Tom Brokaw on ‘Morning Joe.’ (MSNBC)

This just in from today's DNC coverage: Tom Brokaw accidentally ate half an Ambien before appearing on Morning Joe. He's O.K., though!

Cue the music:

After appearing on the show (which you can watch here), Mr. Brokaw was taken away in an ambulance in Charlotte, N.C., with complaints of feeling light-headed. According to a statement from NBC News President Steve Capus, "Out of an abundance of caution, he was taken to a hospital. He is being evaluated, is in good spirits, and is expected to be released shortly."

The 77-year-old anchor later tweeted himself, "All is well Early AM I mistakenly took a half dose of Ambien and made less sense than usual. Made a better comeback than Giants ..."

Which is still more coherent than we are in the morning.

"The NBC Legal Department has written a letter to the campaign asking for the removal of all NBC News material from their campaign ads," NBC News said in a statement to Politico, adding that a similar note had gone out to all other campaigns that had used NBC materials.

The clip shows Tom Brokaw's coverage of then-Speaker Gingrich's ethics charges.

Mr. Brokaw, speaking for himself, said, "I am extremely uncomfortable with the extended use of my personal image in this political ad.  I do no want my role as a journalist compromised for political gain by any campaign."

Today Romney's camp told reporters they believe the ad falls within fair use standards and do not intend to take it down.

The nicest newsroom in town. (Property Shark)

Rancher Tom Brokaw and his wife Miss South Dakota Meredith Auld Brokaw recently downsized their New York spread, buying a two-bedroom co-op at 33 East 79th Street. Their 10-room duplex at 941 Park Avenue went into contract back in April, but this being a New York City co-op, these things take time. The purchase just closed for $10 million, according to city records.

The buyers are David Shapiro, a founder of private equity firm KPS Capital Partners, and Abigail Pogrebin. No trophy wife she, Ms. Pogrebin is the daughter of Ms. magazine founder Letty Cottin Pogrebin and her twin sister, Times scribe (and Observer alum) Robin Pogrebin. In addition to publishing a book two years ago about being an identical twin, One in the Same, Ms. Pogrebin worked for Charlie Rose, as one of his eponymous show's original producers, and later Bill Moyers and 60 Minutes. Her first book, published in 2005, is Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish, and she also regularly corresponds for the nation's top magazines.

Keeping the journalist quotient going, the building is also home to Kathy Black, as well as TKTK. The home came on the market a little over 11 months before it closed on May 25, asking 12 million. That price was reduced to $10.75 million at the end of September.

"Located in one of Park Avenue's premier white glove co-operatives, this high floor palatial and sun-drenched prewar twelve into ten room duplex apartment features some of the most spectacular formal entertainment space in New York with fabulous sweeping city views," write Cathy Franklin and Alexis Bodenheimer in their Brown Harris Stevens listing. Because we all know Mr. Brokaw is the consumate entertainer.

The three-bedroom spread is an off-set duplex, with a large living room, library and dining room on the first floor connected by a grand 28-foot gallery. The maid's quarters have been converted into a office with built in, perfect for writing about the greatest generation or the greatest Jews. Upstairs, the master suite features a walk-in closet for him and a dressing room for her with six closets. That is unless Mr. Brokaw was the clothes horse--you've got to look good under those klieg lights.

Read past Manhattan Transfers here. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

That was the open question in April, when the former Nightly News anchor and his wife, Meredith Auld Brokaw, an author and former Miss South Dakota, found a buyer for their 10-room duplex at 941 Park Avenue. The Journal noted that Mr. Brokaw had helped their daughter and son-in-law buy a $3.3 million co-op at the Atelier at 33 West 67th Street, but the Brokaws will not be crashing with the kids. They are remaining on the East Side, according to city records, where they just purchased a two-bedroom co-op at 33 East 79th Street, paying exactly the asking price of $1.95 million.

It sounds like the perfect home for an astute newsman, at least if Diane Johnson and Joan Ambrose's Douglas Elliman listing is to be believed: "The Trained Eye will appreciate the balance, symmetry, and craftsmanship of this superb renovation while everyone will love its grandeur and sun-flooded serenity."

Renovated in a stark white palette, the Classic 6 was converted into a more modern and open five-room spread, though it still has its prewar flourishes, like a wood-burning fireplace and intricate molding. The master bedroom in the 11th-floor home is ringed with French doors, though they do not look out on the park. Along with the monochrome colors, it gives the place quite the big sky feeling.

Kind of like the ranch the Brokaws own in Montana. Could they be downsizing to a new pied-à-terre? Their broker, Brown Harris Stevens' Cathy Franklin declined to say. After all, the $9,040 in monthly maintenance the old duplex demanded is a lot to cough up from across the country. Then again, for all the space afforded by the duplex, it seems like a steal compared to the smaller home, where carrying costs are $4,391 a month. The Brokaws' broker, Brown Harris Stevens' Cathy Franklin, declined to comment on the move.

The Brokaws may be leaving one of the city's top co-ops--no sign of a closing in city records, yet, so the buyer must still be wrangling with the board--but the seller of the 79th Street spread already lives in one. Gerda Karen Hepp Ludlow, who put the place on the market in October 2009 for $2.495 million, has called the seventh floor of 1020 Park Avenue home at least since 2002, according to city records.

