NEW YORK—Tom Brokaw, 80, has announced that he will retire from NBC News, where he has spent the last 55 years covering the news as an anchor and correspondent.
Brokaw’s career began on KTIV in Sioux City, Iowa, with subsequent stops at KMTV in Omaha, Neb., and WSB-TV in Atlanta before he joined NBC News in 1966 in its Los Angeles Bureau, where he would cover Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign.
In 1973, Brokaw became NBC News’ White House correspondent during Watergate. He stopped being a correspondent in 1976 to co-host “Today.” Then in 1983, he became the anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw,” a role he held for 22 years. During his time at NBC News he also served as a moderator on “Meet the Press.”
Highlights from Brokaw’s career as a journalist include being the first American journalist to interview Mikhail Gorbachev, and he was the only American reporting from Berlin the night the Berlin wall came down; he received The Order of Merit from the German government as a result of his coverage.
Brokaw received many other honors during his career, including Emmys, Peabodys, Duponts, The Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting, a Legion of Honor from the French government and the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2014.
“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,” Brokaw said in a press release from NBC News.
Many on Twitter have shared their appreciation for Brokaw’s decades sharing the news with American audiences. Among them were NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt:
So bittersweet to hear the great Tom Brokaw is retiring from @NBCNews after more than half a century. I'm still in awe I had the chance to learn from him and am so incredibly grateful for the interest he took in my career and the advice he gave so freely pic.twitter.com/ls66hPJLw7January 22, 2021
As well as NBC News national political correspondent Steve Kornacki:
A sad day as Tom Brokaw announces his retirement from NBC after 55 years.Here from 9/5/83 is his first-ever broadcast as the sole anchor of NBC Nightly News, the start of a 21-year run that would see him emerge as America's most popular and trusted news anchor: pic.twitter.com/bSSgrLXL2KJanuary 22, 2021
Per NBC News, Brokaw will continue with print journalism, authoring books and writing articles in addition to spending more time with his wife, three daughters and grandchildren.
