NBC's Williams Heads to Oklahoma City
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK -- With cardinals meeting in Rome to begin selecting a new pope, NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams chose instead to travel to Oklahoma City for broadcasts commemorating the 10th anniversary of the bombing there.
NBC News stationed Lester Holt in Vatican City, where all of the networks interrupted programming for live coverage of the papal conclave's start.
Williams' Oklahoma City trip was scheduled before NBC knew that the selection process for a new pope would begin Monday. But he and NBC executives decided not to change it.
"I'm convinced that for the first two days of this week and what it meant to the United States, we are in the right place," Williams said by telephone during a stopover in Chicago.
Williams will anchor "Nightly News" Monday and Tuesday from the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where a bomb killed 168 people on April 19, 1995.
None of the other evening news anchors are in Rome. At ABC, where Peter Jennings is out while he undergoes treatment for lung cancer, Charles Gibson anchored Monday's special report from New York, and Bob Woodruff was in Rome. Bob Schieffer was in New York for CBS; John Roberts anchored the special report from Rome.
CBS has sent "The Early Show" co-host Harry Smith to Oklahoma City and ABC sent weekend "Good Morning America" anchor Bill Weir there.
While in Oklahoma City, Williams will do a report on Alan Whicher, a former Secret Service agent who protected President Clinton and the first President Bush and who died in the blast. NBC will also look back on how those injured in the bombing are doing today.
A visit to America's heartland is also good marketing for NBC: it's where Williams' predecessor Tom Brokaw's strength was, and where NBC has advertised Williams as being in-tune with between-the-coasts viewers.
He'll also moderate a panel discussion on how terrorism has changed Americans' lives, but Williams said it was scheduled after the trip was decided upon.
His trip also doesn't mean he can't make it to Rome if the conclave stretches into a third day, Williams said.
Meanwhile, cable news networks began conclave coverage with a new innovation: the smokestack cam. CNN kept a continuous picture of the Sistine Chapel chimney -- where white smoke will eventually signal the election of a new pope -- in a box on the lower right-hand corner of its screen. Fox News Channel and MSNBC also flashed frequent pictures of the smokestack.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK -- With cardinals meeting in Rome to begin selecting a new pope, NBC "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams chose instead to travel to Oklahoma City for broadcasts commemorating the 10th anniversary of the bombing there.
NBC News stationed Lester Holt in Vatican City, where all of the networks interrupted programming for live coverage of the papal conclave's start.
Williams' Oklahoma City trip was scheduled before NBC knew that the selection process for a new pope would begin Monday. But he and NBC executives decided not to change it.
"I'm convinced that for the first two days of this week and what it meant to the United States, we are in the right place," Williams said by telephone during a stopover in Chicago.
Williams will anchor "Nightly News" Monday and Tuesday from the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where a bomb killed 168 people on April 19, 1995.
None of the other evening news anchors are in Rome. At ABC, where Peter Jennings is out while he undergoes treatment for lung cancer, Charles Gibson anchored Monday's special report from New York, and Bob Woodruff was in Rome. Bob Schieffer was in New York for CBS; John Roberts anchored the special report from Rome.
CBS has sent "The Early Show" co-host Harry Smith to Oklahoma City and ABC sent weekend "Good Morning America" anchor Bill Weir there.
While in Oklahoma City, Williams will do a report on Alan Whicher, a former Secret Service agent who protected President Clinton and the first President Bush and who died in the blast. NBC will also look back on how those injured in the bombing are doing today.
A visit to America's heartland is also good marketing for NBC: it's where Williams' predecessor Tom Brokaw's strength was, and where NBC has advertised Williams as being in-tune with between-the-coasts viewers.
He'll also moderate a panel discussion on how terrorism has changed Americans' lives, but Williams said it was scheduled after the trip was decided upon.
His trip also doesn't mean he can't make it to Rome if the conclave stretches into a third day, Williams said.
Meanwhile, cable news networks began conclave coverage with a new innovation: the smokestack cam. CNN kept a continuous picture of the Sistine Chapel chimney -- where white smoke will eventually signal the election of a new pope -- in a box on the lower right-hand corner of its screen. Fox News Channel and MSNBC also flashed frequent pictures of the smokestack.
Copyright 2005 Newsday Inc.
posted by Scott Fish at 12:44 AM
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