Tom Brokaw

Tom (Tomas John) Brokaw, is a leading journalist and bestselling author. He was the former host of NBC's, “Nightly News”, a position he held for 22 years. He is also four time best selling author. As a journalist, Brokaw has covered all national political campaigns since 1966. He also has produced several award wining documentaries.

Personal Life

In 1940, Tom Brokaw was born into the family of Anthony Brokaw, who had an occupation as a construction worker in Webster, South Dakota. Tom was the first born of three sons. Brokaw's mother worked as a clerk at a local post office. As a young child, Brokaw was fascinated with television; on election night he stayed awake until 1 in the morning to see the results. In high school he struggled with his studies, his advisor told him to drop out a take a break. He took the advisers advice and it worked. After high school Brokaw received admission to the University of South Dakota. Although he at first struggled, he soon got on track in his studies and received a degree in Political Science. In 1962, Brokaw married Meredith Auld, the daughter of a doctor. The couple has three children, Jennifer, Andrea, and Sarah . He currently resides in New York and Montana.

Television Career

Brokaw had a young obsession with politics and reporting, this obsession soon became useful as he worked at a broadcasting station in Sioux City, Iowa. In 1962 after gradating from college, Brokaw went to work at another broadcast news station, KNTV, in Omaha, Nebraska. Here Brokaw was offered a salary of $90 a week, but he refused the offer and asked for a salary of $100, which was accepted. Brokaw later stated that one of his reasons for joining the news industry was his desire to travel. Brokaw's love for politics came into play in his new job, as he served as the "political junkie" for the network. As the civil rights movement rose, so did another opportunity for the young reporter, Brokaw moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to cover the movement in 1965. During this time he was able to cover Martin King Jr., while serving as news editor and anchor of the 11:00 news for the Georgia station, KMTV. Ironically, future anchor of CBS News, Dan Rather, was also covering the civil rights movement during this same period for CBS.

NBC become impressed with Brokaw's coverage and command at KMTV, and after only one year at his new job, Brokaw was off to work for NBC as an anchor of their Los Angeles station in 1966. Although he took the job after twice turning down the offer, Brokaw was not impressed with his new assignment; he had hoped to get a job as a correspondent in Washington D.C. . In California, Brokaw had the opportunity to cover Ronald Reagan's governor race. In 1968, Brokaw was promoted to NBC's White House correspondent; here he covered the Watergate investigation. During his time as White House correspondent he competed with Dan Rather, who was also now a White House correspondent for CBS. In 1976 Brokaw covered the election primaries, national conventions, and election night in the race between Jimmy Cater and Walter Mondale. He also served as anchor of NBC's Saturday Night News. In its 24th year of broadcast, Brokaw became host of NBC's, Today show, here he had the opportunity to see Ronald Reagan’s rise to national recognition as he ran for president in 1981, and also the experience of interviewing Mikhail Gorbachev in the Kremlin, he later won a Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for his interview.

1981-2000

He later stated that the transition from the role of White House correspondent to Today show was difficult, because of Today's was less of a 'hard news' platform.. Brokaw said that the best part of the job with Today was having the opportunity to travel. The job at Today lasted until NBC began looking for a new anchor to co-anchor with Roger Mudd. ABC was interested in Brokaw as their new news anchor and the two began to discuss options. NBC picked up Brokaw as Nightly News co-anchor in 1982. The co-broadcast did not work and NBC made Brokaw the sole anchor in 1983, the same year reporter Peter Jennings's reclaimed the job as the anchor of ABC nightly news. The year before, in 1981, Dan Rather replaced Walter Cronkite as anchor of CBS News. In 1982 he was the only anchor to report from the Berlin Wall at the time of its collapse. He also covered the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, and later was the first to broadcast from the site of the TWA Flight 800 tragedy. Brokaw wrote his first book in 1998, which became a best seller. In addition to his role as anchor at Nightly News, Brokaw also created some reports for 60 Minutes and appeared in a nighttime news show with Katie Couric called, "Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric."

2000-2007

Brokaw covered the attacks on September 11th, 2001 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He traveled to both Afghanistan, to witness the United States struggle against Al-Qaeda, and later to Iraq to witness the new elections after the fall of Saddem. In 2004, the 60th Anniversary of D-Day, he was the only anchor to report from Normandy. He also did exclusive interviews with President George W. Bush and former French President Jacques Chirac during his trip. While anchor of the networks main news show, Brokaw also wrote books documenting the generation of World War Two, he also helped in the production of documentaries covering a wide variety of areas. On December 1st, 2004, at the age of 64 and after more then 21 years as anchor, Brokaw stepped down from NBC Nightly News and was replaced by Brian Williams. NBC Nightly News remained a steady first for the majority of Brokaw's tenure as anchor with an average of ten million viewers. Brokaw continues work with NBC News, and plans on continuing to do so for the next ten years. He continues reporting and producing documentaries for the network as well as appearing on shows on MSNBC and NBC.

