In 1985, Bloom was ranked top in the nation for intercollegiate policy debate. He and his partner, Greg Mastel, were ranked the top debate team in the nation before entering the National Debate Tournament of 1985. They lost in quarter finals to Loyola Marymount.
Bloom 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. After his death, his widow began working with the Coalition to Prevent DVT[1] and remarried to Daniel McNulty in 2008.[2]
In 1993, Bloom joined NBC News as correspondent in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Los Angeles, California in 1995. Bloom covered the presidential campaigns of 1996 and 2000 for the network and in 1997 became NBC's White House correspondent. Former President Clinton said that Bloom's "integrity and good humor will be missed."[3]
During his tenure with NBC, Bloom reported on major stories including presidential races, the September 11 attacks, the Washington-area sniper shootings, and the war in Bosnia. According to the late Tim Russert, former NBC Washington bureau chief, "You couldn't keep him away from a story. Whenever something was breaking, he wanted to be there."[3] In March 2000, Bloom became co-anchor of Weekend Today along with Soledad O'Brien, a position in which he served until his death.
On April 6, 2003, Bloom was traveling with the U.S. Third Infantry Division in Iraq while covering the Iraq War in a vehicle pegged after his name, the "Bloom Mobile." It was a Ford F250 4 wheel drive Flatbed truck with a SeaTel stabilized marine dish retrofitted by Miramar, Florida-based company Maritime Telecommunications Network, with live television and satellite transmission equipment so he could continuously broadcast reports as troops made their way toward Baghdad.[4]
Reporting live, round-the-clock, as the American armored column fought north across the desert toward Baghdad, Bloom commented offhandedly on the cramped conditions, excessive heat and lack of sleep that came with the mission.[5]
He had been on assignment in Iraq for several weeks when a blood clot in his leg (known as deep vein thrombosis or DVT) traveled to an artery in his lungs, causing a fatal pulmonary embolism.[6] "The clot in Bloom's leg was likely brought on by spending long days and nights cramped inside armored vehicles. One night he called Melanie from a satellite phone in the middle of the night, exposing himself to hostile fire just to get a few minutes outside of an armored tank because his legs had been cramping up."[7]
