American television journalist Tom Brokaw (born 1940) retired from his "NBC Nightly News" broadcast in December of 2004 after 22 years at the anchor desk. One of a new generation of television newscasters on the three national networks, Brokaw weathered a sea of change during his on - air tenure, taking over at a time when cable news organizations were still in their infancy and the Internet did not even exist, let alone serve as a daily source of news for millions. His final send - off, delivered in his reassuring, trademark baritone, was said to mark the end of an era.
Brokaw exuded an Everyman demeanor that owed much to his modest South Dakota upbringing. He was born in 1940, the first of three sons in a family headed by Anthony "Red" Brokaw, a construction worker, and mother Eugenia, who spent much of her working life as a clerk at the local post office near the Brokaw home in Yankton. After high school, the future network star enrolled at the University of South Dakota, but proved a less than outstanding student at first. As he confessed years later in a New York Times op - ed piece, "I was so adrift as a freshman and sophomore that my adviser recommended I drop out for a spell and try to find my bearings. It worked," Brokaw recalled. "After less than a semester in the hardscrabble, working class world of those without college degrees, I was back on campus, humbled and prepared to change course."
Drawn to Journalism on Election Night
Brokaw declared political science as his major, but was fascinated by the relatively new medium of television. In November of 1960, he told San Jose Mercury News writer Charlie McCollum, "I was at my parents' home between jobs, and I watched the election night with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley that went until 1 o'clock in the morning. At the end of that, I thought, 'That's something that I'd like to do, to become a network correspondent.' " While still in college, he found a job at KTIV, a Sioux City, Iowa, station, and after graduating from the University of South Dakota in 1962, he headed to KMTV in Omaha, Nebraska, to serve as its morning news editor. By 1965, he had moved on to WSB - TV in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was a news editor and anchor.
Atlanta in 1965 was a hotbed of civil - rights stories, many of them fast - breaking and with the potential to turn violent. The national networks did not have many personnel on the ground there, so when trouble in Georgia or a nearby state broke out, Brokaw often volunteered to cover the story immediately. NBC executives took note of his reporting from dangerous confrontations between civil - rights protesters and local law - enforcement authorities, and he was offered a major market job - at NBC's Los Angeles affiliate, KNBC. Brokaw continued to leave the newsroom to cover top stories, such as campus anti - war riots, a racially motivated conflagration in the Watts section of Los Angeles, and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. He advanced to NBC's national news division in 1973.
Once again, Brokaw rose to the challenges of the times: he was assigned to the White House beat just as the administration of President Richard M. Nixon was about to implode due to the Watergate break - in scandal and subsequent cover - up. He remained there until 1976, when he took over as co - host of NBC's weekday morning staple, Today. He helped keep the show a contender in the ratings, though it faced stiff competition from Charles Kuralt's long - running CBS show and an upstart on the ABC network called Good Morning America.
Remained Loyal to Network
A rising star in network news, Brokaw was soon courted by both CBS and ABC, but signed a new contract with NBC in July of 1981 that promised an anchor position on the nightly newscast, NBC Nightly News. After veteran journalist John Chancellor retired, Brokaw joined a senior NBC journalist, Roger Mudd, as the new co - anchor of the show in April of 1982. Mudd reported from Washington, while Brokaw helmed the New York desk for the broadcast, but their dual - anchor format seemed to lack the requisite on - air chemistry, and Brokaw took over as sole anchor on September 5, 1983.
Over the next two decades, Brokaw delivered the major news stories of the era, but occasionally returned to the exciting live feed, as in 1989, when he happened to be covering the growing unrest in Berlin, Germany, just as border guards on the East German side of the Berlin Wall opened the gates and began letting East Berliners into the Western zone. The moment marked the beginning of the end of Soviet - controlled Communist rule across Eastern Europe. "I had gone two days earlier because things were quiet here and there seemed to be a fair degree of turmoil going on over there. I thought I could go into East Berlin and do some reporting," he recalled in an interview with Broadcasting & Cable's Mark Lasswell. "So there I was that night, midnight Berlin time, preparing to go on the air, looking around and knowing that I'm the only one with live capability . . . already the hammers and chisels were out as they began to chip away at it. And I thought to myself, 'Just do not screw this one up. This is a big deal.' "
"We Have an Omelet."
