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.
What a day here in New York. The city was invaded by pungent natural gas fumes just after 9 a.m. this morning. NBC management put out a memo to all 30 Rock employees urging us to close our windows and telling us the vents to the outside air had been closed. In a city still understandably raw and jittery after 9/11, this was a big event -- some very smart and normally level-headed people found themselves battling more than a hint of fright and foreboding. It was hard not to, it was a strange occurrence. The incident also launched a strange kind of civic/media war between municipalities -- with New York saying the gas was coming from New Jersey (my home state doesn't enjoy the best aromatic reputation, as you know, so we're an easy target) and Jersey City officials blaming it on a gas leak in Manhattan. The spokeswoman for the Jersey City mayor aggressively took to the airwaves this morning, in what made for a fun kind of aside when it became a redundancy feast for the ears. She used phrases like "O.E.M. Office" (the "O" in O.E.M. stands for "Office") and "heating or HVAC" (ditto here -- the "H" in "HVAC" stands for "heating") in her attempt to calm the public and explain why it couldn't possibly be coming from Jersey. It was great listening for those of us monitoring developments on radio. Actually, with winds out of the west at 7 mph with gusts to 20, it made a lot of sense that it was NOT originating in, and lingering over Manhattan island. But the air has been cleared, as they say.
Taken together, there were events across the country today -- all of them covered with the cursory JUST IN or BREAKING NEWS graphics on the all-news cable networks -- that didn't say great things about our world. In addition to the gas-filled streets of this city, Austin, Texas, residents woke up to dead birds -- a lot of them -- in the streets, and a solvent cloud rose about Sugarland, Texas, this afternoon. And that's if you DON'T count the explosives investigation adjacent to a cruise ship in Miami, and yet another BREAKING NEWS story in Missouri. I'm going to stay indoors for the rest of the day, and perhaps until my retirement.
THE REAL CULPRIT
Of course all of this could have been the fault of... global warming. Yes, I'm kidding, but this brings us to a serious topic: the blog traffic and the tone of the comments over the weekend told us we needed to revisit a segment we did on the broadcast Friday night, which included a live interview with a veteran NOAA forecaster (Video link). We will do just that tonight -- I think if we're guilty of anything it was an omission in our reporting: the differences between (and the relationship between) a short-term weather event and a long-term climate change. Additionally, if experts are going to cite El Nino in their explanation for the high of 72 degrees in Central Park on Saturday, are those same experts willing to admit that global warming has an effect on El Nino? Looking at the comments on this blog, I fear that the heat from some of you may well contribute to the problem if we're not careful. I note I was called a "global warning denier" (because an on-air guest blamed our high temperatures on El Nino in response to a question) and I've been told I've "lost all credibility." A learned expert in the field wrote to say, "I am one of the countries (sic) most well known meteorologist (sic)," and so it went all weekend. Everybody needs a good eviscerating every so often. Deep breaths, everybody.
Elsewhere in tonight's broadcast: we'll preview (using as our source material the strategic leaks of same and our own reporting) the President's Iraq speech this week -- this coming Wednesday night at 9 p.m. There was talk about it today on the Hill, and we'll have some of that for you. Also, Detroit's best -- will they be good enough? And speaking of the best: We have a terrific feature tonight on the amazing Air Force Thunderbirds (YOU try doing that with an F-16) and a first among their ranks.
Thanks to those who commented in response to the admittedly self-indulgent "memory lane" portion of this blog on Friday -- with special thanks to those who mentioned Steinbacks Department Store and the Royal Manor in Wall Township, a notorious night spot we frequented. It's as if you were riding along in the van with us. It was fun while it lasted.
Tomorrow in this space, the New York Sunday institution known as the "big box"... and why it was extra-special this past weekend.
We hope you can join us for tonight's broadcast.
Read more from Brian Williams 2007
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/6a00d83451b0aa69e200d8350efe3269e2
Early Nightly is up
KAREN C: THE PRESIDENT IS THE ISSUE! HE DODGED THE DRAFT AND HID IN THE TEXAS ANG DURING THE VIETNAM WAR, AND HE HAS LIED, LIED, LIED, OVER AND OVER, ABOUT THE QUAGMIRE IN IRAQ. WHEN OUR COUNTRY HAS A LIAR AND A COWARD AS PRESIDENT, HE IS ABSOLUTELY THE ISSUE!!
