EXCLUSIVE: Brian Williams Writes Home…

NOTE: My nephew occasionally goes into New York for his job and last night, while walking past the GE building, he came across this note, which had apparently been dropped by Williams as he left the building following his nightly newscast.  Hat tip to my nephew for typing up the note and sending the contents along to me via email.

General Electric, Inc.

“We Bring Good Things to Life”

30 Rockefeller Plaza

Rockefeller Center

New York, New York 10112

FROM THE DESK OF:

BRIAN WILLIAMS

NBC Universal

NEWS DIVISION INFOTAINMENT DIVISION

NBC Nightly News

MOM,

Just a quick note to tell you that I won’t be able to come to the annual family reunion this year.  I’ve gotta go out of the country next week.

Katie, Charlie, and I are all going with Barack to Europe!  I really wanted to get to the reunion, but the Obama campaign offered us free drinks and extra bags of peanuts to get us on the flight! Ha, ha!

Heck, I know he’s not even the official nominee yet, let alone the President, but we all thought it would be nice to break new ground and cover the trip.  Get sort of a preview of what might go on once he IS President. You know I’m doing all I can to make sure that happens! (SHHH, don’t let THAT get around!) Even though there won’t be any real news being made in terms of foreign policy, it will be fun to see Europe through Barack’s eyes. This will be almost as fun as when I interned and then worked in the White House when Jimmy Carter was there and Billy and Miss Lillian came for visits!

It’s going to be a pretty hectic trip, but don’t worry. I know you think I rely on Ambien too much, but at least you don’t have to worry about me mixing it with booze during the trip since I don’t touch the stuff.

I was thinking, Mom, how Katie and Charlie both have this DEEP BACKGROUND in morning TV, and how Charlie started out as a local anchor and reported for ABC.  But I’ve always been a SERIOUS JOURNALIST.  And now we’re all anchors…I’m going to really pull out all the stops to show that I’m A LOT better at reading the news than they are on this trip!!  I really think, though, that my former job as a lobbyist for the National Association of Broadcasters gave me leg up before I became a real journalist.  It gave me the experience to give a sales job to anyone who’ll listen!

We’ll be taking a lot of pictures and filming a lot of stuff and we’ll all do interviews with Barack and I bet that the Obama campaign will be using some of it to make their own campaign ads for later use…so much better than the usual photo op with lots of people just standing around! I’m sure I’ll be able to help out, since I’ve traveled so much more than he has and can point out what sights look good on camera and what will work well for inspiring backgrounds. And I’m sure we’ll get lots of good video of cheering crowds, which will help his cred here at home!  And, it’ll be a “feel good” thing and have the public thinking America is No. 1 and that everybody loves us again, too!

This whole trip should be a blast because Obama is a real cool guy…and his wife won’t be with him! I bet we’ll have even more fun than when I went to Africa with Bono–poverty and disease is such a drag to cover! I bet I’ll have some things to tell that I can use later to write a book. Then I can go on Leno if I hurry up and write it, or Conan or Letterman or Jon Stewart and show off my clever wit! I always like doing that!

And I’m SOOOO glad they stuck Tom Brokaw with Meet the Press! It would have been a pain to have to work on Sundays, too, after a full week of reading the teleprompter. And I’m glad he isn’t going on this trip!  He’s just so OLD. I’m glad he’s staying home!!  Especially since he criticized our coverage of the primaries when we all wanted Clinton to quit the race.

You know, McCain has traveled overseas lately a few times, but we haven’t gone along. He’s like Brokaw–OLD and without that “charisma” thing. (Chuck Hagel is pretty old, too, but if Obama likes him…well, then, that’s OK.)

(Hey, Mom, you know I don’t think YOU’RE old!)

Well, Mom, I have to get home so I can start packing.  Give my regards to the rest of the family and tell Uncle Stan to watch it with the keilbasie.  You don’t want to have a repeat of what happened last year…

Brian

*****

I looked up some of his references in his note to find out what he was talking about and came up with some places that gave me more information on Brian Williams and:

Ambien

National Association of Broadcasters

Travels, Bono,White House intern, Jimmy Carter