Read past Manhattan Transfers here. >>

mchaban [at] observer.com | @mc_nyo

"It's breathtaking," the Time editor at large told the Transom. "Her parents are good friends," he added of Chelsea Piers owner Roland Betts and his wife, Lois Phifer Betts.

"I've known the Betts family for years," said NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, who missed the first half of the film "because of my day job" but didn't hesitate to praise the snippet he caught. "It's the kind of documentary where you'd like everybody to see it!"

Ms. Betts, who spent four months in Zambia making the film, was until recently best known as a party-attending heiress and Bush Twins Bestie. Vogue has covered her weekends in the Berkshires. But it turns out that even amid those glitzy getaways, she was working. "There were two years of research and thinking about doing it," Ms. Betts said.

Peggy Siegal, who planned the event, introduced big-shot film producer Kathleen Kennedy, who instructed us to print that Michael Barker of Sony Pictures Classics should acquire The Carrier.

Done!

After Ms. Kennedy walked away, Ms. Siegal grew serious. "Do not misquote her," she cautioned. "She's a heartbeat away from Spielberg."

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_

This contains vital information, yes, but @tombrokaw has nothing to do with the real Tom Brokaw, the NBC news lifer. The real Tom Brokaw, it turns out, has no Twitter account and no Facebook account, he tells the Poynter Institute in an interview. The real Tom Brokaw is holding tight to the bygone age when we still cherished our privacy. The real Tom Brokaw is really scared of this social networking stuff. 

"I have too many invasions of my privacy as it is," he told Poynter. "I'm thinking about just signing up so I can share things with my granddaughters a little more, but I worry I'll read things on their Facebook that will unnerve me."

Yes, Tom, those terrible pictures of us that we can't remove from Facebook are unnerving! Take those awful things down, "friends." But his thoughts on this crazy "Twitter" thing that's got the kids in a tizzy makes him seem, well, a bit out of touch. 

As for Twitter? He doesn't believe it's taken form yet journalistically. "I don't get Twitter," Brokaw said. "I know that it's very popular and that it's a quick way of getting a text blast out, so to speak, but an awful lot of it seems to be... just stuff that fills air." 

Ah, so that's what all those things on my Twitter feed are: "text blasts, so to speak." We can't wait to get on Twitter and go fill the air with some texts blasts, so to speak — even if Tom Brokaw won't see them.

Well, at least @tombrokaw will. Whoever that dude is.

 nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

The accident, which primarily involved an SUV and a postal truck, left one person dead, according to a report on 1010 Wins.

Mr. Brokaw walked away without injury.

A spokesperson for NBC News passed along the following statement from Mr. Brokaw:

Tom and Meredith Brokaw, at around 1pm today, were in a three vehicle accident on the Bruckner Expressway. The Brokaws were in the far left lane when they noticed a spool of cable bouncing along the far right lane. Just then, a green SUV in the right lane came up fast and tried to avoid the cable. The driver lost control of her vehicle and slid into the middle lane, forcing a mail truck into the Brokaw lane of traffic.

As the mail truck careened into the Brokaw lane, Tom hit the brakes hard and skidded along the median. When the mail truck catapulted the median the Brokaw vehicle slid into it. Neither Tom nor Meredith were injured but tragically the driver of the SUV was thrown from her vehicle and killed.

Tom and Meredith are greatly saddened by this loss of life.

Keith Olbermann's tribute to his mother, MSNBC, April 4, 2009

Glenn Beck, Fox News, March 13, 2009.

Juan Williams on Election Night, Fox News, November 4, 2008.

Roland Martin on Election Night, CNN, November 4, 2008.

Andrea Mitchell on Tim Russert's death, NBC, June 13, 2008.

Tom Brokaw on Tim Russert, NBC, June 15, 2008.

Jon Stewart after 9/11, Comedy Central, September 20, 2001.

Dan Rather discussing 9/11 on Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, September 17, 2001.

Herbert Morrison at the site of The Hindenberg disaster, newsreel, May 6, 1937.

"All of us have those middle of the night sentiments of, ‘Does any of what I’m doing matter?'” said the publisher of The Atlantic and The National Journal. "'Will anyone ever remember? How much am I actually beloved?'"

He turned slightly to his left and gazed directly at the journalist Gwen Ifill, who was standing a few feet away. The next time you get that feeling, Mr. Bradley suggested to her, think of this night. "I want you to have in mind, this cold evening in January, when 300 people came out with exactly the same message," said Mr. Bradley.

"Gwen Ifill you are truly beloved."

The crowd of cocktail sipping onlookers, packed into the living room, broke into applause. They had gathered at the Bradley residence to celebrate Ms. Ifill’s newly published book, The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.

For the past hour, the guests had wandered around the house, chatting about the Inauguration and the economy and the Obamas. There was a buffet set up in the dining room, and a bar on the patio out back. The beef was rare, the quiche was succulent, and the gin was flowing freely.

