I just want to say "thank you" Mr. Williams for taking such an interest in the recovery of New Orleans. My prayers are for Mississippi as well. Dana F. -New Orleans, LA. 70118

Dear Mr. Williams, I recently heard an interview you gave to channel 36 in Charlotte, NC. I liked it a lot and I wanted to address the criticism you have received about continued Katrina coverage. I just recently came back from a 6 month stint working down there, and let me give your viewers a few facts.
Fact one is most homes are in the same shape as they were in, the day after katrina hit. Debris has been removed in SOME areas, but not in all and most homes have only had this done and nothing else. Many people would be homeless if it wasn't for the FEMA trailers. I work for a mortgage company and they honestly don't know what they are going to do with mortgages that are now almost 9 months past due and it could be another year before these people can rebuild.
Fact 2, many people, nearly a third of disaster victims end up declaring bankruptcy within 5 years after the disaster, and these are people who were financially sound. People who would never have had to declare bankruptcy, except for the storm.
Fact 3, the casinos are rebuilding, and because they are paying well, local homeowners can't get contractors to even come out and give damage assessments, unless they pay them, let alone get someone to rebuild their homes.
Fact 4 hwy. 90 is still out. mosquitoes are a huge problem, looting is still going on. so while your readers and watchers sleep in their beds and go to work, know that 9 months later, the coast is frozen in time. Even business, restaurants and hotels have yet to even start to rebuild. Insurance companies refuse to pay out, even the State Attorney General for Missippi I have heard, who had hurricane insurance with Nationwide, has been denied because they told him the storm surge was a flood and not a hurricane. Give me a break!
I have Nationwide insurance and I am considering changing companies because of all the complaints I have heard. but I have heard complaints about most of the other large insurance companies as well. So please continue to report on this. anyone who complains should have to go through what these people have.
Fact 6 , many disaster victims whoare elderlyor in poor health,start to die after a major disaster,because of all the stress. iknow thisfor a fact, because several of the folks who iworked with,have passed away. a second tragedy and expense for their families.
And another thing you should report on, FEMA is still there. Working to house people, to mitigate damage and to prepare for whatever comes in 30days. These people don’t get benefits, that's right, no healthcare benifits for the DAE employes. And most have been away from their homes and their families since last year. Imagine being away that long! FEMA should never have been combined with Homeland security, and should be separated again. You never heard a complaint about FEMA until It was combined.

Dear Brian Williams,

I was disappointed in the opinion that you expressed when introducing the clip on the Atlanta protesters the other night. You commented that Rumsfeld "Held his own" when confronted by Mr. McGovern. In Fact he lied about what he had said in the past, and NBC inexplictedly cropped the portion of McGovern's comments when he quoted back to Rumsfeld his (Rumsfeld's) exact words that he uttered right before the invasion (On George Stephanoplis' show). Rumsfeld then stammered to attempt to respond and lied once again.

Brian, by Rumsfeld openly lying, does that really constitute "holding his own"?

I notice Rumsfeld said he was "not in the intelligence business" which seems to ignore the fact that the Department of Defense actually gets about 80 percent of the intelligence budget and that
the National Ground Intelligence Center , not the CIA, was actually responsible for the locating, tracking and targeting of deployed WMDs on the battlefield in Iraq.

Dear Brian Williams,

I'm a loyal viewer of the NBC Nightly News because you attempt to be balanced and fair among the political parties and their desire to use "free" air time.

Last evening, you showed footage of political activists' antics at Secretary Rumsfeld's speech in Atlanta -- twice. Meanwhile, you did not give any time to Secretary Rumsfeld's remarks at the meeting -- wasn't his message to the group in Atlanta worth any news coverage at all?

My suggestion to you is to be wary of being used by both political parties and try to balance the coverage when political activists are staging protests just to get "free" air time. Make them pay for their political ads.

Dawn Fratangelos' piece last night on the blogosphere was most entertaining. I think blogging would be fun, but I can't blog because I don't own a computer. It was also interesting to catch a glimpse of one of those editorial meetings you often mention.

A brief note on pronunciation, this week when what people know--or don't know--regarding geography has been in the news. When you introduced the story on Vice President Cheney in Lithuania, you said, "Lith-way-ni-a," with four syllables. Actually, it's "Lith-u-ay-ni-a," with five syllables, as NBC's reporter out of Vilnius correctly pronounced it.

Now for the meat. I'd like to see NBC Nightly cover the latest FEMA atrocities, both of which illustrate an incredible lack of compassion on FEMA's part for storm survivors and an appalling lack of concern for promises made and for the recovery of a fine historic city in danger of dying.

First off, FEMA, after having promised thousands of evacuees a year of free rent and utilities, has now advised these evacuees they are no longer eligible. State and local officials such as Houston Mayor Bill White say they had been promised the full year, and he is concerned about the possibility of mass homelessness in Houston. The people about to be put on the street include ones who have suffered crippling losses and indescribable emotional trauma.

