Thomas John Brokaw (/ˈbroʊkɔː/; born February 6, 1940)[3] is an American television journalist and author, best known for being the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News for 22 years from 1982 to 2004.[4] He is the only person to have hosted all three major NBC News programs: The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, briefly, Meet the Press. He now serves as a Special Correspondent for NBC News and works on documentaries for other outlets.[5]
Along with Peter Jennings at ABC News and Dan Rather at CBS News, Brokaw was one of the "Big Three" news anchors in the U.S. during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The three all hosted their network's flagship-nightly-news programs for over 20 years, and all three started and retired or died within a year of each other.[6]
Brokaw has also written several books on American history and society in the 20th century. He is the author of The Greatest Generation (1998) and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors.
Early life
Brokaw (left) greeting the 20,000th visitor to the Gavins Point Dam in 1958; Brokaw was a tour guide there
Brokaw was born in Webster, South Dakota, the son of Eugenia "Jean" (née Conley; 1917–2011),[7] who worked in sales and as a post-office clerk, and Anthony Orville "Red" Brokaw (1912–1982).[8] He was the eldest of their three sons and was named after his maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Conley. His father was a descendant of Huguenot immigrants Bourgon and Catherine (née Le Fèvre) Broucard, and his mother was Irish-American[9], although the origin of the name Brokaw is contested.[10] His paternal great-grandfather, Richard P. Brokaw, founded the town of Bristol, South Dakota, and the Brokaw House, a small hotel and the first structure in Bristol.[11]
Brokaw's father was a construction foreman for the Army Corps of Engineers. He worked at the Black Hills Ordnance Depot (BHOD) and helped construct Fort Randall Dam; his job often required the family to resettle throughout South Dakota during Brokaw's early childhood.[12] The Brokaws lived for short periods in Bristol, Igloo (the small residential community of the BHOD), and Pickstown, before settling in Yankton, where Brokaw attended high school.[9][12]
As a high school student attending Yankton Senior High School,[13] Brokaw was governor of South Dakota American LegionBoys State, and in that capacity he accompanied then-South Dakota Governor Joe Foss to New York City for a joint appearance on a TV game show. It was to be the beginning of a long relationship with Foss, whom Brokaw would later feature in his book about World War II veterans, The Greatest Generation. Brokaw also became an Advisory Board member of the Joe Foss Institute.[14]
Brokaw matriculated at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa, but dropped out after a year as he apparently failed to keep up in his studies, in his words majoring in "beer and co-eds". In tribute to his fun-loving freshman year, the Airliner Bar has named a booth in his honor. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of South Dakota in 1964.[13]
For several years, Brokaw mountain climbed with the "Do Boys", whose members included Yvon Chouinard and Douglas Tompkins.
Kept a closely guarded secret for many years, in 2017 Brokaw wrote of having been offered – and having promptly turned down – the press secretary position in the Nixon White House in 1969. Brokaw had come to know members of the Nixon team, including most particularly H. R. 'Bob' Haldeman (White House chief of staff and initiator of the offer) but also Ron Ziegler, the man who would be press secretary for the whole one-plus terms of the presidency, and others when they were all living and working in California in the years before Nixon came back from defeat in 1960 and 1962 to be elected in 1968.[16]
Brokaw scored a major coup when, on November 9, 1989, he was the first English-language broadcast journalist to report opening of the Berlin Wall. Brokaw attended a televised press conference organized in East Berlin by Günter Schabowski, press spokesman for East German Politburo, which had just decided to allow East Berliners to cross to the West without prior approval. When Schabowski was asked when this epoch-making freedom would take effect, he glanced through his notes, then said, "sofort, unverzüglich" ("immediately, without delay"), touching off a stampede of East Berliners to the Wall. Brokaw subsequently obtained an interview with Schabowski who when pressed repeated his "immediately" statement. Later that evening Brokaw reported from the west side of Brandenburg Gate on this announcement and pandemonium that had broken out in East Berlin because of it.[18]
Also, in 1993, on the first broadcast of Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, in response to David Letterman's monologue containing jokes about NBC, Brokaw walked on stage in a surprise cameo (accompanied by Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra playing the NBC Nightly News theme).[19] He congratulated Letterman on his new show and wished him well, but also stated he was disappointed and shocked; he subsequently walked over to the man holding the cue cards, took two, and remarked, "These last two jokes are the intellectual property of NBC!", leaving the stage afterwards.[19] Letterman then remarked, "Who would have thought you would ever hear the words 'intellectual property' and 'NBC' in the same sentence?"[19]
Brokaw with Vladimir Putin before an interview on 2 June 2000.
On September 11, 2001, Brokaw joined Katie Couric and Matt Lauer around 9:30 a.m., following the live attack on the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and continued to anchor all day, until after midnight. Following the collapse of the second tower, Brokaw observed:[20][21]
This is war. This is a declaration and an execution of an attack on the United States.
