Tom Brokaw will retire from NBC News after 55 years on the network.
He made the announcement in a statement on Friday.
“During one of the most complex and consequent eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News journalists, producers and technicians is providing America with timely, insightful and extremely important information, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I couldn’t be more proud of them, ”he said in a statement.
Brokaw, 80, was the anchor of NBC Nightly News 1982-2004. Since then, he has been on NBC News’ coverage of special events, serving a special correspondent and often providing comments and analysis from a historical perspective. Your 2001 book The Greatest Generation put the spotlight on the sacrifice of a generation of Americans during the Great Depression and World War II. The book’s title is now commonly used to refer to World War II veterans and their families.
Related Story
Rashida Jones will beat Phil Griffin as president of MSNBC
Brokaw will continue to work in print journalism and writing books, as well as spending more time with his wife, Meredith, their three daughters and grandchildren, the network said.
Brokaw started on the network in 1966, when he was assigned to the Los Angeles bureau and covered Ronald Reagan’s first candidacy for public office – governor of California – while presenting the evening news on KNBC-TV. He moved to Washington to serve as a network correspondent for the White House in 1973, where he covered the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon’s resignation. He then became a co-presenter of Today in 1976, paired with Jane Pauley.
Six years later, after John Chancellor stepped down, Brokaw was paired with Roger Mudd for co-anchor Nightly news. But the team did not work, and Brokaw became the only anchor and editor-in-chief in 1983. He rose to the top of the charts and his highlights included being the first American journalist to interview Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and report from Berlin the night the Berlin Wall fell.
A week after leading the 9/11 network’s coverage, Brokaw was among the targets of an anthrax attack. He was not injured, but his longtime assistant was infected after opening a threatening letter mixed with white powder that had been addressed to Brokaw. He talked about what happened in the air, expressing his anger, but also his relief from antibiotic treatment.
After longtime death Meet the press moderator Tim Russert in 2008, Brokaw served as interim presenter of the program, until David Gregory was chosen for the permanent position later in the year.
Brokaw received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. In the same year, the network named his new transmission unit in Los Angeles on the Universal lot. In 2018, Variety and The Washington Post published allegations by ex-NBC News correspondent Linda Vester, who claimed he groped her during the 1990s. But he denied her allegations, writing a rebuttal letter in which he said she “unleashed a torrent of baseless criticism and attacks on me more than twenty years after I opened the door for her and a new job on Fox News. ” Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell and dozens of other women who worked on the network signed a public letter supporting Brokaw.
Together with Dan Rather in CBS Evening News and Peter Jennings in World News Tonight, Brokaw was part of an era of superstar anchors from the 80s and 90s, chasing the big get and going to the scene of big news events. But the impact of nighttime broadcasting has lessened since then, with the emergence of opinion-driven conversation heads on cable news networks and the spread of information sources on the Internet.
Brokaw appeared in Morning Joe on December 30, but its appearances on NBC networks have gradually declined in recent years. On Friday, he tweeted about Hank Aaron’s death, writing, “What a loss. great ball player, great man. we became friends when i made a documentary with him that he described growing up in the south and hearing that he couldn’t play because he was black – which made him even more determined. a gentle giant, one of my great heroes. “
hank aaron – what a loss. great ball player, great man.
we became friends when i made a documentary with him
he described growing up in the south and hearing that he couldn’t
play because he was black – which made him even more determined.
a gentle giant
one of my great heroes– Tom Brokaw (@tombrokaw) January 22, 2021