Here and there, PBS producers mingled with beltway party hoppers. PBS’ Jim Lehrer shuffled by CBS News’ Bill Plante. Todd Purdum, of Vanity Fair, talked about his penchant for bow ties. David Brooks sat at the top of a staircase, talking on a cell phone and nursing a drink.

By the end of the night, just about everyone got to shake hands with one Beltway luminary or another—Tom Brokaw, Maureen Dowd, Andrea Mitchell, Judy Woodruff among others were present—and engage in some pre-inauguration chit chat.

Just after 7:45 p.m., Mr. Bradley ceded the floor to Ms. Ifill. The longtime correspondent for PBS’ NewsHour and host of Washington Week looked over the familiar faces in the living room and frowned. "Don’t break anything, people," she said sternly. "I know who you are."

Ms. Ifill thanked the Bradleys. She gave a shout out to her brother, who was standing in the back of the room and to her pastor and his wife, who were also in the house. And she gave a nod to her colleagues at Washington Week and the News Hour. "I work with these amazing people, who spend a lot of time for very little money doing really hard work, every single day," said Ms. Ifill.

She said that writing the book had been challenging. "It’s been a really expanding experience for me, a terrifying experience writing long form," she said.

There had been some controversy along the way, she acknowledged. Back in September on the eve of the Vice Presidential debate, conservative bloggers had attacked her impartiality as a moderator, alleging that her book about Mr. Obama would bias her in the Democrats’ favor.

"Of course, there was the moment when everyone decided they knew what the book was about before I had even finished writing it," said Ms. Ifill on Monday night.

"I thought, 'Well that’s fine. Truth will out. I will just survive it.' And I did."

We started the year worrying that pom-pomed moccasin boots were here to stay. Thankfully, we now know they were not.

Meatpacking district original Florent Morellet failed to understand the skyrocketing rents on his "shabby" bit of Gansevoort St. 

At a Bergdorf Goodman Fashion Week party, a slightly manic Isaac Mizrahi explained why he does not attend fashion shows. Later on, at Cynthia Rowley, Parker Posey told us she doesn't like runway viewing because it makes her sweat. And Victoria Beckham almost prematurely revealed the winner of Project Runway.

A couple weeks later, we continued to talk fashion at the Westminster Dog Show: “You never want to wear anything that outshines the dog, you want to wear shoes that won’t slip, and you never want to wear anything that clashes with the carpet.”

On the one-year anniversary of The Box, now-embattled owner Simon Hammerstein told us: “If you look at the program from last year till now, certainly we kept pushing the boundaries of what we thought people would be able to take. … It paid off because people really responded well to stuff that I thought they would get creeped out by." How things change in a year!

L.A.-based institution Wolfgang Puck dissed hometown hero David Chang. 

We attended a non-fund-raising fete in honor of the Jagger Dagger--a specially designed $250,000 ice pick that Jade Jagger created for Belvedere vodka--and Alexander Wang, Tara Subkoff, and Tatiana von Furstenburg were all confused. 

Even after quitting his (recently resurrected) Gatecrasher column, Daily News gossip Ben Widdicombe found the time to fill us in on New York chatter from Istanbul.

Sarah Jessica Parker played rock star at the premiere of Sex and the City. 

A post-Padma Salman Rushdie shilled for the Kama Sutra at a steamy Barnes & Noble reading. 

Summer rolled around and we pondered the wearability of the season's ubiquitous maxi dress.

At the 30th anniversary of Betsey Johnson, the designer mourned the death of downtown. More recently, the old-school club kids at Susanne Bartsch's Christmas toy drive proved that they're still having fun. 

Out in the Hamptons, we tried--and sort of succeeded--to wheedle information out of a freshly divorced Christie Brinkley.

We made a study of Chuck Bass--er, Ed Westwick's--carefully crafted photo face in preparation for a very special Gossip Girl party.

At the DNC in Denver, the celebs of the Creative Coalition wondered how to get in touch with the common folk. However, by the end of the week, they were more than happy to relax at Google and Vanity Fair's fancy get-together.

Over at the RNC in Minnesota, buddies Danny Meyer and Tom Brokaw unwound over junk food and fly-fishing chat.

Fashion Week: Round II brought us to a glittery party hosted by Interview at the unfinished Standard Hotel and a premiere party for The Rachel Zoe Project, where Ms. Zoe's mother told us some cute stories about her daughter (our next run-in with Ms. Zoe was less warm). Andre Leon Talley hoped for a new generation of less emaciated models, and Andre 3000 informed us that dressing well doesn't mean you're gay. To top it off, we stumbled upon a quietly A-list party on West 31st St. 

At an Accompanied Literary Society party (co-hosted by Diesel), literature (sort of) met fashion. We met Fiona Apple, who was there with author-boyfriend Jonathan Ames. 

Toby Young returned to New York to promote the film version of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. 

We got pre- and post- election assessments from the literary and media set at the New York Public Library Lions benefit and a screening of After the Party, respectively.  

We found out that Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise eat at the Zaro's across the street from our office (sometimes)!

The art and social worlds were forced to note the tanking economy. 

Finally, to close out the year, we were treated to a discourse on hip-hop by Tom Wolfe.