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Breaking news

I was sitting down to write today's post when Tim Russert called with a major piece of news out of Washington: Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota is hospitalized at George Washington University Hospital (which houses a superb trauma center) having suffered a stroke. Sen. Johnson is a young man, not quite yet 60, known to be in good shape. Given his political contacts with the South Dakota delegation, I called Tom Brokaw and shared the news and we all got working on it.  It goes without saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the senator and his family. That is first and foremost at this hour. There are also obvious political ramifications that play a potential role here: should the senator become incapacitated, the Republican Governor would appoint a successor under South Dakota law. That would put the Senate at 50-50 and tilt effective control to the Republicans under Vice President Cheney's role as tie-breaking vote. This is a big breaking story on so many levels, and we are all working it. Chip Reid is on it in Washington, and Tim Russert will be by my side on the air tonight here in New York. Right now on MSNBC, Bill Press is making a very important point: GWU Hospital has a world-class stroke unit and is full of top-flite professionals... that is what we should emphasize right now, until we learn more. We hope to have much more by airtime. (Editor's note: You can read the latest on Sen. Johnson's health here.)

Tim will also be with us tonight to debut our new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll numbers -- which, while embargoed for release, reach new benchmarks in the President's approve/disapprove category and his handling of the war. And while this breaking news above sends the top of our broadcast into some flux, we'll also cover Iraq, Secretary Rumsfeld, President Bush's comments today, the search in Oregon (and the coming, collosally bad weather there), the front in Afghanistan, today's medical news, and our featured story about a shopping trend this holiday season.

So its back to work, back to the phones and we hope you will join us for our Wednesday night broadcast.

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A theme emerges

A Senior White House official told me earlier today the President's speech to the nation (laying out a new strategy in Iraq) will indeed now likely be in January. While this runs contrary to what I was told just yesterday, and while this official understands a lot could happen between now and then (exposing the President to the risk of having to "react" to external events), this official explained the White House would rather "get it (the speech) right... than just get it OUT." Given the voracity of the Washington press corps for a drumbeat/theme story -- the past few news cycles have been dominated by the President's "listening" to various experts and branches of government prior to whatever pronouncement is coming -- and that will likely continue.  On CNN (where Jack Cafferty just said "the DECIDER has decided not to decide until January..."), they just ran a large graphic headline saying "WAY FORWARD STALLED." And I note that on MSNBC is the on-screen graphic: SHOULD BUSH CONSIDER FORMING A BIPARTISAN WAR COUNCIL?" With Robert Gates now days away from taking over as SecDef, someone at our editorial meeting noted that Rumsfeld has given an interesting interview to Cal Thomas -- specifically his comments about the phrase "War on Terror." 

Our broadcast will likely begin with some combination of the White House and Iraq.  Among our other topics tonight: immigration, the Mt. Hood rescue mission, the "other fronts" in Afghanistan (we have some great reporting from Jim Maceda on top of what the New York Times published from the region yesterday) and as promised, a look at who's watching the various charities during this busy giving season.

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Listening tour

The Onion headline a few days ago read: "DISCOURAGED PRESIDENT BUSH BEGINS SEEKING APPROVAL OF OTHER NATIONS." While that's a few steps removed from reality, the President today embarked on a well-choreographed "tour" of several branches of government... starting with the State Department. This afternoon, he's meeting with military and academic types, including not one but two of our colleagues: Retired U.S. Army Generals Barry McCaffrey and Wayne Downing -- both retired 4-stars, both good friends of ours. Gen. Downing was my traveling companion in Iraq at the start of the war. We will talk to both men tonight, though we understand there will be obvious limits on what they can share with us about any counsel they gave the Commander in Chief. Back to the President's "listening tour" -- while a high-placed lawmaker made the point to me today that "it's nothing the President couldn't learn in a phone call," that's not quite the point. It's all part of the very public run-up to the President's pre-Christmas speech, one component in the Iraq Study Group aftermath, and it's in preparation for possible changes in strategy in Iraq. That's IF the news media don't elect Sen. Barack Obama president by acclamation and consensus by then... which brings us to another story we'll cover tonight: the senator's trip to New Hampshire this weekend, which gathered a crowd of 1,500 including 150 accredited members of the news media. Check your calendars. Deep breaths, everyone.

I urge you to look for Andrea Mitchell's reporting on Iran tonight. They're holding a panel on the Holocaust and one of the speakers is someone (an American) we haven't heard much from of late, for good reason. Robert Bazell has a sobering report on early diagnosis of Alzheimer's, and Anne Thompson has a great piece on the icons of the Baby Boomer generation and how they get you to buy.

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THE WEEK THAT WAS, UNLESS IT WASN'T

It is so hard to predict what will become of the paperback document (and the nine months of work by 10 public servants that went into it) and tonight we'll look back on the week and try to look forward to what might come next. Given the seemingly insatiable desire among some in Washington to reflexively attack anything new -- insisting on finding party lines to define it -- the odds might be longer than some might think.

Also tonight, and in no particular order: Taco Bell, hand grenades, jobs, housing, and foul shots. The latter refers to our Friday night "Making a Difference" segment. And, as Andrea Mitchell has done so beautifully on this blog today, we'll remember Jeane Kirkpatrick.

