I was a writer at Fortune magazine when I first heard about Nightly Business Report. It was 1979.
Reporting business news on television was a new concept back then. I remember Dan Cordtz left Fortune in 1974 to become the economics correspondent at ABC News. Around the same time Michael Jensen went to NBC from the New York Times. And Newsweek's Jane Bryant Quinn reported business news for CBS. That was it. There was no CNN. No CNBC. No Fox Business News. So it was a really big deal that Nightly Business Report came on the scene with an all business news program five nights a week.
The timing was perfect. The U.S. was in a recession when NBR got started and there was tremendous interest in understanding what was going on -- very similar to the economic situation we're in today. Not surprisingly, NBR quickly established itself as the show of record in the world of business -- a concise wrap up of the day's business and economic news.
I kept a close eye on NBR as I built my own career as a business news television anchor at the networks and on cable TV. I was excited when I came to NBR in 1998 and joined Paul as his Co-Anchor. I have enjoyed celebrating all the milestones -- the 20th and 25th anniversaries, and now the 30th -- and the thrill of ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on each of those occasions. Now as I reflect on the past decade and I look back at my scrapbook, my best memories are all the amazing people I have interviewed.
I feel like I have been an eyewitness to history. I have had the privilege to interview the icons of our time -- builders, business leaders and entrepreneurs. I have talked with the CEOs of America's most famous companies -- General Motors, Disney, ATT, IBM, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Boeing, General Electric, Microsoft, J.P. Morgan, Pfizer, AIG, Verizon, FedEx, Xerox, Merrill Lynch, Caterpillar, Bank of America, the New York Stock Exchange and on and on. I have crisscrossed the country to do face to face interviews with people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Michael Dell, Sandy Weill, Charles Schwab, and Alan Greenspan.
I have also talked with those leaders who fell from grace. Some are now in prison like Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco, and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron. Others have withdrawn from the public arena like former Governor Elliot Spitzer, Dick Grasso of the New York Stock Exchange, Hank Greenberg of AIG and Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae.
I have sat across from the powerbrokers in Washington. I have interviewed many Treasury Secretaries including Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Paul O'Neill, John Snow and Hank Paulson. I am most proud of my White House interviews with President Bush and President Clinton.
There are also the tragic stories I covered in the field. I traveled to New Orleans to report on the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. I didn't have to go too far to cover the tragedy of 9-11. NBR's New York bureau was practically next door to the World Trade Center. It was a tough time, not only because our studios were demolished, but the attack decimated many of the legendary firms of Wall Street and killed many people I knew personally and professionally.
And there are those special situations that were just plain fun. My interview with Lance Armstrong was one of them. And meeting Magic Johnson was really cool too. I feel pretty lucky that I got to spend so much time with these legendary athletes.
As Nightly Business Report begins a new chapter, there are many challenges facing the U.S. economy and Corporate America. I hope to interview the new leaders and trailblazers who will shape the future and make history. So stay tuned to Nightly Business Report because we're just warming up!
Comments
Susie,
You are the hotest woman on tv. Nightly Business Report is soaring because of you and you alone.
The only bottom men care about is your's.
As your necklines plunge our hearts are lightened and our burdens lifted.
Keep up the goodness you empart to all we stock market lossers. We forget about our losses for 1/2 hour every night.
Bless you.
Doug
WE will be holding our annual rotary induction event at Boca Raton Hotel and would like to invite you as a guest speaker for June 26th at 7.
Please contact us to discuss further.
Ms. Gharib,
I don't wish to sound sarcastic, but perhaps it would be best, at this point, to close WALL STREET for a while? Do we ready need a STOCK MARKET (some countries do not possess such a thing)? At various points during the Roosevelt years, it was closed, its performance deemed as having an "unsound impact on the country".
BRIAN LINKE
Maybe NBR should consider the addition of a new forum to its show. One that would take ideas from the common people that might filter its way up to the movers and shakers to let them understand their plight.
I have a good one to start with... mortgage modification. How does anyone really believe that allowing the mortgage brokers and banking community who are responsible for getting us into this mess expect to create a way out that will be in everyones best interest?
I'll give you just one example. Has anyone even considered that a cram down or recast of the mortgage to a lower principal amount may solve one problem but will create a second one for the taxpayer which is the 1099 that will hit them for relief of debt income causing an IRS issue ? The working man cannot just go bill a client for some extra hours or pick up another client to take make the extra money to pay this. He will be saddled with this lump sum, plus penalties, and interest for the rest of his life.
Second one, is the same mark to market rule that the regulators utilize in evaluation of bank liquidity to support their borrowing from the fed for lending purposes for expansion, appropriate at this time ? Would not modification of that rule address alot of the problems with the precipitous drops of the portfolio values associated with institutions heavily invested in mortgage backed securities. Secondly, in a deflationary economy, doesn't it create a self fullfilling prophecy, spiraling down capital assets and creating further need for government intervention with taxpayer money ?
The elite live in the ether of accountants and attorneys, the poor and working class are at their mercy. I am certain that unless someone understands that a "whats in it for me attitude" is not set aside in favor of the greater good, our economic mess currently is the tip of the iceberg.
The hour of giving has arrived. The policies and proceedures adopted during the next short term to deal with our stuggling economy must be directed to help the bottom rise up, to allow the top to flourish.
If you want to grow a tree, you water the roots not the leaves. The working people of the United States have ideas as well as needs.
Maybe NBR can find a spot where a forum of common sense prevails that can make a difference.
You should move Sandy Weill down to the "fell from grace' group. Probably some of the others also, considering how they have helped destroy our financial system as it was when you began.