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Created: April 6, 2003
Latest Update: April 6, 2003
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Backup of NBC's David Bloom dies in IraqNBC's David Bloom dies in Iraq
By Michael Moran, MSNBC
David Bloom, an NBC News correspondent traveling with the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division outside Baghdad, died Sunday, NBC announced. Bloom, a 39-year-old husband and father of three, died of an apparent pulmonary embolism, the company said. He was the second American journalist to die in Iraq since the war began. BLOOM had been co-anchor of the weekend editions of "Today" since March 2000. In his nearly 20-year career, Bloom covered many top stories for NBC News, most recently reporting from Israel on the escalating violence in the Middle East and from the United States on home-front security and the recovery efforts at Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Bob Wright, NBC's chairman and chief executive, said in a note to his staff: "In times like these, a journalist's contribution to his country is measured in terms of illustrious commitment and sacrifice.... There was no one more devoted to his calling than David Bloom, and for that we are both grateful and humbled."
AN INNOVATOR In his most recent assignment -- traveling with the 2nd Battalion, 315 Mechanized Unit of the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry Division in its push toward Baghdad -- Bloom scored what many believe to be a first: broadcasting live reports as the American armored column he was traveling with fought its way north through the Iraqi desert.
Bloom and crew covered the war as no other did: on a specially modified M-88 tank recovery vehicle that allowed them to file live reports during the division's campaign from Kuwait to the outskirts of Baghdad. Bloom's reports from Iraq for NBC News, MSNBC TV and MSNBC.com drew attention to him and his news organization.
Howard Kurtz, the media critic of The Washington Post, noted Bloom's coverage for its "boyish enthusiasm."
"Bloom is seen zipping through the desert so often that he's become Iraq's unofficial travel guide," Kurtz wrote in aMarch 25 review of war coverage.
Technology journals immediately picked up on the significance of Bloom's live, on-the-move reports, made possible in large part because of the foresight and ingenuity of Bloom himself.
LIVE FROM THE 'BLOOMMOBILE'
"He was very involved in the whole process," said Stacy Brady, NBC's vice president of network news operations, who helped modify the armored vehicle that quickly acquired a sobriquet -- the "Bloommobile."
"Just from his reporting experience, he added in a lot of requirements or needs that he thought would be essential for this to work," she said.
Bloom and his cameraman mounted a gyrostabilized camera -- the kind that's mounted on helicopters -- to produce jiggle-free video even when the M-88 was bumping along at 50 mph or more. Then the sharper-than-videophone signal was sent via microwave to a converted Ford F-450 crew-cab truck, two to 10 miles farther back in the column. An antenna on the truck transmitted the signal in real time from its own gyrostabilized platform to an overhead satellite, which relayed it to NBC.
The truck was converted by the Maritime Telecommunications Network, right down to the custom-designed Goodyear tires.
"They're soft and mushy, so they just ooze through the sand," said Richard Hadsall, founder of Maritime Telecommunications Network and the company's chief technology officer.
'TIRELESS DEVOTION'
NBC News President Neal Shapiro said of Bloom that "over the past few weeks, we marveled as he demonstrated a tireless devotion to this story. At this incredibly difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with David's family and all of our brave colleagues who remain overseas."
Former President Clinton said Sunday that Bloom's "integrity and good humor will be missed."
"David Bloom was a smart, energetic professional whose enthusiasm for the job was evident in every question he asked and every story he covered," Clinton said.
Shaken NBC colleagues, including "Today" co-anchor Soledad O'Brien, paid tribute on the network's broadcasts Sunday. "It's a hard morning for all of us," Katie Couric said.
Bloom, who had no apparent health problems, was indefatigable during the war. He reported at all hours for NBC News broadcasts, and also for the cable outlets MSNBC and CNBC.
On the Monday after the war started, Bloom delivered live reports at 2:22 a.m. ET for MSNBC, at 6:55, 7:09 and 8:04 for "Today," at 10:43 for NBC, 10:47 for MSNBC, 11:12 for NBC, 12:31 p.m. for NBC, 12:36 and 2:33 for MSNBC, at 6:37 for NBC's "Nightly News," and at 8:07 and 9:35 again for MSNBC, according to The Washington Post.
"Given the fact that we're filing at all hours of the day and night, you try to pace yourself and get a little sleep," Bloom told the Post. "You're sleeping with your knees propped up around you."
That may have been a risk factor: blood clots frequently form in legs when they've been immobilized and travel through the body, said Dr. Harold Palevsky, chief of pulmonary critical care with the University of Pennsylvania health system.
Dehydration can also be a factor. Palevsky said Army medics, trained and equipped to stop bleeding, may have been less prepared in the desert for a pulmonary embolism.
FROM O.J. TO THE WHITE HOUSE
Bloom covered a wide range of beats during his time at NBC News. Prior to joining "Today," Bloom covered the Republican presidential race for NBC News and had served as White House correspondent since March 1997.
Before being named White House correspondent, Bloom was a Los Angeles-based correspondent for NBC News from May 1995. In that capacity, he reported extensively on the Unabomber, the Freeman standoff in Montana and the war in Bosnia. He also covered Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign and the O.J. Simpson criminal and civil trials.
Bloom joined NBC News as a correspondent based in Chicago in 1993. He previously had been a general-assignment and investigative reporter for WTVJ, the NBC-owned television station in Miami, since November 1989. While at WTVJ, Bloom contributed many reports to NBC News broadcasts. He provided extensive coverage of the U.S. military buildup off Haiti for "NBC Nightly News" and "Today."
He contributed a report about the police investigation and capture of a Florida serial killer for "Dateline NBC" and reported from Cuba during "Today's" trip to that country in 1991. He also covered other major news stories such as Hurricanes Andrew and Emily, the Somali famine, the Midwest floods, the siege by federal agents of the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, the escape of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and the coup that led to a U.S. intervention in Haiti.
Bloom was a co-recipient of the 1992 George Foster Peabody Award and received the Radio-Television News Directors Association's Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of Hurricane Andrew. He received a 1991 Regional Emmy Award for Investigative Journalism for his report on South Florida's role in the shipment of arms to Iraq.
Bloom attended Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., from 1981 to 1985. A native of Edina, Minn., Bloom is survived by his wife, Melanie, and three daughters, 9-year-old twins Nicole and Christine, and 3-year-old Ava.
MSNBC.com's Alan Boyle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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