[On May 18, 1990, the 10th anniversary of the eruption, I stood on the ridge named for David Johnston. Next to me was Tom Brokaw of NBC News. Each of us had finished our respective live shots, and we stood in silence as shafts of sunlight beamed down between darkening clouds over the volcano.] You're lucky, ... I have to head out of here tonight, but you get to live near this mountain. There isn't a place on Earth like it. |
A lot of you wrote about the fact that I took off a lot of time last summer, that was in part to try to contemplate how I wanted to live the rest of my life, |
An ideology designed to empower the masses became one of the most ruthless instruments of oppression, ... It is not enough to wire the world if you short-circuit the soul. Technology without heart is not enough. |
As I walked the beaches with the American veterans who had returned for this anniversary, men in their sixties and seventies, and listened to their stories, I was deeply moved and profoundly grateful for all they had done, |
At a time in their lives when their days and nights should have been filled with innocent adventure, love, and the lessons of the workaday world, they were fighting in the most primitive conditions possible across the bloodied landscape of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, and the coral islands of the Pacific, |
David and I have actually talked about this. |
David Brinkley was an icon of modern broadcast journalism, a brilliant writer who could say in a few words what the country needed to hear during times of crisis, tragedy and triumph, |
Don't overstate Fox News. It's still much smaller than the least of the network niches. |
For example, ... your lead for tonight might be, ‘Flashing their characteristic intelligence and brilliance, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather... |
He was also great personal company: charming, witty and mischievous. He was my hero as well as my friend. |
He was one of my very favorite people. He was a great man. He was a great model for all of us. |
I don't know, I've never been to this event before - it's CBS. |
I gave him a sleeping bag. I didn't know he'd have so much opportunity to use it. |
I knew that Brian had a lot of overtures from other networks. The last thing we wanted to do was to lose him. |
I know that I speak for both of us when I say how deeply touched we are by that reception, and it makes it all that much more poignant in the absence of our colleague, Peter Jennings. |