The second atrocity places a new strain on a stressed-out Louisiana. FEMA's long-term recovery office in New Orleans plans to soon shut its doors. FEMA will still have a Baton Rouge office, but as people in real estate say, "location, location, location." How would an office in another city effectively serve people in New Orleans? While FEMA has done an abyssmal job there, it was the agency that could provide New Orleans the most assistance. And a financially-strapped New Orleans, is unable to pick up the slack herself.

So FEMA is callously abandoning an agonized city that remains flat on her back, her people as stranded as many had been 8 months ago when they awaited rescue from the Superdome, Convention Center, and rooftops surrounded by 2nd-story-high "toxic gumbo."

These 2 new decisions by FEMA lend new urgency to recent suggestions by Maine Sen. Susan Collins and others on Capitol Hill that FEMA be scrapped and replaced by a new agency that does the work which FEMA did not do. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has rejected this idea.

It's time for NBC Nightly to shine the light of media scrutiny on FEMA and these latest atrocities. There ought to be way FEMA could be held criminally or at least civilly liable for reneging on its housing promise to evacuees and for pulling out of New Orleans when her citizens most need assistance in bringing the city back.

WHAT GAS SHORTAGE??

I just think everyone should know... I am a tugboat sailor. The gas shortage
is totally bogus. There are "fleets" all up and down the gulf coast that you
don't know about. They consist of hundreds and thousands of tank barges that
we tie up daily that are filled with millions of gallons of fuel. The big
companies pump their fuel into the barges and as long as the fuel is in a
barge it is considered offshore and not part of the reserve. So, there are
millions of gallons of fuel tied up to spud barges all through the bays,
intracoastal inlets, and canals all up and down the coast that the companies
don't have to report. They fabricate the shortage by pumping their millions
of gallons of fuel and hide them in these fleets creating the shortage so
they can make their multi billion dollar gains while we can't afford the gas
at the pump. I've never in my life asked anyone to forward anything, but
this has me fuming. Accidental pun now intended. With many voices, we can
put a stop to this.

James F. Ransdell

I, too, hope you will show more of the Rumsfeld briefing. My husband and I are sitting here saying to ourselves, "These are the types of tough questions that the political news commentators should have asked leading up to the war in Iraq." Why didn't the news media pose the questions that Mr. McGovern posed today to Rumsfeld? The American public deserves better, more thoughtful, more analytical news coverage. We can't depend on our petty, partisan representatives in Congress to post challenging questions, so we're depending on you, Brian, to do it for us.

It was nice to see NBC covering stories tonight that are currently big on the Internet. I can't say NBC got the stories right but at least they are trying to respond to what the rest of us are talking about.

On the Stephen Colbert speech at the correspondents dinner the point of the Internet discussion was missed. Rather than give a purely comedic performance, Colbert severely criticized president Bush. Most notably, Colbert said the media hadn't been doing their jobs for the last six years. To the righties on the net, Colbert's speech was rude and inappropriate.

To the lefties on the net, Colbert's speech was heroic. The lefties believe that Colbert used his speaking opportunity to pronounce truth that is seldom told to the powerful. The lefties feel the same way about the interruptions at the Rumsfeld speaking engagement. Frustrated netizens have come to believe only way for ordinary people to be heard is for them to trespass into the arenas of power and scream. I'm sorry NBC didn't see this theme in its string of stories.

Of course, then what is being screamed about would have to be covered. Take the segment tonight on the Zarqawi video that was obtained from the Pentagon. We know, from the Washington Post and many other sources, that the Pentagon has an active propaganda disinformation campaign about Zarqawi which is partially aimed at the American audience. The campaign has produced stories that are known to be false. Although the NBC correspondent did a good job of qualifying the Zarqawi piece as Pentagon PR, she did not mention the doubtful reliability of the Pentagon as a source on Zarqawi.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html?sub=AR

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2211874

So, while its really great news to see that NBC is paying some attention to the blogs, I hope they will also pay attention to what is being said out here. We see the MSM repeating propaganda without qualifying it. We see that everybody knows what we are being told isn't the real story. It isn't even close.

During the 2004 election, we were often told about the latest "terrorism warning." I think I could have asked anybody in America and if they were honest with me they would have told me that they knew that after the election there would be no more terrorist warnings. Everybody knew the terrorism warnings were propaganda put out to help Bush get elected. Everybody knew we weren't being told the truth. Funny how the warnings stopped then.

I hope at the next editorial meeting, NBC will consider being a little more like those who yelled out at the press dinner or the Rumsfeld appearance. The truth will make lots of people angry, and many will condemn NBC for giving it, but if NBC doesn't want to see a new medium replace the current one, they have to give a more complete picture.

There are about 140 + blogs, if you combine them all,
on "Immigrant Day". It has not been mentioned at all, either in your blog, or in Nightly News. If that many people have an opinion on something should that not be at least mentioned?

I watched with interest you story about the Blogosphere this evening. Coincidentally, just this morning I wrote up a Blog edition about YOUR Blog.

http://dummiefunnies.blogspot.com/2006/05/daily-dully-blog-by-brian-williams.html

I hope you show the Rumsfeld briefing tonight, Brian.
It is all over the radio right now.

Keep up the good work with New Orleans as well. I try never to miss your show, but I have NBC simulcast on my car radio in case I am running late from work.