The Daily Nightly began on May 31, 2005. As Brian wrote in his first post it aims to provide a narrative of the broadcast day and a window into the editorial process at NBC Nightly News. Brian weighs in every weekday and NBC News correspondents and producers post regularly.
Brian Williams became the seventh anchor and managing editor in the history of NBC Nightly News on December 2, 2004. Read his full biography.
 |
|
 |
|
 |
advertisement
About the broadcast | Biographies
RSS is an easy way to get the news you want as it is updated even if you are not on MSNBC.com. More information about MSNBC.com's RSS feeds.
Podcasting brings you audio and video from each weekday broadcast on your iPod or other portable MP3 player anytime, anywhere. More information about MSNBC.com's podcasts.
Sign-up for our daily e-mail newsletter. It offers a preview of the stories and special reports featured on each weekday broadcast.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gave the bulk of his speech to Congress in Italian Wednesday - a decision that left members of Congress who showed up to listen somewhat in the dark.
Because no one here in the Capitol knew until the last minute that Berlusconi would not be speaking in English, there were no accommodations made for simultaneous audio translation. That meant that the relatively few members of Congress who attended the speech would not have the benefit of those little earphones to help them understand what was being said, unless, of course, they "capisce Italiano". They were provided, however, with a written English translation of the remarks to help them try and follow along.
Typically, these speeches by foreign dignitaries to a joint meeting of Congress are poorly attended by our elected Representatives and Senators, and today's address was no exception. A House aide who was in the chamber estimated that there were about 100 members of Congress present out of the 533 who currently serve. Look closely at the wide shots when you rush home tonight to watch the replay on C-Span and you'll see an army of blue-jacketed, apple-cheeked pages and House interns filling in the chamber's back rows. House officials stick them there to avoid the international embarassment of a mostly empty chamber.
Asked when the Prime Minister made the decision to deliver the remarks in Italian, an embassy press attaché shrugged it off: "Only God himself knows the answer," she said.
But, as NBC producer Deb Pettit notes, at the end of his speech Berlusconi did speak in English, giving an emotional account of a father telling a boy about the brave soldiers who came from overseas to bring peace to their land in World War II. "That father was my father, and I am the young man... I have never forgotten the sacrifices... and I never will," the Italian Prime Minister said.
Hearing and understanding this, the members of Congress who were present rose to their feet and applauded.
Read more from Mike Viqueira
EMAIL THIS
TRACKBACKS
Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b0aa69e200d8355d196a69e2
A post-Mardi Gras Big Easy
SEND A COMMENT
PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to this post, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.