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The day after

Back from Washington and tonight we'll examine the ramifications and reverberations from yesterday's Iraq Study Group findings. Our reporting will come from David Gregory, Jim Miklaszewski and Dawna Friesen. Jane Arraf will report from the streets of Baghdad. There's an interesting update on the spy story in London (are we all going to end up involved in this in some fashion before this is over?), and Dr. Nancy Snyderman will have an important report on the intersection of autism... and legislation.

THE AFTERGLOW/THE AFTERMATH
Last night before leaving our studios on Capitol Hill in Washington, I literally ran into retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and retired Sen. Chuck Robb. Like many ISG members, they were on a media tour of sorts. We had a very pleasant conversation. I told them I had interviewed the ISG creator Frank Wolf, R-Va., and they explained they'd been unable to find him to ask him how he felt about how it all went. As she did at the news conference, Justice O'Connor said to me, "It really is up to you people (in the media) to take this before the public so the people will pay attention." I told them both that all three broadcast networks had carried the event live, and would anchor from Washington last night, and I related the non-stop cable coverage all day yesterday.

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Here on the Hill

I am just back from spending some time with Secretary Baker and Congressman Hamilton. On days like this, at events like this, the networks draw lots for major interviews. The last time we did this was to interview Congresswoman Pelosi, the day after the election. Today, NBC was fourth in the order -- a place in the batting order which really amounted to a chance to see some colleagues. Charlie Gibson was exiting the Hart Senate Office building as we drove up. Then I saw Brit Hume, who had just finished his interview. Anderson Cooper next, as he was walking out. Katie and I waited in a holding room, and she followed our interview slot. Luckily, we all get along very well (of the group, I've spent the most time and flown the most miles with Brit, who covered the Clinton White House for ABC while I covered for NBC). As quarters are close, we go to so many of the same events, and we all see each other often.

I came away very pleased with our conversation with Messrs. Baker and Hamilton. I found their answers (as I did watching the press conference earlier) very candid and quite emotional. Speaking only as a citizen, it is so pleasing to see our very best public servants -- true patriots who have already given so much for their country -- come together and answer the call for what they see as the common good. The alliance between Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton is a wonderful example, as is the friendship forged between former rivals Ford and Carter. I think a huge percentage of the American people crave this kind of cooperation -- and today was a stark example of it.

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UPDATE FROM WASHINGTON

We are awaiting the Iraq Study Group news conference. We will air it live from here on Capitol Hill on the NBC television network. It will also air live on MSNBC. Following the event, I will make my way to the Russell Senate Office Building for interviews with Secretary Baker and Congressman Hamilton.

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Shuttle diarist

All of us waiting for the 8:30 Delta Shuttle to Washington were subjected to a modern-day dynamic in this era of the cellphone as public address system: if it's important to YOU, it should be important to all those around you.
                                                   
I'm old enough to recall a time when calls placed to a loved one from an airport were hushed affairs, placed from a tiny booth with a hinged door that you closed up tight behind you. Onlookers could see only your moving lips as you discussed whatever topic needed discussing. It was back when phones were attached with wires, and back when the designers of the telephone foolishly assumed we would want the placement of the mouthpiece to correspond with the location of the average human mouth.
                                                         
We know so much more now. These days, we've learned the EAR is a better place for the microphone. Sure, you need to talk a little louder to make the sound bend up and around to the side of your head, but do you know anyone whose looks wouldn't be enhanced by a clip-on earpiece with a cool blue flashing light? With this discovery, the era of the "Bluetooth over-share" was ushered into American life. Americans learned the thrill of conducting a full-throated telephone conversation in close quarters, for all to hear, for all to share. Intimate family topics can be discussed at loud volume -- without those old concerns over "privacy"  -- our celebration of self means that complete strangers won't mind hearing it -- because it's a person or topic that's important to US. 

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About last night

When I awoke this morning, the e-mail in my BlackBerry reported the response to last night's special version of the broadcast, with limited commercial interruption: "it's in the thousands -- too many to count -- all positive so far."
                           
As a close friend and colleague said to me this morning, "Dick Salant (legendary former CBS News President) would be so proud." Dick became a good friend and mentor in the last years of his life -- that quote implies that Dick would have approved of what happened on the air last night. Thanks to a single underwriter, we were able to pack approximately 28 minutes of news into the 30 minutes the network gives us. Salant is a weighty name to toss around in our line of work, because of his steadfast protection of network news, so that was enormously gratifying to hear.    

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About tonight's broadcast

Tonight's NBC Nightly News will look very different to veteran viewers. We're experimenting tonight with something close to what our friends at PBS call an "underwriter" -- a single sponsor for the entire broadcast. Tonight, Philips has purchased the entire half hour. The commercial breaks will be limited (just two of them) and extremely brief. The comments I receive most often from viewers that I meet have to do with the content of the news itself... and our commercial load. We love our sponsors of course, all of them... they pay for all we do here... but for those interested in consuming as much news as possible with the fewest interruptions, we think you'll find tonight's format to your liking. We plan to do it again, and keep experimenting with it. I'd love to use it as a model for a new way to do business, but luckily for my company, I have absolutely nothing to do with the business side of NBC News. You WILL see a discernible difference in the amount of time devoted to NEWS in tonight's broadcast -- it is just a few minutes shy of the entire half hour, and that makes us all very happy. (Editor's note: We've set up a special feedback page where you can share your views with the broadcast and Philips. Just click here.)

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