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More of Les

I am pleased to say as of tonight I am officially joining the NBC Nightly News team as regular anchor of the weekend broadcasts.  It's not exactly a change of jobs, but rather an expansion of my duties, as I will continue to co-host the weekend edition of TODAY.  Already a lot has been written in the papers and online about the long hours I am biting-off with this arrangement, and has left a lot of people unsure whether to congratulate me or pity me. So let me say feel free to be happy for me.   There are Americans working two even three jobs to put food on the family table so please don't give Lester Holt's two long days a second thought.

These are two of the best jobs in television news, and I am proud and excited to have been given this opportunity.  TODAY and NIGHTLY are very different kinds of broadcasts.  Morning TV in general gives license to explore a wider palate of topics from very hard stories to lighter, and fun features.  In the evening of course we only have thirty minutes to drill down on the days big stories, and by comparison the tone at times may seem on the formal side.  Yet at the heart of both these broadcast is the tradition, experience and the integrity of NBC News. There is no question my dual roles will see me stretching virtually all my on-air muscles.  It's an exciting challenge and a big responsibility and I hope you'll invite me into your home from time to time. Especially now that I'm available for weekend dinner as well as breakfast.

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ENDING THE WEEK

Nature continues to dominate so much of the news -- we have fires on both coasts to cover tonight, we have a significant Pentagon story, a story on the Giuliani campaign and the politics of abortion, and a significant day at Virginia Tech. Lisa Myers has an investigative piece, and we'll end on our Friday night Making A Difference segment.  We also have a fascinating piece of videotape showing that even the President's pilots have to fight for their jobs.

A few housekeeping items: below you will find a formal addition to our space here -- we've asked Chris Colvin to do for our blog readers what she does for us each day (so many great Web sites and blogs, so little time).  Chris makes us all smarter and keeps us up on what we should be seeing.  I'll be on TODAY on Monday morning (in the first hour, apparently) to promote something special we're doing on Monday's 'Nightly News': another of our "limited commercial interruption" broadcasts -- this time with a special reporting section on how things may look a decade from now in 2017 -- a serious look at what smart people are predicting our advances will be by then.

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'Nuthin' but Net!

Our news writer Chris Colvin is a verified Internet and blog junkie, which is why we’ve tapped her to share in this space some of her favorite Internet content. Beginning Tuesday, you’ll find her click list , "Nuthin' but Net!" published here twice weekly, highlighting some of what she thinks are the most worthwhile and most entertaining items the Internet has to offer.
Chris often performs this very same role for our afternoon editorial meeting, telling us what we should be reading and looking for (more often than not sans cute kittens), and we wanted to share that with you:

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One family's worry

Phyllis Parsons often avoids watching television news or even reading newspapers. With three sons serving in Iraq, she knows that when there is a big operation; like the one currently in the city of Baqouba, usually one of her sons is involved. This week has been especially difficult for Phyllis and her family.

In the Associated Press Tuesday, her eldest son, Capt. Huber Parsons III described how members of a Stryker brigade from Fort Lewis fought in the city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad: "Al-Qaida had months and months to run rampant because we didn't have the forces available to come in here until now," Parsons said. "They controlled this neighborhood, but they don't anymore."

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Early Nightly is up

Brian anchors tonight's broadcast in New York, but NBC's Michelle Kosinski takes today's vlog duties while on assignment on the campus of Virginia Tech, where today there's a bit of pomp and circumstance and a lot of reflection.
Click here or on the image to watch.

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HEARTS AND MINDS

I've had an immersion in all things Iraq this week.  I heard via e-mail from a friend who is with the Brits in the South fighting in Basra, and the message was dire: Basra is turning the other way.  He reported huge numbers of Iraqi casualties (16-18 per patrol) and reported the Brits are taking casualties as well... all of which, in a way, brings us to one of our top stories tonight: the departure of Tony Blair -- who may be the most prominent "victim" of the war, the man one analyst today called "the best Prime Minister America ever had." 

The line has been used before. The Guardian Web site has some superb coverage (I found some great stuff today on the Web sites of the British papers, along with our own MSNBC.com) including analysis, audio and video, great still photos from today, and the views of a small collection of historians, one of whom says there may be a Trumanesque softening of opinions over time where Blair is concerned.  It's been theorized that it's in our nature to look back wistfully decades later -- at the politicians some might regard as scoundrels when they left office.

Yesterday, I moderated a luncheon panel with the very smart Max Boot and the equally smart Stephen Biddle at the Council on Foreign Relations.  While I've been back from Iraq for a few months now, both Max and Stephen were there just about two weeks ago.  Their assessments were the same as I've heard from a lot of returning journalists, analysts and retired military types.  Max's experience in Ramadi sounded very similar to mine.  There is no short answer to the question "how's the war going?"

Today, President Bush indicated officially that he's got some room to negotiate on the war -- specifically: performance benchmarks, the bare minimum Democratic funding bill demand.

Dawn Fratangelo is covering the Georgia fires for us tonight, Dr. Nancy Snyderman will report on obesity, Bob Faw will report on a coming together of college students with decidedly different backgrounds, and we're running our "Making A Difference" reports this week (not just Friday) as a special series.

Sorry about the late post -- we're still figuring out how to work stuff in our new office and studio space.  We hope you can join us for the Thursday night edition of Nightly News.

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Early Nightly is up

It's a busy news day. So much so that Chip Reid -- who takes over today's vlog duties -- uses a cheat sheet to preview the plethora of stories we're sorting through as the broadcast hour approaches.
Click here or on the image to watch.

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A Yiddishist?

"A debate over Yiddish usage broke out in our offices this week, and it was settled by an unlikely authority: “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams."

So goes a post on Forward.com titled "Brian Williams, Yiddishist?"

You can read the entire post by clicking here.

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RED LIGHT IN THE GREEN ZONE

The Associated Press is running with a story based on a memorandum they've received, having to do with what is always called "the heavily-fortified" Green Zone in Baghdad. It says "the U.S. Embassy has issued a strict new order telling all employees to wear flak vests and helmets while in unprotected buildings or whenever they are outside."  It's been a while since I've been to the Green Zone, which was hit by rockets the last time I was there, as it was again today.  The difference today was the presence of Vice President Dick Cheney, on a surprise visit to Iraq today.  The Green Zone is a lot of things -- sprawling and somewhat isolated, and RELATIVELY safe compared to much of the rest of the city. This memo and the order it contains marks a benchmark in the conflict because of a recent spike in attacks.  I'm thinking of the Newsweek story a few weeks back featuring the contractors at the bar -- they understand it's dangerous work, and they deserve a certain "haven" from danger.  Does today somehow mark the beginning of the end of that, or is this just a long-delayed cautionary move?

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Early Nightly is up

Brian is on his way to the Council on Foreign Relations on the same day Vice President Cheney has secreted to Baghdad and another rocket attack occurs in the green zone.
Click here or on the image to watch.

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