In Memory of David Bloom, NBC Correspondent
Dave Aiello wrote, "CTDATA notes the untimely death of David Bloom of NBC News from a pulmonary embolism. At the time of his death, Bloom was an embedded correspondent with the Third Infantry Division, en route to Baghdad."
"In the week before he died, David Bloom caught my imagination with the innovative broadcast techniques he was using to create visually clear and distinctive reports from the battlefield in Iraq. Apparently, I am not the only technology fan who noticed."
"The Bloommobile, a modified M-88 Tank Recovery vehicle, was the only mobile broadcast facility that seemed able to keep up with the army's rapid advance across the Iraqi desert. According to the tribute article on MSNBC.com:"
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.
"This could never have been done before because the concept of embedded correspondents itself is novel in this war. I expect that this type of broadcast will become a staple of coverage of future military actions."
"I was so taken by the reports that David Bloom was making last week that I brought it up to friends of mine at an ice hockey tournament at which I was officiating. Normally, hockey offcials would not discuss new technologies employed by television news correspondents at a national championship tournament."
"It's a tragedy that Bloom died from an embolism. According to an account in BusinessWeek by Frederik Balfour, Bloom sought medical advice and was told that he might have deep vein thrombosis which should be treated. He probably interpreted this the way most young men would-- he was told there was a small risk of something very bad happening and he decided that it probably wouldn't happen to him. I'm not sure what anyone who was in the midst of one of the hottest news story of the decade-- who already had a large slice of America's attention-- would have done differently."
"The heartbreaking part of this story is that his family has lost a husband and a father. Bloom died doing something he obviously loved, but, I'm sure we all wish that he hadn't been so caught up in the intensity of the march to Baghdad."