Life of Brian

Friday, Jan. 4, 2002 | 4:52 a.m.

NBC news anchor Brian Williams has covered some of the most dramatic news events in the world during his 20 years as a reporter, from the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

On Saturday Williams, 42, will appear at the Four Seasons as the featured speaker during a fund-raising dinner for CLASS!, a nonprofit monthly publication produced by and for local high school students. (For tickets call 895-1504.)

Williams, who has won several Emmy Awards for his news coverage, is the permanent substitute anchor for "NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw," and he is the anchor and managing editor of MSNBC's "The News with Brian Williams" (Cox cable channel 47).

Williams recently spoke to the Las Vegas Sun by telephone from his office in Secaucus, N.J., about his upcoming visit and his experiences in broadcast journalism:

Las Vegas Sun: What will be the subject of your speech?

Brian Williams: To tell you the God's honest truth ... I've found the best way to speak to an audience is to be impromptu. I've never written down responses before a speech.

Leave no doubt, I will be topical. I will talk about what we've just been through (the terrorist attacks). I will talk about the program I am there to help ... My custom is to write some notes on the plane on the way out. It doesn't mean I take it any less seriously. But if I don't have a deadline, I don't do as well.

Sun: You have interviewed many world leaders. Who stands out the most in your mind?

BW: I would have to say the morning (in 1994) I was ushered into Nelson Mandela's hotel room on his first morning as president of South Africa. That sticks out in my mind. I don't know if there is a greater success story in our age than a man who once broke rocks in the hot sun during the day in prison (from 1962-1990) and is now a former head of state. It was a joy to cover his election and it was an honor to interview him.

I've watched the Berlin Wall come down, and that probably affected everything about our lives from that day forward. It affected, certainly, my business. It affected what we cover, and the balance of power in the world. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin goes to (President George W.) Bush's ranch and they act like old friends. We are allies again. It is remarkable, and that fact goes back to that night in Berlin.

Sun: Before Sept. 11, was the Berlin Wall the most significant story you covered?

BW: I think so. Prior to Sept. 11, it was the event that changed everything. It took away our big story, in my business. It took away the constant tension between two superpowers under which I grew up. I spent my boyhood in Elmira, N.Y., wondering when the missiles would be coming.

And now I think a lot of the criticism the media have rightly come under lately has been because someone took away our biggest story. The most contentious issue in the world was the tension between those two superpowers. (When the Cold War ended) it brought us a lot of things, including, but not limited to, O.J. Simpson and (Rep.) Gary Condit.

Sun: Are people as interested in the news today as when you first started in the business?

BW: It's coming back around, through no work of our own. I was one of those kids who grew up envying Walter Cronkite, his national audience and marveling at what he did with a television camera and the power of the three network evening newscasts. We've watched that wane, and now we're watching it come back. We never stopped doing the news, we never took our eye off the ball. We would, on occasion, feel ourself forced to cover some trend or story we didn't find all that attractive, but we are back in the business and I think we're being recognized as a vital part of a healthy, vigorous society.

Sun: Has journalism changed drastically in the past few years?

BW: I would only say to you, how many years ago was it that (President Franklin) Roosevelt requested that the cameras be turned away as he was lifted out of his car, and we agreed to it? Now think of what we reported about Bill Clinton. It was during the (Clinton) White House segment of the news that I had to turn my television set off at home. So, I guess journalism has changed, and I'm not sure it is all for the better. Is it saveable? I think it can be changed.

Sun: Are large corporations, which are taking over print and electronic media, affecting the news we get?

BW: I can only speak from my neighborhood. NBC is owned by General Electric, and it's the same NBC I knew before General Electric bought it (in 1986). It doesn't feel to me like this network is owned by a larger company. I was not asked to do or say anything that favored General Electric.

Sun: Was the selection of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the Time magazine's Person of the Year a corporate decision or a news decision?

BW: I've debated this at my own dinner table and with one of their editors. I suppose, at the end of the day, since we are all Amercians and since we all play on the same team, I guess there is a national institutional worry about a cover featuring Osama bin Laden being taken as a tribute. It could be very dangerous, to all of us perhaps. I think as long as you put out that Rudy Giuliani is emblematic of the magnificent comeback of America, then I think you're on fine and firm journalistic footing.

I suppose their fallback position could have been the somewhat generic face of terrorism, a stylized graphic talking about no one in particular. It took a lot of people to do what they did to us on Sept. 11, and I could argue that it was more than one man.

Sun: But wasn't Adolph Hitler a Man of the Year?

BW: When Hitler was on the cover (in 1938), it was because of the pre-World War II buildup and he was this fascinating creature from Germany that we were learning more about. And when Joseph Stalin was on the cover (in 1939), he was on our team. They were not fiends (then). We didn't put (Japanese Prime Minister) Tojo on the cover at the height of the war in the Pacific or (Italian dictator) Benito Mussolini after the landing at Anzio.

Time (magazine) has to answer to a lot of folks. In this decision, if they answered to anyone, it was more likely their readers than their bosses.

Sun: Personally, do you agree with it?

BW: I go to a clinic every week to have my opinions removed. I have no opinions.