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
Obviously, it's very gratifying, ... It's especially pleasing to be able to share this with a lot of people who have been through some long, dark days here and now have emerged into the sunlight.
There has been some research, by the way, that shows that, as people are coming up into their parenting ages, they gravitate back to the evening news.
I had this unusual mix of curiosity, the ability to write in ways people understood, and when I appeared, viewers seemed to trust me to get them through some cataclysmic changes.
The most memorable interviews for me are folks whose names I don't know: young civil rights leaders in the South, showing great courage as they walked into a town in the dark of night. A doctor working for 'Doctors Without Borders' in Somalia, operating by kerosene light in a tent. Those are the kinds of people that linger in your memory.
People are beginning to doubt the moral certitude of people on the right, especially the far right.
I have no problem whatsoever with a kind of political overview or an ideological overview for any of these outlets as long as it's transparent. We know where Breitbart stands, we know where Fox stands, where MSNBC stands. So, people go in with an understanding of that.
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?'
I think people of my generation became journalists - you know, right after the broadcast pioneer fathers - because we wanted to report the big stories.
People do not like to have their favorite myths of idols challenged and as a rule I think that the public does not like bad news.
I always think there are people looking not so much for information as for reassurance and reaffirmation of their views.
Speaking generally, people who are drawn to journalism are interested in what happens from the ground up less than they are from the top down.
Our obligation at the network is where do we fit into that and how can we best capitalize on that to make sure that our piece of that remains important to those young people.
Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.
TV is a fickle business. I'm only good for the length of my contract.