TVSquad

After Today's presentation at NBC's press tour day, I wandered up to the stage to ask Al Roker, Meredith Vieira, and Ann Curry some questions (Matt Lauer bolted to catch a flight back east right after the presentation was over). I had one and only one question for Curry, which was "Were you disappointed when you didn't get the anchor job?"

Let's just say that she had a lot of feelings about the move; she even copped a slightly defensive tone when she discussed her own field reporting from Lebanon and Darfur. But all of this came out without prompting by me; I think that somewhere in this soliloquy I uttered the question "So you're doing more field reporting now?" but that was about it. The woman knows how to filibuster; can a career in Congress be in her future?

Curry's entire response is after the jump:

"I think I was trying to figure out the transition of it. I was just not really wanting a change; I didn't want Katie to go. So when she left, I was really in kind of a fog, just trying to figure out... Because I've been doing this job officially ten years in April. And then when the opportunity came up and there was all kind of discussion... I mean, I had to sort of say, 'Gosh, could I do that?' I thought about that. But before I had a chance to think 'Yeah, I want that job,' the job was announced to go to Meredith. I didn't know Meredith, so I didn't know how it would be to work with her. So I went through certain emotions because of that.

"You know... The bottom line is that I will always want to do the thing that will make me the most effective. Because here's the thing that's different about me: I am not in this for fame. Really. And I'm not in this for... I'm in it because I want to make a difference.

"And here's what's happened: with Meredith coming, I have the ability now -- as had happened last year, and will in a bigger way next year and the following years -- I am now able to get projects greenlighted that are not (ever) done. And I'm heard; when I say we ought to go to Lebanon, I'm heard. When I say we aught to pay attention to Darfur, I'm heard. I want that. I don't want... that's what I really want. And I'm so happy.

"It's been wonderful. And it's exactly what I want. And it has been my happiest moment, when I'm oiut there and I know there's something that I've been able to find that's impossible to get and I've been able to put it on television and I know its going to affect people. And let me tell you something; the stories we did on Darfur... the responses we got online and through e-mail was the biggest response of any story, I'm told, ever in the history of Nightly News Online. And, P.S., it's been nominated for an NAACP Image award. I don't need the awards; what I want is the effectiveness. And an example of that is that teachers in particular are using the downloadable reports, and in a matter of eleven days there were 30,000 downloads. What would I want more than that?

"To answer your question: there was a moment where I was thinking 'Gosh, how is it all going to work, and I'm sorry that Katie's going, and do I want this job, and I hope I like Meredith and how is it going to go?', and there was a period I went through that was very hard. But I'm so happy with the way it worked out. I've got to tell you, I adore her, and she and I have built a great relationship. I think it's worked out just the way it should."