Williams Accepts Peabody For NBC

“Earlier today, and just a few blocks from here in Midtown Manhattan, I was honored to accept the 2005 George Foster Peabody award for our coverage of Hurricane Katrina,” NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams writes on the Daily Nightly.

“Steve Capus, NBC News President, was by my side on stage… just as his name was the first I mentioned in accepting for the network. Armed with the very same weather briefing that was given to public officials, it was Capus who sent an army down to New Orleans to prepare to cover the storm. If others had done the same in their respective areas and on a larger scale, perhaps the human suffering we covered would not have been so vast.

I accepted on behalf of all the people who work here, and all the people in the region. For now, the Peabody sits atop the digital clock that is always my focal point in the newsroom. Hardly dignified, I know. But visible… and it does class up the place. It will spend the night safely in the office, and plans are for a permanent glassed-in home as part of the public tour of NBC News.”