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.000 of the country, leaving all I knew and what was 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.240 the station was like going in the Marine Corps ko 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.160 A m TV. And I went back there and revisited 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:29.680 the place when the tornadoes hit Choplin. And good evening 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:32.800 from Joplin, Missouri. And this is of course now more 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:37.160 than any community anywhere should ever be forced to endure. 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.200 In just the space of the last hour, we have 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:42.840 been through where where you want it hit. I was 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.800 with my two kids in the house. How is it 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:51.439 You're alive? Faith in God? He's the only way. Oh 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.560 my god? How many people made it in here? How 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.280 did you hear? Abody on this block is okay? What 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.520 do you do tomorrow? Row on the next day, figure 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.400 it out when it comes, I guess. And can you 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.040 believe Mother Nature are doing this right now? It's hard 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:10.679 to believe she hitting middle or drop that was the 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.959 adjoining town where my efficiency apartment was. Not to brag, 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.400 you know, I was. I was a working poor I'm 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.960 on television in this market in Kansas, going home and 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.760 making an art form of slicing. And if you've ever 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.440 done this, you know, you take one can of spam, 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.080 if you fry an egg in that pan, you can 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.160 make a spam steak in a frying pan, and you 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.680 can get four or five slices out of one can 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.280 of spam. With some toast. It's a meal at night. 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:39.480 You can also, as my friends and I would do 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.960 back then when we were we were working actors and 0:14:42.080 --> 0:14:44.920 I was doing a soap opera. There was a moment 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:47.440 when my friend leaned over and took an egg out 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.000 of the refrigerator and dropped it into some noodle ramen 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:52.520 and showed us that you could put an egg in 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.360 ramen and have egg drop ramen. And when we made 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:58.360 egg dropped rama for the first time, it was like, 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:04.080 don't don't bump, bump, bump. We went insane to this day. 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.760 I like ramin, I do. I like ramin. Is too 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:10.600 much sodium and pronational hot dogs and spaghettios. My big 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.920 three who would the because I was in you were there, 0:15:15.320 --> 0:15:17.800 you left Washington? What year? Oh, I guess this is 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.960 what were you in? D eighty one? So Carter's out, 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.720 Carter's out. I'm working at but you were there when 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.280 when Carter was there? What year to the end of Carter? Yes, 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.440 last year, very end. So it's eighty the election. He's 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:36.200 losing Iron Hostage, Internship over Goodnight everybody? And who were 0:15:36.240 --> 0:15:39.160 the big three on the networks then? Rather, well, this 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:44.040 would have been rather I guess Brokaw or Chancellor and 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:48.840 either some combination of Jennings, Max Robinson, Dean Reynolds not 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:52.680 Dean Reynolds CNN. Yet that was kind of dawning in 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:55.200 eighty Yes, well that was was that Iron Hostage? No, 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.840 I guess that was dawning in eight? That was dawning 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.640 in eight. Were you watching those show as pretty regularly 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.680 as well? A preference? But you're CBS man up in 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.040 a CBS household kite people approximately our age. You can 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.840 say what household were you and people will answer it 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:16.080 that way. With a network. Yeah, there's a style to 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.480 that job that's changed. That old Voice of God school, 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.960 you know, Crown, Kite and chance There was very humbly 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.320 in Brinkley. You went to them because they had something 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.360 you wanted. And I venture to say that that guy 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:35.360 who had that kind of imperious, snooty voice of God 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.480 kind of demeanor on the air, those guys their days 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:42.160 are gone well and now the people are authoritative. I mean, 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:45.080 what I'm leading up to is the reason you work 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.080 and the reason you've been successful is you are commanding, 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.040 and you're bright, and you're all the things you need 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.280 to be and you're not pompous. I have no right 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:54.920 to be. But but but what I'm saying is I 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.680 think that people's attitude towards the news has changed. Where 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:00.600 there's a kind there's a style of anchor of the 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.040 evening news that those days are over. Now you have 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.400 to be more accessible, you have to be more accessible. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:08.280 But you should know, we still select our lead story 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.359 and our story order like it was the old days, 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:16.240 because we have to. That's our process. And uh, the 0:17:16.400 --> 0:17:18.720 night we happened to be sitting here having this conversation 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.000 in New York, we always say, like SNL, like any 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:25.080 other live show, we don't go on the air because 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.840 it's ready. We go on the air because it's time 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:31.160 to go on the air tonight. I was writing one 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.960 section ahead of where I was. I was writing lead 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:37.320 ins for the second segment while we were in the 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:40.639 first segment in real time on the air, so we 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:44.240 would go into a reporter piece and I'm on the keyboard, 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.159 sitting on the set because I got behind because of 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:49.399 some Rock Center business I had to attend to. I 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.119 don't like it, but I'm wired for it. It's what 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.240 I do. And if I don't write those words, form 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.080 those words, edit those words, it won't sound like me. 