Books

Brokaw's first book, "The Greatest Generation," was released in 1998, and it instantly became a best seller. The 432 page book documented the generation of people that lived through the depression and Second World War. Brokaw was inspired to write the book after he went to cover the fiftieth anniversary of the invasion of Normandy for NBC. Here while talking to veterans, and walking the beach he had a, "life changing experience," as he stated later Brokaw was so encouraged by the letter he received regarding his first book that he decided to right a sequel. In 1999 he began work on his next best seller, "The Greatest Generation Speaks." This book included letter written by people living in the period, including, eyewitness account of the dropping of the atomic bomb and others. Brokaw released his third book, "An Album of Memories," in 2001. This trilogy was also a book filled with letter documenting the "the greatest generation society has ever produced,” as he stated. His last book, "A Long Way from Home," documented his own life and five decade career as a broadcast journalist. "A Long Way from Home," was Brokaw's fourth straight bestselling book.

Film

In addition to Brokaw's work for NBC as a newscaster, he has also created documentaries series for the organization. In 1989, Brokaw was awarded his first Peabody award for, "To Be An American," a documentary about the Americans, documenting their history. Brokaw's work in Georgia during the civil rights movement came in handy when in 1997 he produced, "Why Can't We Live Together," a documentary that documented racial separation in America's suburbs. He won an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for his effort in creating the documentary. After September 11, 2001, Brokaw began work on another documentary. In 2003 he released, "America Remembers: 9/11 Air Traffic Controllers." This documentary, which later won an Emmy for Outstanding Interview, consisted of interviews that Brokaw had done with twenty air traffic controllers who dealt with the four hijacked planes. Brokaw examined Affirmative Action in a documentary he released in 2004, "Tom Brokaw Reports: A Question of Fairness." This documentary won numerous awards including the Peabody award. In 2005, after giving up his post as anchor, Brokaw returned to primetime television with an hour-long documentary, "Tom Brokaw Reports: The Long War". This documentary examined the United States war against terrorism after the September 11th attacks. In the documentaries creation Brokaw traveled the world – from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, France and Washington D.C. - to interview intelligence experts, world leaders and those personally affected by the attacks. Brokaw again was able to use his past experience as a journalist in his creation of another documentary, "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat," in September 2005. In December 2005, Brokaw received praise for his new hour long documentary, "Tom Brokaw Reports: To War and Back," which documented a wounded soldiers arrival back home.

Criticism

Some media newsroom insiders have questioned Tom Brokaw's objectivity, claiming that some of his past reporting includes a liberal slant. Much of the perceived bias in the mainstream media was blamed at Brokaw, because of the influence he had with NBC, which led in network news ratings. Bernard Goldberg, a employee for CBS News for thirty years, stated that all of the main networks, including NBC, showed significant bias against conservatives. Goldberg recorded his findings in a book entitled, “Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distorts the News.” In response to critics, Brokaw stated the he does not believe that the news media had bias.

Clinton Administration

During a June 1996 Press Club Meeting, Brokaw stated that the media was being tough on President Clinton, who’s administration was being investigated for allegedly leaking secret grand jury information to the New York Times. Brokaw’s claim was shown to be false as the network surprisingly ignored the investigation. Critics claim that Brokaw was trying to protect the president from bad publicity. During the 1994 election, he stated that the Republican’s Contract with America, “is long on promises, but short on sound premises." When the Republicans came to power in Congress, Brokaw was extremely tough in an interview with new House leader, Newt Gingrich. He later claimed that the media was getting too mixed up with conservative members of congress such as, “Whitewater and Paula Jones.”

Iraq War

In January of 2007 he attacked the United States actions in Iraq, stating, “And a lot of families, and I think a lot of people who are raising their hands to join the armed services are wondering 'I'm giving my life for that?.'” In an interview Brokaw claimed that the White House is, “in its own bunker at the moment." He said that the world is saying to the United States, “you got yourself into it, you find a way out of it.” ." Brokaw also challenged President Bush credibility on Iraq. He also stated that no one was suggesting of cutting and running from Iraq, despite Bill Murtha’s and Nancy Pelosi’s comments to the contrary. News Buster, a media watchdog organization, wrote that, “The former Nightly News anchor seems to align himself with the "Bush lied, people died" crowd.”

Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse

After the abuses by the some members of the military in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, many critics attacked Brokaw’s unbalance coverage of the situation. Nightly News reported heavily on the abuse at Abu Ghraib, while failing to mention the recently discovered abuses carried out by former dictator Saddam Hussein. In a span from 2003-2004 the Nightly News show 58 prison abuse stories, while only creating five reports on Saddam’s mass graves which were recently discovered.