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.
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Editor's note: Mark will have a full report on this topic Sunday on NBC Nightly News.
BEIJING - You can love Chinese food and eat it everyday. But after living in Beijing for a while, there's a point when the occasional craving for American fast food -- even a Big Mac -- sneaks up on you. As you take your first bite into the iconic burger from a box and taste un-pickled cucumbers and a very spicy special sauce, you realize, 'I may be in McDonald's, but I'm in China.'
Western businesses scrambling to do business in China are adapting to Asian tastes -- literally. Whether it's McDonald's selling their spicy Big Mac alongside a tall clear plastic cup of corn and bean curd dessert pies; or one Shanghai Wal-Mart selling eels and turtles as food, not pets; or Starbucks, with its 220 mainland China stores selling mooncakes and providing waiter service, U.S. companies are glad to cater to Chinese customers because the business potential in China is enormous.
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Link to thisI want to begin this weekend by telling you about a recorded phone message I received after last Saturday's broadcast. The viewer did not identify himself. But he clearly was angry about what he had heard and seen on Nightly News.
The viewer was upset because we used the phrase "one of the worst attacks since the war began." In fact, last Saturday a suicide bomber launched what was the deadliest single attack since the war began. At least 130 Iraqis were killed.
The caller went on... "Can't you come up with a better phrase than this? Aren't you sick and tired of saying this?"
Then he said... "We're tired of hearing about it. Nobody understands this war. I wouldn't know a Shiite from an Iraqi. Nobody knows what the fighting is about. We just want it to end. Nobody even cares anymore. We're tired of the same phrases every night."
He ended with this. "Give it a *&#@!#* rest.!"
Discuss (15 comments) Email this | Link to thisI can say with some certainty that the discussion in our newsroom at this time yesterday was the same discussion taking place in so many other newsrooms, broadcast and print, around the country: Where and how to play the Anna Nicole Smith story. Some of my colleagues thought it was the lead story. Others did not. I did not. Others pointed to the drop-everything, wall-to-wall live coverage all day on all three cable networks. To that argument I responded that I worked in cable for several years. I know cable. Cable is a friend of mine. We are not cable. Is it a news story? Yes. People have a funny way of deciding for themselves what is a news story sometimes, and those drawn to the coverage, and to her, can explain the interest in this 39-year-old former Playboy centerfold better than I can. In writing the lead to our coverage last night, I tried to indicate that her popularity may have more to do with our current media/celebrity culture than we realize.
Discuss (51 comments) Email this | Link to thisThe sign along County Road 17 in Redfield, N.Y., reads "FREE SNOW," but I bet if you asked they might consider paying you to take some.
In the last six days, this remote town on the Tug Hill Plateau alongside Lake Ontario has been blanketed with enough lake effect snow to reach a basketball hoop. By some accounts, 122 inches since Sunday.
But at the Country Home Restaurant, Michael Brown is unphased. "It's a wonderful day," he says, staring out the front window while serving lunch to the assembled visiting news crews. (This reporter's recommendation: the 12 oz. cheeseburger.)
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"It's a glint in somebody's eye. It's a feeling. It's an emotion. And If I can put that happiness back into somebody else's life, then it puts happiness into mine." -- Ricardo Pustanio, Mardi Gras artist
We met up with Pustanio this week as he placed the finishing touches on Mardi Gras floats for the Krewe of Mid City. He believes Mardi Gras is a welcome distraction for residents who continue to struggle with rebuilding their homes and lives. This year's carnival season is expected to be larger than last year's, when the city was forced to scaled back the festivities following Katrina. Prior to the storm, Mardi Gras generated approximately $1 billion for the city's tourist economy.
Photo by NBC's Bruce Bernstein.
Discuss (5 comments) Email this | Link to thisI'm writing this while on hold. I'm about to do a radio interview, and we're still sorting out the running order. There are astounding new stats out today on autism -- we'll deconstruct the numbers. The prosecution has rested in the Libby trial. I've just spoken to Tim Russert who will join us live to talk about his experience on the witness stand. We'll also look at a new international development: how relations with North Korea may be changing.
Having spent the first 10 years of my life in Upstate New York, I know that life there during this time of year takes a certain amount of fortitude. Lake Effect snow, they say, "builds character." It also builds up... at the rate of 20 inches a day... and we'll check in on what is really a winter weather emergency in the town of Oswego.
Beyond those broad strokes, this far from airtime... tonight's broadcast is a bit hard to predict, due to breaking news and inevitable changes.
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Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York, where a few hour's drive to the north they're experiencing whiteout conditions and near-record snowfalls. Pulaski, N.Y., is buried under 88" of snow, with more on the way. Correspondent Peter Alexander reports tonight from nearby Oswego, N.Y.
Weather is just one of the stories Brian previews in today's vlog. Click here or on the image to watch.
Discuss (5 comments) Email this | Link to thisRoger Wroley is ready to sell his 1972 Dodge Challenger (10:1 compression ratio, 281 cam, 470 lift). Wroley's put years of tender loving care into this HEMI replica that originally cost $3,800. At auction, he thinks he might get $60,000 for it.
But he's up against some pretty stiff competition at the KRUSE Vintage Car Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz. The fairgrounds are packed with American icons of an era past. There are the ever popular '57 Chevys and a 1956 Oldsmobile with only 21,000 original miles. There's a Super Bee, a Dodge 1970 Coronet, and the pink 1957 Thunderbird convertible is getting a lot of second looks.
Mickey Weise, the former race car champion, wants to add to his collection. He's got his eye on a BOSS Mustang. The bidding will probably start at more than $100,000 for this jewel.
But Roger Wroley may have a secret strategy to sell his Challenger.
Click here or on the image to watch it all unfold on video.
And watch the broadcast tonight for more from correspondent Kevin Tibbles on why these very hot wheels are going for unbelievable prices.
Discuss (0 comments) Email this | Link to thisIf you read this space regularly, then you know that we can't ask Tim Russert about his testimony in the Libby trial until he finishes with his testimony. If that happens this afternoon, we'll have him on live. If they hold him over until tomorrow, we will report it as a news story (and detail the testimony as we would any "key" witness) and we'll interview Tim tomorrow night.
We have a very troubling trend of choppers being shot at in Iraq, and today brings word of the death of seven Americans on board a twin-rotor chopper. Also tonight, Richard Engel reports from his embedded position with a U.S. combat team. The NASA saga continued today -- though the second-guessing going on over psychological vetting is a bit like saying that everyone in Boston who discovered an assembly of batteries, circuitry, electrical tape and lights -- should have instantly known it was a promotion for the Cartoon Network.
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Brian anchors the broadcast tonight from New York. While he returns from New Orleans, Tom Costello delivers the vlog from Washington, D.C. He'll report tonight on the most-clicked story on MSNBC.com -- the attempted murder charge against astronaut Lisa Nowak.
Click here or on the image to watch the vlog.
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