NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw retires after 55-year career

Veteran TV presenter Tom Brokaw, a 55-year NBC News member, is retiring from the network today.

Brokaw, 80, has only made a few on-air appearances on NBC and its MSNBC cable news channel in recent years as he battles cancer. The former host of “NBC Nightly News” – a seat he held for 22 years – has been a senior correspondent and occasional commentator since 2005.

“During one of the most complex and important eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News reporters, producers and technicians are bringing timely, relevant and critical information to the United States. 24/7, ”Brokaw said in a statement announcing the decision. . “I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Brokaw was one of the network’s best-known television news figures for several decades after emerging as a White House correspondent for NBC News during the Watergate scandal in 1973. He began his NBC career in the office. from Los Angeles Network, where he covered Ronald Reagan’s governorship campaign and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

The South Dakota native moved to New York City in 1976 when he was named co-host of the “Today” Network’s morning franchise, where he served alongside co-host Jane Pauley until 1981. Her good looks, her ability to handle difficult news and celebrity interviews, and skill for endless advertising on live television has led an executive to give her the nickname “Duncan the Wonder Horse”.

In 1983 Brokaw became the presenter and editor of “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw”. He left Brian Williams’ post in 2005, but remained an authoritative presence on NBC News, curating documentaries, reporting for news magazine “Dateline” and attending the network’s election night and coverage of special events.

Brokaw was the moderator of NBC’s Washington Sunday roundtable program “Meet the Press” for several months after Tim Russert’s sudden death in 2008.

Brokaw was the first American journalist to conduct an interview with Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and was the only American television presenter to report from Berlin on the night the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Brokaw’s legacy was tarnished after former NBC News colleague Linda Vester went public in 2018 with allegations of sexual harassment against the anchor. Vester said Brokaw attempted to kiss him in a hotel room when the two were on assignment for the network in the 1990s. She also said he showed up once in her hotel room. unexpectedly in New York to try and start sex.

Brokaw has denied the incidents and a large number of female network workers circulated a letter affirming their support.