Of Williams and Bloom

Brian Williams at an NBC Christmas Party in 2005

I worked at NBC for over 9 years and was present at the transition between Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams. I also did a considerable amount of work for the Today Show. I was there during the run-up to the Iraq War and during that war and I was there as Osama bin-Ladin was allowed to escape from the mountains in Tora Bora by President Bush, who refused to authorize the personnel needed to capture the head of al-Qaida.

The News is full of Williams "mis-remembering" an incident in Iraq where a helicopter was downed by a rocket-propelled grenade. Williams has apologized but I take issue with his mis-remembering. The story he told became fictionalized when Williams began to think that NBC Nightly News is all about him. It isn't.

Truth be told, NBC did lose an embedded correspondent in Iraq. David Bloom wasn't felled by a bullet or any hostile action. Instead, David Bloom died due to a blood clot he developed while sitting in a very tight legs-folded position in an armored personnel carrier for many hours at a stretch. Bloom had just gotten off the phone with his wife, stood up and went for a walk. It is said he took about ten steps and keeled over. There was heroism—medics were on him in a flash and tried to save his life, but Bloom was probably dead as soon as he hit the ground. After David died, the only embedded correspondent that NBC had was Bloom's cameraman, and that same cameraman had been at Ground Zero with reporter Rehema Ellis for 48 hours. NBC pressed the cameraman into providing news reports in Iraq until they could get another correspondent into Iraq.

Weekend Today Correspondent David Bloom

That correspondent was Brian Williams. I don't want to take away anything from Williams reporting in Iraq. He did a good job and, because NBC included both the network with their morning "news" show and the evening news show, as well as Dateline and also MSNBC, the reporting for the network was a 24-hour operation. Reporters in Iraq would usually do something for the Today Show during the first hour of the broadcast at 7:00 AM, which is 3:00 PM in Iraq. At the time, Don Imus was on MSNBC, so there was no need for a live correspondent during that show.

But as soon as the Today Show was out of their news cycle, or off the air, MSNBC would pick up reporting as needed or as events happened. MSNBC was all done on the cheap, so the edited segments from the Today Show or NBC Nightly News were re-aired on MSNBC and reporters in the field would simply talk over a satellite hookup to people on the anchor desk. After that, it was generally do a report for NBC Nightly News, which means a full day of having your cameraman get material you need, write a report and, maybe, stay up until about 2:30 AM to do a live satellite hookup with NBC Nightly News. It's a long day.

Williams is an engaging person, is very intelligent and was quick to thank me if I had facts that could be used to enhance his reporting. I cannot comprehend how a person of that intelligence could "mis-remember" an incident. I remember everything I did on September 11, 2001 and the weeks afterwards. I remember the time I spent at NBC. Those memories are from a very enjoyable and intense time in my career and they are unforgettable.

So how could Williams fictionalize an event that did not happen to him?

"It's all about the correspondent"

Because Williams is being told that "it's all about him." One of the things I had to do at NBC was edit interviews done by Katie Couric for the Today Show. Katie is not the kind of person who likes to work all that much and she thinks she can "wing it" when it comes to facts. Booking producers would send reams of information to Couric prior to her interviewing people for the Today Show, and Couric would look at none of it. Finally, the Today Show got smart and had Couric do the interviews after the show was finished "live to tape" and editors would cut the taped interviews to make sure that Couric didn't embarrass herself. With Couric, it was "all about her," and she proved that when she took over the CBS Evening News anchor desk (where Walter Cronkite sat) and caused that network to lose horribly in the evening news ratings. It wasn't about Couric then and it isn't about Williams today.

In making up this story, Williams has completely lost sight about what journalism is. You tell the story as it happened, not as you might make it up for a good read in a fictionalized novel. We have all read novels where the hero does wonderful deeds and is admired for it. It is understandable that Williams wants to be admired, but he simply did not come under fire, like NBC's cameraman did. And Williams would have remembered it.

He has apologized to the "brave men and women in the US military." We talk long and hard about those "brave men and women," and they become a political football we can throw around, accusing the other political party of not supporting the troops. Fact is, if America were to support our troops, we'd have a first-rate Veterans' healthcare network where there would be no waiting list to get seen. Williams should report on that, rather than make up stories that are all about Williams. And, if Williams wants to support our troops, then he should give a significant amount of his income every year to the Wounded Warrior Project.

I disagree that Brian Williams "misremembered" anything about his experience in Iraq. Because his story changed with the telling. And it changed for one purpose and one purpose only: To place Brian Williams, intrepid anchor for NBC Nightly News into that rare position of those correspondents who had risked their lives to get the news out.

Brian Williams did risk his life. He went into a war zone. That's enough. You don't have to also come under fire to say you risked your life. But that was not enough for Williams. He fictionalized his experience in Iraq so that it looks like his life was at considerable risk, so much so that he could have lost it. That is not something one forgets. That is not something one "mis-remembers."

Williams has taken his reputation and has risked it as much as his life would have been at risk had the events he "mis-remembered" (actually fictionalized) happened. That's pretty sad. I challenge Williams to actually support the "brave men and women in the US military." Even though he has publicly humiliated himself, some good could come of this. I challenge Brian to donate a significant portion of his income from NBC to the Wounded Warrior Project.