Brokaw also landed some notable coups over the years, including a historic 1987 interview with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Over the next decade, he helped NBC maintain a ratings lead in the all - important evening - news slot - it led the networks after 1997 - but the networks' dominance of news stories began to be eclipsed by their cable competition. CNN reportedly offered to double his salary - to about $7 million annually - as his contract neared expiration in 1997, but Brokaw chose to remain with NBC. He was already considering retirement when, on Election Night of 2000, he was one of the first television journalists to report the election results, based on exit polls. Brokaw called the election for Democratic contender Al Gore, but in the early - morning hours, he and the other network news journalists were forced to retract their previous statements about the outcome of the election. The ensuing controversy over the Florida votes for Gore and his Republican challenger, George W. Bush, endured for weeks. Brokaw and the rest of the veteran journalists involved quickly issued apologies for what was viewed as a rush to judgment. "We don't just have egg on our face," Brokaw said, according to a report in the Washington Post from David Bauder. "We have an omelet."
Brokaw put off his retirement plans after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. In the round - the - clock news coverage on that day and the following, he was a reassuring presence on the network. NBC led the ratings among the networks, pulling the highest number of prime - time viewers on 9/11 and subsequent days. "People called and said, 'You were so important to us; I never thought of you as a father - figure before,' " Brokaw said in an interview with New York Times writer Bill Carter about that tragic week. "And I said, 'I was important to you because I was giving you reliable information.' That's what we do." Just a month after the 9/11 attacks, Brokaw had become part of a news story himself when envelopes containing anthrax were mailed to the offices of several news organizations. His assistant opened one envelope and contracted a cutaneous version of the biohazard threat; Brokaw had actually handled that envelope as well, but did not contract anthrax. The assistant recovered, but the experience shook Brokaw.
First of Triumvirate to Depart
Brokaw and NBC announced in 2002 that he would retire from the NBC Nightly News in 2004. Later, the network announced that he would be succeeded by former MSNBC journalist Brian Williams, who had often been termed the younger version of Brokaw. Just a week before his last newscast, Brokaw's rival at CBS, Dan Rather, announced he was retiring as well in a few months. Only Peter Jennings, anchor of ABC's World News Tonight since 1983, remained as the final member of the triumvirate known as the second generation of news anchors who replaced Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, and the first generation of veteran journalists of television's early years.
Much had changed in the 22 years since Brokaw took over, and all the networks had lost millions of viewers for the nightly news broadcast that was once the flagship of their respective news divisions. In 1991, the three nightly network newscasts had combined viewing audience of 47 million, but by the time Brokaw retired, that number had sunk to just 28 million. "Unlike Jennings, who is coolly urbane, and Rather, whose down - home folksiness often seems forced, Brokaw . . . comes off night after night as a great American storyteller," noted McCollum in the San Jose Mercury News, "projecting decency and dignity."
Paid Homage to Greatest Generation
The retirement was not a full one: Brokaw was still under contract with NBC to do the occasional special, such as The Greatest Generation Speaks, the 2001 documentary accompanying his bestselling book, The Greatest Generation. Brokaw had been inspired to write the 1998 book after filing stories from Normandy, France, on the regularly marked anniversaries of the 1944 Allied invasion of Europe. A series of interviews from 50 Americans who lived through the Great Depression and World War II years, the book struck a chord with the public and its title became a catchphrase.
Brokaw explained his reasons for writing the book in a 1999 commencement address he gave at the California Institute of Technology. During the economic crisis of the 1930s, he told the graduating seniors, "youngsters quit school to go to work - not to buy a car for themselves or a new video game. They quit to earn enough to help their family get through another week." When America entered World War II in 1941, some 12 million Americans served in uniform either at home or overseas, and life for civilians was drastically altered as well. Brokaw reminded his CalTech audience of just how young these senior citizens were at the time, noting that "at a time in their lives when their days should have been filled with the rewards of starting careers and families, their nights filled with love and innocent adventure, this generation was fighting for survival - theirs and the worlds." Their spirit and their values, he asserted in his book, were the foundation for the postwar economic boom.
Brokaw lives on a 5,000 - acre ranch in Montana with his wife Meredith, a former Miss South Dakota whom he wed in 1962. They have three daughters. His last newscast on the NBC Nightly News came on December 1, 2004, and when he thanked viewers for their faith in him over the years, his voice wavered only slightly. "Thanks for all that I have learned from you," he said near the close of the broadcast, according to CNN.com. "That's been my richest reward."
Periodicals
Broadcasting & Cable, October 25, 2004.
Good Housekeeping, January 2003.
Knight - Ridder/Tribune News Service, November 30, 2004.
New Republic, April 23, 1984.
New York Observer, November 8, 2004.
New York Times, July 14, 1981; April 3, 2000; November 5, 2001.
Philadelphia Inquirer, October 15, 2001.
San Jose Mercury News, November 29, 2004.
Time, December 14, 1987; June 2, 1997; December 7, 1998; June 10, 2002; December 6, 2004.
Vital Speeches of the Day, July 15, 1999.
Washington Post, November 8, 2000.
Online
"Tom Brokaw Signs Off 'Nightly News,' " CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/01/brokaw.ap/ (December 10, 2004).
