Tom Brokaw to retire from NBC News after 55 years with the network – Deadline

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Tom Brokaw will retire from NBC News after 55 years with the network.

He made the announcement in a statement Friday.

“During one of the most complex and important eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News reporters, producers and technicians are providing America with timely, insightful and critically important information. , 24/7. I couldn’t be more proud of them, ”he said in a statement.

Brokaw, 80, was the anchor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. Since then he has participated in the special events coverage of NBC News, serving as a special correspondent and often providing commentary and analysis from a historical perspective. His 2001 book The greatest generation highlight the sacrifice of a generation of Americans during the Great Depression and World War II. The title of the book is now commonly used to refer to World War II veterans and their families.

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Brokaw will continue to be active in print journalism and writing books, while spending more time with his wife, Meredith, three daughters and grandchildren, the network said.

Brokaw started on the network in 1966, when he was assigned to the Los Angeles office and covered Ronald Reagan’s first successful candidacy for public office – Governor of California – while anchoring the nightly newscast on KNBC-TV. He moved to Washington to serve as the network’s correspondent in the White House in 1973, where he covered the Watergate scandal and the resignation of Richard Nixon. He then became co-host of Today in 1976, paired with Jane Pauley.

Six years later, after John Chancellor’s resignation, Brokaw was paired with Roger Mudd to co-anchor Evening news. But the team didn’t work, and Brokaw became the sole anchor and editor in 1983. He rose to the top of the ratings, and his defining moments were the first American journalist to interview the president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and reporting from Berlin on the night the Berlin Wall fell.

A week after leading the network’s coverage of 9/11, Brokaw was among the targets of an anthrax attack. He was not injured, but his longtime assistant was infected, having opened a threatening letter covered in white powder that had been addressed to Brokaw. He spoke about what happened on the air, expressing his anger but also his relief in the face of antibiotic treatment.

After the long-standing death Meet the press moderator Tim Russert in 2008, Brokaw served as the show’s interim host, until David Gregory was appointed to the permanent position later in the year.

Brokaw was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. That same year, the network named its new Los Angeles broadcast facility on the Universal Lot. In 2018, Variety and The Washington Post published allegations by former NBC News correspondent Linda Vester, who claimed to have groped her in the 1990s. But he denied her allegations, writing a rebuttal letter in which he said she had ” unleashed a torrent of unfounded criticism and attacks on me over twenty years after I opened the door and a new job for him at Fox News. Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell and dozens of other women who worked at the network signed a public letter supporting Brokaw.

With Dan Rather at CBS Evening News and Peter Jennings at World news tonight, Brokaw was one of the ’80s and’ 90s superstar anchors, hunting big “get” and going to the locations of major current events. But the impact of the nightly program has diminished since then, with the rise of opinion talkers on cable news networks and the dissemination of news sources on the Internet.

Brokaw appeared on Morning joe on December 30, but her appearances on NBC networks have declined in recent years. He tweeted about Hank Aaron’s death on Friday, writing: “What a loss. great ball player, great man. we became friends when i did a documentary with him he described growing up in the south and learning he couldn’t play because he was black – which made him all the more determined . a gentle giant one of my great heroes.



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