No room at the inn for the Diggerati

The celebration of the “Life of Brian” in the Big Apple on Friday was a great success in spite of its rocky start. With Aliki Matsi-Williams flying over from Athens, it seemed a great idea to have Reuters name a room on the editorial floor after Brian “Digger” Williams. So I sent a “You do not know me personally, except from the occasional snarky comments on The Baron website BUT…” e-mail to editor-in-chief Stephen Adler, suggesting the idea, or at least a plaque or photo on a wall.

“I think it would be a wonderful gesture to hold a celebration at New York Reuters where he left such an indelible impression both as steadfast and sure-handed editorial helmsman and ever sunny and affable colleague and boss. It would also serve as a nice bridge between one of the legendary horsemen of the old Reuters and the new Thomson Reuters,” I added. 

A reply came back from a certain David Crundwell: “It may come as no surprise that over the years we have had a number of similar requests for other former colleagues,” it said. “On balance we do not feel it would be fair to single out one employee over another - even considering the great contribution that Brian Williams made over the years. I hope you will understand this.”

Well, I told him I most certainly did not understand “this”, and a week later asked if we could at least have a room for the celebration. He replied: “Thanks for your email and as much as we'd like to help I'm afraid we simply don't have the resources free to help you with this event in the building. As I said before, we need to be fair to everyone.”

Now this is Brian “Digger” Williams we’re talking about, a guy of such enormous loyalty to Reuters that when I asked him for a potential reference after I was fired by Reuters while on holiday he replied immediately: “Of course, Matey, but please don’t hit the old firm hard.”

As luck would have it, we found our Bethlehem manger just a couple of blocks down at City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School of Journalism. 

Here, some 40 colleagues of the Digger, grateful for having had the honour of knowing him, gathered to celebrate a life staggering by its achievements as well as providing an endless wellspring of the unparalleled mischief and mayhem it delightfully sired.

After Aliki screened dozens of photos of the Digger in various imperial poses (cigarette and glass to the fore, asleep on the ground, out of a bath tub with a 1,000-mile grin across his face), the inevitable litany of Brian mishaps warmed the memories of all the Diggerati present.

There was the time in the 1980s at an Asian correspondents meeting in Hong Kong when Brian arrived from India, dreaming of oysters and steak. He went to the Mandarin Hotel, the usual Reuters stay, ordered the wonderful food and said “Put it on my hotel bill.” The waiter politely asked for the room number and Brian slapped his key on the table. It was for the nearby, cheaper, Figueroa Hotel. The ensuing dialogue ended up in a story in the South China Morning Post.

Then there was the time Brian was covering Cambodia, fell ill and asked his friend Bob Sullivan of UPI to help him out. Bob wrote his own story, went to breakfast, then wrote for Reuters under Brian’s name. He got a call back from UPI, asking him to match the Reuters story. 

I don’t know whether it was Yom Kippur, Lent and Ramadan all rolled into one, but bash attendees partook somewhat sparingly of the sustenance provided, so the remaining buffet was donated to CUNY journalist graduates with the instruction to Google “Brian Williams: The Baron” to read the fine obituary. 

Treating both food and write-up as manna from heaven, these young bravehearts at the beginning of their careers were moved, inspired, and a damn sight more openly appreciative than Thomson Reuters management. ■