Brokaw is the only anchor to have helmed all three NBC News flagship programs: TODAY, Nightly News and Meet the Press
NEW YORK (January 22, 2021) – Veteran news anchor and senior correspondent Tom Brokaw will retire from NBC News after 55 years at the network.
“During one of the most complex and consequential eras in American history, a new generation of NBC News journalists, producers and technicians is providing America with timely, insightful and critically important information, 24/7. I could not be more proud of them,” said Brokaw.
Brokaw has spent his entire journalism career with NBC News beginning in the Los Angeles Bureau where he covered Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign. In 1973, he moved to the nation’s capital as the NBC News White House correspondent during Watergate, a position he held until 1976 when he started co-hosting TODAY. In 1983, he became the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, leading the team there for 22 years. He also served as moderator of Meet the Press in the immediate aftermath of the untimely passing of Tim Russert.
Brokaw was the first American journalist to conduct an interview with Mikhail Gorbachev and was the only American network anchor to report from Berlin the night the Berlin Wall came down, which earned him The Order of Merit from the German government.
Brokaw has won a number of prestigious journalism awards, including Peabodys, Duponts, Emmys and The Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting. In 2016, Brokaw was awarded the coveted Legion of Honor by the French government for his continuing work and advocacy on issues facing veterans and preserving the legacy of “The Greatest Generation”. In 2014, Brokaw was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the highest civilian award given to those who make “meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”
Brokaw’s first book, The Greatest Generation, is one of the most popular nonfiction books of the 20th century, and the term has become a widely used title for those who lived through the Great Depression and fought in WW2.
Brokaw will continue to be active in print journalism, authoring books and articles, and spend time with his wife, Meredith, three daughters and grandchildren.
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Media Contact:
Hollie Tracz