B, THIENSVILLE, WI (Sent Jan 11, 2007 2:11:32 PM)
Why don't you comment on the issue instead of OUR PRESIDENT? Is there not somewhere you can go instead of degrading OUR PREDSIDENT? I am sick of your silliness!!!
Karen Castevens (Sent Jan 9, 2007 5:34:06 PM)
What has Bush done in the past when he was facing strong negative press?
LMAO when has he not faced it?
Seeing how NY is a big liberal cesspool it was probably a trick by the Liberal controlled congress to distract everyone from the fact they took the day off for a football game. So much for the 5 day work schedule.
Dave, Tn (Sent Jan 9, 2007 12:04:58 PM)
So, the same people who told us it was safe to breathe the air after 911 tell us it's safe to breath the air now.
What a comfort.
(Sent Jan 9, 2007 11:44:33 AM)
Don't know about Manhattan, but here in West Virginia i had a similar experience. Saturday morning i noticed how warm it was so i opened all the window around the house and shut the heat off. A few minutes later i started to notice a very strong scent of ozone. The air outside was thick with humidity and the smell of ozone. Sort of like the smell you get after an intense electrical storm.
We live in the country outside of Martinsburg and sometimes exhaust from a nearby cement factory will drift across Martinsburg, but that is a distinctly sulfuric acid odor. Very different from this.
I would guess the odor lasted from about 8am to about 10am. So, i wonder if it might have been residual ozone coming from the storm system that produced the tornadoes and severe weather in the southeast the previous evening.
Could this same dense cloud of storm-generated ozone have followed the coast up to Manhattan later in the day?
Wayne Hollyoak
Wayne Hollyoak, Martinsburg, WV (Sent Jan 9, 2007 9:08:12 AM)
Apparently nobody has put the pieces together. What has Bush done in the past when he was facing strong negative press? He and his band have always orchestrated a major threat. The odor mystery may or may not be part of his symphony this time, but I would suspect something major to be announced shortly before or after his address Wednesday night. Players are already reminding us of our impending doom, with the "surprise" Somalie attack and the increased street fighting in Iraq. It's all just a repeat chorus in this dirge Bush has created.
Brian, Cedar Hill, TX (Sent Jan 9, 2007 9:02:23 AM)
Well ... seeing as how the wind is coming from the west down here, as well -- I believe I'll wait until I'm sure that whatever is in the air over there in Texas doesn't make it's way eastward to over here in Mississippi before I take any of those deep breaths, Brian ... just in case :-).
Could Manhattan Island's stinky culprit possibly have been a paper mill or an oil refinery, by any chance? If I remember correctly from the years I worked at our local paper mill and oil refinery, that particular "gas-y" odor was nothing to be concerned about.
Cyrena, Vicksburg, Mississippi (Sent Jan 9, 2007 12:07:46 AM)
Brian, I believe ONLY people from NOAA and the Weather.com. I think anyone with half sense and one eye would recognize that our planet is getting warmer and warmer, don't you?
Gayle Niemeyer, Lexington KY (Sent Jan 8, 2007 10:26:56 PM)
Yes, our fair city of Austin has slipped into a Bizarro World today. The coffee shop denizens are all abuzz on caffeine and the mystery of the dead birds. No one is lamenting the loss of the grackles, but everyone has an opinion as to what caused their demise. Theories I heard included environmental toxins, malicious poisoning (as I mentioned, people really hate the grackles here), strange weather phenomenon (such as frog rain), avian flu, and fraternity prank. The oddest postulation I overheard involved a government cover-up -- something about the birds being planted as an excuse to cordon off an area where a UFO landed overnight. Seems the O'Hare airport story is still sparking imaginations. That or someone has watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind a few too many times.
At first I chuckled, but then I considered it. Maybe this hypothesis can explain both cities' mysteries. The extraterrestrials did some nightclubbing in Austin, and then made a pit stop at the inter-dimensional filling station over Manhattan before zipping off to their galaxy. See? The coffee shop conspiracy theorist figured it out!
After all, Austin is the fifth most educated city in the nation. Really.