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:00.479 I won't own it. There won't be trans mauretcy, there 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.200 won't be familiarity, and it's insincere. When does the day 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.600 begin to write that day's show writing, I knuckle, I 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.399 really buckle down. At around five I start writing and 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.480 I write from the bottom up. Usually I write the 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:20.159 that is NBC Nightly News for this Wednesday night. I 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.960 write that first, and the last thing I write before 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.639 I go out is the first thing I say, good evening, 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.760 uh and uh. So it's freshest in my mind. I 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.280 have to I have to stick that. I have to 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.320 nail that. It should be a very fresh and genuine thoughts, 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.919 so genuine that the teleprompter can be a guide. If 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:43.119 other words occur to me on the fly, I'll do that. 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.320 I'm not wedded to the words I have just written 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.639 on that electronic screen. The people you work with, you 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:52.879 have the license to do whatever you want to do. 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.680 You write it, yes, but I'm the managing editor of it. 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.080 But I also work with great professional adults who have 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:04.760 license ability and often call me out. I don't think 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.280 you got the tone right on this page. I I don't. 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.879 I I read your rightem on the video that was 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.399 produced by the North Korean government. I think we're missing 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:15.359 something here. And they do that all the time we 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:18.720 were collaboratively. These are all really good friends of mine. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:21.640 I love the whole room full of them. We've been 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.480 a battle together, so we're really close. And it's a 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.440 very funny. You should hear our newsroom in the hour 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.600 before air stuff flies across the room. It's wild and 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.720 it's just the way I like it. Now. I want 0:19:36.760 --> 0:19:39.119 to go back and you're at MSNBC. How long does 0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:44.040 that last? Six years commuting to cau Caucus, New Jersey, 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.399 and what was in the dart No, by then I 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.960 could afford a chevallet. Yeah, Um, this was a Hearts 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:55.120 Mountain warehouse. It is today the home of MLB Network 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.080 for baseball fans. So six years commuting to Caucus, Yeah, 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.520 I screwed up my time line I left. I was 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:04.240 still in Kansas when we left off. I ran out 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.679 of money. I drove on a space saver hard rubber 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.400 spare on my dodged art for eight months. They recommend 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.920 never going over fifty and just using it for a 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.640 few days. I shredded that puppy, and I drove back 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:20.600 to Washington, where I knew I could find work again. 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.080 I bought a copy of the Washington Post again, I 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:28.119 circled a classified ad Chiron operator ten PM newscast w 0:20:28.359 --> 0:20:32.760 t t G, the Metromedia owned now Fox Channel five. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:36.960 I walked in the door, asked the first woman I found, 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.479 uh is the news director in and can I see him? 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.240 And she said, you're meeting with her right now, late 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:47.600 great woman named Betty Endicott. She hired me to type 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:50.359 in the letters on the screen. She did this ed 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:53.000 asner thing with me. I would go into her office 0:20:53.400 --> 0:20:56.520 as her lowly typer of letters on the screen, and 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:58.840 I'd watched the newscast with her every night and we 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.000 hit it off, and she said to me, didn't you 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.919 do on air work in Kansas? Do you have any tapes? 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:06.080 And I said, Betty, those have been taken to a 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:11.760 licensed landfill facility long ago, and she I did find one. 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:13.800 She put me on the air in Washington, d C. 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:18.040 On a whim the last gut call in television. Yeah, 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.920 I was on the ten o'clock news. Months later, she says, 0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:23.800 I'm hiring a young woman to be an executive producer. 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:25.920 I think you're gonna like her. And we've been married 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.160 for twenty six years. Yeah, Jane's daddard love at First 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:34.960 Sight control room. Hearts flying little guys with arrows. I 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:37.880 went into my friend Bernie's office and said that afternoon, 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:43.440 I'm done off the market. It's a matter of Oh 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.560 my god, the FBI what the earpiece called f B. 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.920 I was close. Yeah, I have listened to a woman's 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:55.160 voice in her ear Oh wow. And now my little, 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:59.600 our little girl, who's twenty four, one of our two children. 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.240 I think we had just have the two. I'd see 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.960 her on David Letterman's chair next to Dave, and I 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.560 see my wife at around the same age we met, 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.879 and it just blows your mind and hard. We're going 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.840 to get your daughter. But anyway, I'm on Channel five 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.760 ten o'clock news, and it was a great job. And 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.320 sooner or later it's like triple a ball. Your your 0:22:23.400 --> 0:22:27.240 pitch improves. Scouts come around. I got hired by CBS 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:32.080 for their stations division. We went to Philadelphia. Jane got 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:36.920 a job at the local PBS station, and Jane, oh yeah, yeah, 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:40.479 we got married while living in Philadelphia. I worked at 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:44.840 the CBS station in Philadelphia. I was called up to 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:48.159 CBS in New York and I did five years at 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:51.200 Channel two w CBS. I was the noon anchor again 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.080 you'll forgive me bragging with Carol Martin, and for a 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:57.680 while I was the chief correspondent at eleven o'clock. I 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:00.080