Fortunately, President Bush did not have to rely on CNN for his knowledge of the last e-mail from David Bloom to his wife."...The president then read from David Bloom's last e-mail home, in which the rising star of NBC wrote to his wife that he cared not much for his professional achievement compared to his love for three things: Jesus, her and their daughters. The audience again expressed approval of the president's tribute.
Moving words by a world leader to a moved audience. But I doubt you saw them on your television or read of them in a prominent place in your paper.
I suspect it was Bloom's reference to Jesus that sealed the decision of the news directors to skip the speech in their broadcasts Sunday..." - Hugh Hewitt
See, for instance, a COMPLETE version of that e-mail in the Star Tribune:The POWER of that quote is somewaht diminished in the CNN version, eh?And from the CNN version - WITHOUT the reference to Jesus:The son of Harold and Laura Bloom of Edina "wasn't just reporting the news, he was telling a story . . . speaking to something inside each of us with his enthusiasm and his boyish charm" said his brother John, also of Edina.
He quoted an e-mail David sent to his wife, Melanie, hours before his death: "I'm supposedly at the peak of professional success and I could frankly [not] care less. In the scheme of things it matters little compared to my relationships with you and the girls and Jesus," he wrote, referring to their daughters, Nicole, Christina and Ava.
Also eulogized by two brothers and his best friend, Bloom was described as a man who had battled personal problems in recent years and was at peace with the prospect of dying in Iraq.
Hours before he died, he wrote an e-mail to Melanie saying the experience of covering the war had transformed him, leading him to realize that nothing mattered more than his relationship with her and their daughters, said his older brother, John Bloom.
He quoted Bloom's last message to his wife: "Here I am, supposedly at the peak of professional success, and I can frankly care less."
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(If you want OFF - or ON - my "Hugh Hewitt PING list" - please let me know)
Into the Very Presence of God: Remembering David Bloom
Breakpoint ^ | 4/17/03 | Charles Colson
Posted on 04/17/2003 1:18 PM PDT by rhemaIt was early morning, Iraqi time. Crouched in a modified tank, NBC News correspondent David Bloom picked up his phone and played back his messages. One was from Jim Lane, a New York financier and Wilberforce Forum advisory board member. The two were sharing a daily, long-distance devotional time using Oswald Chambers's classic, My Utmost for His Highest. Lane read the message for April 5, based on Matthew 25: "Because of what the Son of Man went through, every human being can now get through into the very presence of God."Moments later, Bloom climbed out of the tank, took a few steps, and collapsed. Soon after, he was ushered into the presence of God.
David's death from a pulmonary embolism devastated his family, friends, colleagues, and millions of TV viewers. At age thirty-nine, David was a rising star at NBC. Viewers looked forward to watching Bloom file his reports while bouncing across the desert on his "Bloom-mobile," his face streaked with dirt, his hair snapping in the wind. He loved his job, and everyone knew it.
But what most viewers did not know was that David was a committed Christian. David had grown up in a Methodist home. And while he had a strong understanding of the Gospel growing up, it wasn't until two years ago, according to Lane, that Bloom "effectively came to a saving knowledge of Jesus and started a real faith journey."
Bloom joined the New Canaan Society, a weekly men's fellowship group founded by Lane and my former colleague Eric Metaxas. I met Bloom several times as a guest of that fellowship, and we became friends. I was struck by the sincerity of his Christian faith. He was hungry for knowledge of God and how his faith ought to play out in his life.
On the day he died, Lane says, "David was in a very good place, at peace with himself, his faith, and his family." That peace was reflected in the last message he would ever send to his wife, Melanie—one that reveals that, in the middle of a desert battlefield, his own mortality was very much on his mind. Bloom wrote: "When the moment comes in my life when you are talking about my last day, I am determined that you and others will say, 'He was devoted to his wife and children; he was admired; he gave every ounce of his being for those whom he cared most about—not himself, but God and his family.'"
Yesterday Lane spoke at a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Speaking before America's most powerful media figures, Lane told a simple story about a man who loved and served Jesus Christ. It was a side of their colleague that many of them had never really known—a side scarcely mentioned in the voluminous media coverage of his death...
CLICK HERE for the rest of the thread
Not surprised it wasn't reported in the general media, but I'm happy and proud that our President chose to include it in his tribute.
But I'm glad to see the Star Tribune doing the right thing sometimes anyway. Since I can't rely on that, though, I have to listen to Hugh Hewitt Show daily (and Dennis Prager, and Michael Medved, etc...)
You're right about that. Thanks, good article.