Jenny, Austin, TX (Sent Jan 8, 2007 9:51:12 PM)
MAYBE THE "GAS FUMES" WERE WHAT WAS LEFT OVER WHEN THE BULLS LEFT MANHATTAN AFTER THE WEEKEND OF PROFESSIONAL BULL RIDING AT THE SQUARE GARDEN, WHICH, I MIGHT ADD, WAS GREAT. (THE BULL RIDING). I ENJOYED ALL THREE EVENTS. WAS HOPING THAT ADRIANO MORAES WOULD WIN.
(Sent Jan 8, 2007 8:59:50 PM)
I felt last year was a watershed year for global warming in the media. Lots of documentaries, lots of news spots, and reports on new studies linking hurricane strength with warmer waters and warmer waters (like in '05) with global warming, and so on. Scariest among these documentaries was a dramatic 1500% up tick in the noted arctic ice meltdown. In thirty years there might not even be an artic ice cap in the summer which is something that is exceptionally dangerous given that open sea water absorbs 90% more of the sun's energy than the reflective ice. In a nutshell, things can cascade very quickly and if all it takes is a half-degree increase in gulf temperatures to turn a normal hurricane into a Katrina or Rita (as your expert said today) than we're in for some big trouble.
Your revised report tonight - although quite acceptable and certainly better than Friday - seems to still be a bit behind the curve in potential seriousness and scale. Instead of a replay of Friday's assertions, I think mentioning (as people did here on the blog) the unprecedented warm spell in Europe, or how global warming mostly effects northerly climates (especially the arctic), or the newly revealed role of smog in the equation would have been a bit more telling. No... The sky may not always be falling, but Katrina and Rita sure showed it could spin awfully darn fast.
Chris Eldridge, Harrisburg PA (Sent Jan 8, 2007 7:42:54 PM)
Since natural gas has no smell decernible to the human olfactory system, municipalities taint gas with mercatan, a very smelly, sulfurous, decomposing rotten egg smelling odor. Small quantities can stink up a rather large volume of air and it lingers.
Natural gas is of course dangerous, but the mercaptans are in bulk only a minimal hazard, the odor alone is merely unpleasant.
What you are smelling in NY may be a spill or possibly a release on the waters of mercaptans. Or it may be coming from manufacturing in NJ. Or maybe it was dumped by a ship...
Brian, San Jose, CA (Sent Jan 8, 2007 7:30:38 PM)
The smell sounds like someone was playing with Mercaptoethanol.
(Sent Jan 8, 2007 7:18:13 PM)
After watching the news on El Nino causing the strange weather, I wandered if the southern hemisphere has had the same problems as we have?
Roger D. Horton, Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina (Sent Jan 8, 2007 7:06:30 PM)
There must have been something in the air. My husband works at a factory in Poughkeepsie, NY. He noticed the smell as soon as he got out of his truck approx. 5:05 am this morning. It was very strong and he said it smelled like natural gas. Air was very calm almost dormant and rainy.
Elsie Croshier, Red Hook, New York (Sent Jan 8, 2007 7:05:09 PM)
What a strange day it was here in NYC, Brian. While we hate to jump to conclusions, the initial thoughts were scary. Though I did love a message from a friend, what smell? They just noticed a smell in NYC? How could they tell the difference?
And we just keep rolling along here in NYC.
Amanda, Ridgewood, NJ (Sent Jan 8, 2007 6:38:58 PM)
Yes there are days when the news just is TOOOOOOOO much, and there does seem to be ample reason to stay inside today. But Brian, please don't stay there till retirement please :)
Dennis Feltgen was a meterologist in the Twin Cities for a long time (KSTP.. "another network" affiliate), and I rather suspect he meant that El Nino occurs independently of global warming, but probably did NOT mean that global warming is not happening. He's always been rather more professional than that, but it does point out how one's own frame of mind doesn't always come across the airwaves very well.
Oh and if you needed more news... there are apparently 2 serial killers loose in India, and the Irish traffic department is attempting to build a highway where Irish kings once held court.
Ain't life grand? :D Happy Monday!
Lynn G. Minneapolis, MN (Sent Jan 8, 2007 5:37:41 PM)
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.