David Bloom
Encyclopedia
David Bloom was an NBC
journalist
(co-anchor of Weekend Today
and reporter) until his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 39 from deep vein thrombosis
(DVT). His name is honored every year in the form of the The David Bloom Award, established by the Radio & Television Association to honor excellence in reporting.
, an avid ice hockey
player and state champion in high school debat
ing in the National Forensic League
. Bloom attended Pitzer College
in Claremont
, California
, from 1981 to 1985 where he was a national debate champion. He majored in Political Science
.
Bloom considered his most passionate role that of the family man, and was survived by his wife, Melanie, and three daughters: Nicole, Christine, and Ava. The Blooms were residents of Pound Ridge
, New York
, at the time of his death. Melanie Bloom now works with the Coalition to Prevent DVT.
, Wisconsin
, covering local government stories. Bloom worked as a general assignment reporter at KWCH-TV
in Wichita
, Kansas
, from 1988–1989
From 1989 until 1991 Bloom worked at WPBF
in West Palm Beach before going onto WTVJ
in Miami
. His coverage of Hurricane Andrew
, the storm that devastated south Florida
, showed Bloom in his element — in the middle of the big story. While reporting the aftermath he chased off would-be looters. In 1991, he won a regional Emmy for investigative journalism for his report on South Florida's role in the shipment of arms to Iraq. He won both the Peabody Award
and the RTNDA
Edward R. Murrow Award for his hurricane coverage.
In 1993, Bloom joined NBC News
as correspondent in Chicago, Illinois
, and moved to Los Angeles
, California in 1995. Bloom later became NBC's White House
correspondent. In 1999, Bloom was named co-anchor of Weekend Today
along with Soledad O'Brien
, a position he served until his death.
, with live television and satellite transmission equipment so he could continuously broadcast reports as troops made their way toward Baghdad.
Bloom was traveling with the U.S. Third Infantry Division
in Iraq
when he suddenly died due to deep vein thrombosis
and a pulmonary embolism
.
The David Bloom Award was established by the Radio & Television Association in 2006 to honor excellence in enterprise reporting. ABC
World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff received the award in its first year.
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
(co-anchor of Weekend Today
Weekend Today
Weekend Today is the unofficial title of the weekend editions of Today, an American morning news and talk show which airs daily on NBC.-History:...
and reporter) until his sudden death in 2003 at the age of 39 from deep vein thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein. Deep vein thrombosis commonly affects the leg veins or the deep veins of the pelvis. Occasionally the veins of the arm are affected...
(DVT). His name is honored every year in the form of the The David Bloom Award, established by the Radio & Television Association to honor excellence in reporting.
Early and personal life
David Bloom was born in Edina, MinnesotaEdina, Minnesota
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and a first-ring suburb situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis. Edina began as a small farming and milling community in the 1860s. The population was 47,941 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
, an avid ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
player and state champion in high school debat
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
ing in the National Forensic League
National Forensic League
The National Forensic League is a non-partisan, non-profit educational honor society established to encourage and motivate American high school students to participate in and become proficient in the forensic arts: debate, public speaking and interpretation. NFL is the America's oldest and largest...
. Bloom attended Pitzer College
Pitzer College
Pitzer College is a private residential liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, a college town approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. Pitzer College is one of the Claremont Colleges....
in Claremont
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, from 1981 to 1985 where he was a national debate champion. He majored in Political Science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
.
Bloom considered his most passionate role that of the family man, and was survived by his wife, Melanie, and three daughters: Nicole, Christine, and Ava. The Blooms were residents of Pound Ridge
Pound Ridge, New York
Pound Ridge is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 5,104 at the 2010 census.The town is located in the eastern corner of the county, bordered by New Canaan, Connecticut, to the east, Stamford, Connecticut, to the south, Bedford, New York, to the west and...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, at the time of his death. Melanie Bloom now works with the Coalition to Prevent DVT.
Professional career
He began his television career at WKBT-TV in La CrosseLa Crosse, Wisconsin
La Crosse is a city in and the county seat of La Crosse County, Wisconsin, United States. The city lies alongside the Mississippi River.The 2011 Census Bureau estimates the city had a population of 52,485...
, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, covering local government stories. Bloom worked as a general assignment reporter at KWCH-TV
KWCH-TV
KWCH-DT is the CBS-affiliated television station for Wichita, Kansas that is licensed to Hutchinson. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 19 from a transmitter in Colwich. The station can be seen on Cox cable channel 12 and in high definition on digital channel 2012...
in Wichita
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, from 1988–1989
From 1989 until 1991 Bloom worked at WPBF
WPBF
WPBF is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Gold and Treasure Coasts of South Florida. Licensed to Tequesta, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 16 from a transmitter in Palm City southwest of I-95. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios on RCA...
in West Palm Beach before going onto WTVJ
WTVJ
WTVJ, virtual channel 6 , is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC television network, located in Broward County. WTVJ shares its TV studio and office facility with co-owned Telemundo station WSCV in Miramar, Florida, and its transmitter is located near Sun Life Stadium in north...
in Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. His coverage of Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
, the storm that devastated south Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, showed Bloom in his element — in the middle of the big story. While reporting the aftermath he chased off would-be looters. In 1991, he won a regional Emmy for investigative journalism for his report on South Florida's role in the shipment of arms to Iraq. He won both the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
and the RTNDA
Radio and Television News Directors Association
The Radio Television Digital News Association , formerly the Radio-Television News Directors Association , is a United States-based membership organization of radio, television and online news directors, producers, executives and educators...
Edward R. Murrow Award for his hurricane coverage.
In 1993, Bloom joined NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
as correspondent in Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and moved to Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California in 1995. Bloom later became NBC's White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
correspondent. In 1999, Bloom was named co-anchor of Weekend Today
Weekend Today
Weekend Today is the unofficial title of the weekend editions of Today, an American morning news and talk show which airs daily on NBC.-History:...
along with Soledad O'Brien
Soledad O'Brien
María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien is an American Broadcast journalist. She is currently the host of the "In America" documentary unit on CNN, and is best known for anchoring the CNN marquee morning newscast American Morning from July 2003 to April 2007, with Miles O'Brien...
, a position he served until his death.
Iraq reporting and death
He will be remembered for his creation of the "Bloom Mobile," an Army tank recovery vehicle retrofitted by Miramar, Florida-based company Maritime Telecommunications NetworkMaritime Telecommunications Network
Founded in 1981, MTN Satellite Communications , formerly known as Maritime Telecommunications Network, is a privately held VSAT satellite service provider headquartered in Miramar, Florida, USA. The company revolutionized the cruise line communications industry by providing the first C band...
, with live television and satellite transmission equipment so he could continuously broadcast reports as troops made their way toward Baghdad.
Bloom was traveling with the U.S. Third Infantry Division
U.S. 3d Infantry Division
The 3rd Infantry Division is a United States Army infantry division based at Fort Stewart, Georgia. It is a direct subordinate unit of the XVIII Airborne Corps and U.S. Army Forces Command...
in Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
when he suddenly died due to deep vein thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis
Deep vein thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein. Deep vein thrombosis commonly affects the leg veins or the deep veins of the pelvis. Occasionally the veins of the arm are affected...
and a pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
.
The David Bloom Award was established by the Radio & Television Association in 2006 to honor excellence in enterprise reporting. ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff received the award in its first year.
External links
- http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/04/06/sprj.irq.journalist.death/
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3079105/
- http://www.preventdvt.org/
- David Bloom's DVT Story: An Interview with David's Widow Melanie Bloom - ClotCare.com