Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author, best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generationand other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He is the only person to host 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Show Host
Date of Birth6 February 1940
CityWebster, SD
CountryUnited States of America
I'm a guy who's had great good fortune in his life. And everything has kind of gone in my direction.
I would say that we have not completely cracked the code of the '60s. We are still finding our way through that time.
I was a college dropout, hitchhiking across the Midwest. That was part of the old, adventurous spirit.
I played high school basketball at six feet, then I went to 5-11 in my 50's, and then, bang, I went down to 5-9.
I had gone to all the big stories of the '80s, which was one of the most fertile times in American journalism, around the world and here as well.
I had four compression fractures in my spine. They were repaired, but it cost me two inches of height.
I don't like to play the macho card, but I grew up in a working-class family and a working-class culture.
Everywhere I go - from Main Street to Wall Street - people ask, 'What's happened to our political system? Why can't Washington folks work together?'
Cancer has given me a dose of humility. I'm much more empathetic. It's a club I would rather not have joined, but it is a club.
Barack Obama's name will be the one on the peace prize, but his speech and his manner could become a gift for generations to come.
What we have to do is put this in a coherent form for them at the end of the day, and on the big events, give them the kind of context that they deserve.
What I think is that Fox has done a very smart job of carving out their place.
I think people of my generation became journalists - you know, right after the broadcast pioneer fathers - because we wanted to report the big stories.
As I walked the beaches with the American veterans who had returned for this anniversary, men in their sixties and seventies, and listened to their stories, I was deeply moved and profoundly grateful for all they had done,