Brokaw Says NBC News Still Shaken
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK - Not all of the anxiety and outrage over an anthrax attack has worn off at NBC, anchorman Tom Brokaw said on "Nightly News" Monday as he held up a bottle of antibiotics, but "in Cipro we trust."
Brokaw is one of hundreds of NBC employees taking the drug as a precaution against anthrax. His assistant tested positive for the disease after handling a letter addressed to Brokaw, and another NBC employee is being tested for exposure.
Brokaw said he may have touched the letter.
"I'm not sure, but I'm confident about the fact that (antibiotics are) going to get me through this, and I haven't shown any manifestations," he said earlier on the "Today" show.
Things were decidedly not back to normal at NBC on Monday. The "Nightly News" cameras panned over the empty offices and studio that the signature NBC newscast's staff had abandoned, on orders from health officials.
It will be at least a week until the "Nightly News" staff can return to their offices, spokesman Barbara Levin said.
"It's a makeshift operation," she said. "But it's functional."
Brokaw anchored the nightly newscast from the "Today" show studio across 49th Street from NBC's headquarters, the cameras showing American flags fluttering in the background at Rockefeller Center.
After his staff's morning news meeting, Brokaw said they were ushered into a tutorial on anthrax run by the Centers for Disease Control.
"I suspect that many of us have the same surreal feeling," he said, "that we're watching a movie _ and we're in it."
In perhaps NBC's only good news of the past few days, Brokaw's broadcast appeared to get a bump in the ratings Friday as viewers tuned in to see how he'd react to the news. Preliminary ratings show "Nightly News" gained a full ratings point _ representing 1,055,000 households _ over the previous Friday, according to Nielsen Media Research.
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