Brian Williams Returns To Middle East — For First Time Since Brokaw Warned Him Not To

Last night at 2:27 a.m., NBC News sent out a communique reporting that anchor Brian Williams was in Afghanistan with a team to report live from the region. For security reasons, no other details were released, other than the fact that Williams would be "spending time with U.S. forces engaged in the fight against the Taliban."

It's been over a year since Williams' fourth and most recent trip to the region, in March 2007, but as it turns out this was not the first trip that had been planned. According to Williams, he was planning to go to Iraq last October, but colleague and former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw convinced Williams to cancel the trip, saying that it wasn't safe.

That's what Williams told student journalist Emily Fitzmaurice of Fairfield University, prior to delivering a speech in November 2007 . Williams told Fitzmaurice that going to Iraq was "very expensive and it's very costly and it's very dangerous." Williams then recounted the story of how his last trip had been scuttled:

When I go to Iraq as I have four times, I have to volunteer for it. No one sends me. I raise my hand. When I raised my hand recently and wanted to make my fifth trip in October, I have a co-worker named Tom Brokaw who thought that was a bad idea, and he told me so. And so I canceled the trip. Once he said, 'Don't go, I don't think it's safe right now,' that totally jinxed it for me, and what was I gonna do, look my wife in the eye and say, 'No it would be fine'?"

According to NBC spokesperson Allison Gollust, the October trip "didn't work out because the timing wasn't right..I don't think it ever even got to the point of having dates" (but presumably it would have been scheduled before the final week of the month, when Williams was preparing for hosting "Saturday Night Live" and moderating a debate between Democratic candidates for president in Philadelphia).

Gollust also said that trips such as this are discussed frequently at NBC, saying "I'm sure have [we have] talked about similar trips since October."

Williams echoed Gollust in a blog entry posted this morning, saying that he had been "trying to get here for some time." He also gave a nod to the sentiments expressed by Brokaw back in the fall: "[W]hile not everyone in New York was exactly in love with the idea of traveling here, the time was right and I appreciate being able to come here — as I appreciate the hard work and precautions that have gone into this trip."

Williams and his crew — "three full producers and multiple camera crews" according to Gollust — have been joined by NBC News Tel Aviv bureau chief Martin Fletcher, who recently published Breaking News, a memoir based on his career as a war correspondent. (Also on the trip is Williams' longtime producer (and Canadian) Subrata De, to whom Williams apparently had to pretend to be married on the flight over to avoid an on-board power struggle over seating. Let that be the scariest adventure they have.)

In a neat bit of timing, Williams' arrival in Afghanistan coincides with the publication of a New York Observer article about 'Iraq war fatigue' and the challenges of reporting from the region, and engaging viewers in coverage of the war. Said Williams to Fitzmaurice: "We can't allow ourselves to be driven by public tastes all the time. I've had people say to me, 'no one's gonna watch that, no one cares' - and that's a cancerous, deadly, awful thing to say in a newsroom." In early September 2007, Katie Couric took the CBS Evening News to Iraq and Syria; the week was a ratings low for the network.

Gollust could not confirm Williams' schedule or whether this trip would include a visit to Iraq, but she did confirm that he will be back in time to host the Peabody Awards on Monday, June 16th, as scheduled.

Update: Williams told TVNewser's Gail Shister that he will, in fact, be going to Iraq. See here.

In Afghanistan [Daily Nightly]
News64: The Brian Williams Interview at Fairfield University [YouTube]

Comments

[Durango]

When I watch Williams I can't help but think that you could have seen almost the identical newscast using the same "feel good' news in the exact same places in Moscow about 1984 or so.

The Soviets were, after all, "helping" the Afghani people to modernize their country. And the Soviet soldiers were there for all the "best" reasons. And were "heroes", every one of them.

Williams, get a clue. It doesn't matter what the Special Forces soldiers think. Or the hand picked Afghanis. The only thing that matters is what the Afghanis think.

And you are never going to figure that out. You don't even connect with Americans.

Williams is a fool who does not deserve the position he has. He needs to get back to America. Get a low paying service job. At Walter Reed maybe. In an Inner City school. Or even in a big city police department somewhere.

He should work for next to no pay. With no benefits. Live from paycheck to paycheck.

And then maybe, just MAYBE he would understand what it means to be an American in the 21st Century.

[MemphisBuffalo]

Like I said, the trip will be nothing more than fluff features. It is sad to see how journalism exited from television in the last 15 years.

[od]

I like Mr. Williams, but could not believe last night's send off:

"This is Brian Williams, reporting from Afghanistan--where every day is an adventure.­"

I think I threw up in my throat just a little.

[romchr]

"Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw convinced Williams to cancel the trip..."

Sorry, but... he "persuaded Williams to cancel" after he "convinced" him it was unsafe. You can't convince anyone to do anything.

[dayindalife]

GREAT! So far,day2 and it's all about Brian. Forget about ever getting to the real issues here.
When do we get to the part about all the human interest (people mag) stories?
let's see- re-cap of 9-11,talab­an,binlade­n,patrioti­c solders,living conditions for civilians,so long,it's been great being here. Come and see the show!

[ThePhilosopher]

Note to the HuffPo headline writer: Afghanistan is NOT part of the Middle East. If you have to classify it in a particular geographic region, you should place it either in Central Asia or the Indian Subcontinent, but definitely not in the Mid-East.

[Rachel Sklar - Huffpost Blogger]

I was using the expansive, WorldAtlas.com http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/me.htmuntrys/me.htm

And also the invent-you­r-own-boun­daries definition of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ia.org/wiki/Middle_East

And here's the Independent classifying it as http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/suicide-bomber-kills-80-at-dog-fighting-competition-in-afghanistan-783451.html51.html

I was going for a regional generality which I guess you are letting me know I failed to communicate. Hm. Okay, noted - thanks.

[HeevenSteven]

Rachel, you're my new hero.

[HumeSkeptic]

When I was a kid, Afghanistan was not in the Middle East.

[HeevenSteven]

All the news that Brian thinks G.E. wants us to hear. I've totally lost respect for him. He is completely obfuscating and denying the complicity of the press in selling the war and happy talking it since. He and Russert and Gregory are just takin' care the company, screw the truth.

[Colmore]

I imagine he will be well protected, as McCain, Graham and Liebermann were. I lost all respect for Williams when he interviewed Georgie in NOLA. He asked about the books he (reportedly) read. Georgie said "I also read 3 Shakespeares" Instead of asking "Which 3? Which was your favorite?" He just changed the subject. No wonder Georgie thinks he has us all fooled about his lack of intelligence. When so called "reporters" give him free passes on idiotic statements such as this, it just reinforces the fact that Georgie thinks most Americans are too stupid to be "onto hm"

[HeevenSteven]

Yeah, isn't that a knee slapper --Georgie reads a book a week?

[cmdrgmh]

I think our News Anchors need to stay away from these places. We have lost so many good reporters to this war. We can't lose these Icons. Just think what would happen if the taliban gets thier hands on one of America's News Icons. I shutter to think of it.

[Colmore]

Surely you jest? "News Icon"??? This is another so-called reporter who has been ignoring the real news for 7 1/2 years. How ANY intelligent person could interview Georgie, and keep a straight face is beyond me. "News Icon"? They are all dead and gone, unfortunately. One exception is Dan Rather who tried to tell the truth and was thoughly pilloried for that. Maybe he was made an example of to the rest of them, tell the truth and you are out of a job.

[PKSSK]

Thank you, I kept reading for the punch line of the joke...Wil­liams a "News Icon"??? This statement proves that education is truly lacking in America.