He continued to anchor coverage to midnight on the following two days. Later that month, a letter containing anthrax was addressed to him as part of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Brokaw was not harmed, but two NBC News employees were infected. In 2008, he testified before the Commission on Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism about the anthrax attacks, publicly discussing his experiences for the first time in a detailed, day-by-day account.[22]
In 2002, NBC announced that Brokaw would retire as anchor of the NBC Nightly News following the 2004 Presidential election, to be succeeded by Brian Williams. Brokaw would remain with NBC News in a part-time capacity from that point onwards, serving as an analyst and anchoring and producing documentary programs. Brokaw closed his final Nightly News broadcast in front of 15.7 million viewers on NBC on December 1, 2004, by saying:
Well the time is here. We've been through a lot together through dark days and nights and seasons of hope and joy. Whatever the story, I had only one objective, to get it right. When I failed, it was personally painful, and there was no greater urgency than course correction. On those occasions, I was grateful for your forbearance and always mindful that your patience and attention didn't come with a lifetime warranty. I was not alone here, of course. I am simply the most conspicuous part of a large, thoroughly dedicated and professional staff that extends from just beyond these cameras, across the country, and around the world-in too many instances, in places of grave danger and personal hardship and they're family to me. What have I learned here? More than we have time to recount this evening, but the enduring lessons through the decades are these: it's not the questions that get us in trouble, it's the answers. And just as important, no one person has all the answers. Just ask a member of the generation that I came to know well, the men and women who came of age in the Great Depression who had great personal sacrifice, saved the world during World War II and returned home to dedicate their lives to improving the nation they had already served so nobly. They weren't perfect, no generation is, but this one left a large and vital legacy of common effort to find common ground here and abroad in which to solve our most vexing problems. They did not give up their personal beliefs and greatest passions, but they never stopped learning from each other and most of all, they did not give up on the idea that we're all in this together, we still are. And it is in that spirit that I say, thanks, for all that I have learned from you. That's been my richest reward. That's Nightly News for this Wednesday night. I'm Tom Brokaw. You'll see Brian Williams here tomorrow night, and I'll see you along the way.
By the end of his time as Nightly News anchor, Brokaw was regarded as the most popular news personality in the United States. Nightly News had moved into first place in the Nielsen ratings in late 1996[23] and held on to the spot for the remainder of Brokaw's tenure on the program, placing him ahead of ABC's Peter Jennings and World News Tonight, and CBS's Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News.
Along with Jennings and Rather, Brokaw helped usher in the era of the TV news anchor as a lavishly compensated, globe-trotting star in the 1980s. The magnitude of a news event could be measured by whether Brokaw and his counterparts on the other two networks showed up on the scene. Brokaw's retirement in December 2004, followed by Rather's ouster from the CBS Evening News in March 2005, and Jennings' death in August 2005, brought that era to a close. [citation needed]
After Nightly News
After leaving the anchor chair, Brokaw remained at NBC as Special Correspondent, providing periodic reports for Nightly News. He served as an NBC analyst during the 2008 presidential election campaign[24] and moderated the second presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain at Belmont University. He reported documentaries for the Discovery Channel and the History Channel and in 2006 delivered one of the eulogies during the state funeral of former President Gerald R. Ford.
On June 13, 2008, when NBC interrupted its regular programming to announce the sudden death of NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert, Brokaw served as the announcer. A week later, NBC announced that Brokaw would serve as host of Meet the Press on an interim basis. He was succeeded by David Gregory in December 2008.
On May 29, 2011, Brokaw began hosting The Boys in the Hall, a baseball documentary series for Fox Sports Net.[26]
In December 2012, Brokaw starred in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's annual Christmas concert, with live audiences of 84,000 and a nationally televised broadcast titled Home for the Holidays.[1]
In April 2014, a new broadcast facility opened on the Universal Studios Hollywood lot, and named in Brokaw's honor as the Brokaw News Center.[27] The facility houses KNBC, Telemundo owned-and-operated station KVEA, and the Los Angeles bureau of NBC News.
Personal life
Since 1962, Brokaw has been married to author and 1959 Miss South Dakota Meredith Lynn Auld.[citation needed] They have three daughters: Jennifer, Andrea, and Sarah.[28] Brokaw and his wife spend considerable time at their ranch near Livingston, Montana, which they bought in 1989.[29][30]
On September 6, 2012, Brokaw was hospitalized after appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe. He later tweeted that he was "all well" and explained his illness as having accidentally taken half a dose of Ambien in the morning.[31] He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in August 2013 at the Mayo Clinic.[32] Brokaw and his physicians are "very encouraged with his progress".[33] He has continued to work for NBC throughout his treatments. On December 21, 2014, Brokaw announced that his cancer is in full remission.[34][35][36]
Career timeline
1960–1962: KTIV-TV Newscaster, weatherman, and staff announcer
Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Awards for excellence in broadcast journalism for Dateline NBC documentary special Why Can't We Live Together on hidden realities of racial separation in suburban America;
Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism for his interview with Mikhail Gorbachev;
Seven Emmy Awards including one for China in Crisis special report;
1990 National Headliner Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews for advancing the understanding of religion, race and ethnicity;
1992 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media presented by the Freedom Forum;
1993 Emmy award for reporting on floods in the Midwest;
1995 Dennis Kauff Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism from Boston University;
1998 Fred Friendly First Amendment Award, a tribute to those "individuals whose broadcast career reflects a consistent devotion to freedom of speech and the principles embodied in the First Amendment.";
1998 American Legion award for distinguished public service in the field of communication;
1998 Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America's President's Award recognizing "devotion to helping young people through scholarships.";
1999 Congressional Medal of Honor Society's "Tex" McCrary Excellence in Journalism Award;
1999 Emmy award for international coverage of the Kosovo conflict;
2007 Horatio Alger Award for overcoming adversity to achieve success through the American free enterprise system from the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans Inc.;
2011 Charles Osgood Lifetime Achievement Award in Broadcast Journalism from WFUV (90.7 FM);
