Highlights Of AARP’s Brian Williams Interview

From AARP The Magazine

NBC’s Brian Williams, the most watched network news anchor in America, shared with AARP The Magazine his impressions of Senators McCain and Obama, and how his predecessor, Tom Brokaw, opened the door for him at NBC, and how he was inspired as a child to become a news anchor by watching Walter Cronkite with his family every night.

Here are highlights of the interview:

On His Front Seat to the 2008 Election:

“I’ve never stopped feeling fortunate that I have this incredible, incredible front-row seat, quite literally, flying around with the candidates, driving through motorcades, going to conventions and debates.”

“Of all the politicians to end up in this race, as a friend of mine would say, these two are ‘quality hangs.’ These are good guys to hang out with.”

“Have I watched a lot of my fellow journalists fall slowly and head over heels in love with John McCain in the back of a moving bus? Yeah. Have I watched a lot of my fellow journalists slightly swoon over Barack Obama in the back of a moving airplane? Yeah… It may give me more ease with them. It may give me more access. But you don’t shy away from that. You don’t say, ‘Oh, God, I enjoy sitting down talking with John McCain, thus I worry about my ability to be impartial, thus I worry I’m going to give him a pass.’ ”

On His Impression of Sen. John McCain:

“It was late. It was the height of the campaign in Iowa. We were in a tiny suburban VFW hall. McCain arrives for a rally. And he has promised us an interview. It was the last thing he wanted to do. It was bedlam. We had fire marshal issues, crowd-control issues. Our microphone didn’t work. McCain wanted to walk out. He was, I will say, having known him for a long time, in a foul mood. I didn’t blame him. It was the end of a grueling day. A network television interview was the last thing he wanted to do — and he did it. And he was pleasant, and he honored his commitment to us.”

McCain “has a stick-to-itivenes and he has these gradations of things that are bothersome in life. A friend of mine who knows him likes to say that he has been ’scarred by the professionals.’ So not much gets to him. And people need to know that about John McCain.”

On His Impression of Sen. Barack Obama:

“Driving through New Hampshire with Obama, alone in the front of thebus with him, I was struck by how easily he relaxes.”

“He seems to have one mode. There’s no pregame ritual before a speech, there’s no post-speech endorphin crash that some politicians suffer.”

“Minutes before he spoke to a quarter of a million people in Berlin, he was standing around with us talking and joking with members of his Secret Service detail. He heard his own introduction and turned toward the stage without ceremony or drama. His aides often use the word serene to describe him — and it’s accurate.”

Williams on His Predecessor, Tom Brokaw:

“You know, I owe much of what I enjoy in life to one guy. I’m in a unique position. This is the guy who sealed the deal to bring me here, who told me that day that he was looking for someone to take over.”

On Balancing a High Profile Career and His Family:

“I missed seven years of dinnertime and bedtime. I tried to balance it out. I was at all the daytime school events and often was the only dad [there].”

“I would leave my daughter a long note every night; she would leave me a long note in return every morning.”

“You send the message that you are happiest at home, in your backyard, in your favorite chair in the den. You’re happiest when surrounded by your family.”

On What Inspired Him To Be A News Anchor:

“Dinner couldn’t begin till Walter Cronkite said, ‘and that’s the way it is.’ Literally. We could not have the family meal until the CBS Evening News was over.”

On His Pride in NBC Nightly News:

“Do I think what we do is important?” “There’s no good way to answer that question and not sound like a pompous stiff. I think it’s important because people watch it. And they are our customers. As long as they’re watching us, I owe them the best job I can do.”

“When I originate a piece of writing for Nightly News, it is then seen by four other adults on what we call ‘the rim’ out here in the newsroom. They are, by definition, hopefully by design, people who didn’t wake up
with the same biases that I did this morning. They are, hopefully, not all married-for-22-years white males who have a two-car garage, two children — one in college, one looking at schools — and my worldview.”

“I view my job as a seat on the Supreme Court.” “I’m in the Brokaw seat on the Supreme Court. Tom used to view it as being in the Chancellor seat; and before him, Frank McGee; and before him, Huntley and Brinkley. And we see it as a continuum. And what you’ll get by tuning in to us is that anticipatable set of assumptions and rules. You’re going to get Nightly News — modernized but pretty much the way it’s been for a long time.”

“Walter Cronkite said an evening newscast is best viewed as a kind of headline service and an adjunct to your daily newspaper. I should add quickly for audiences unfamiliar with that term, newspapers are the paper versions of websites that we hold in our hands. They’re still available.”

For more on Brian Williams, including footage of the photo shoot in which he reveals what being 50 means to him, his thoughts on the presidential election and how he and his wife still feel young when they are in the pit at a Bruce Springsteen concert, go to the AARP magazine web site.

Source: AARP