ROGER SIMON COLUMN
APRIL 26, 2005
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - - Here is yet another difference between Tom Brokaw and me:
I am leading him down a hallway at Harvard's Institute of Politics to a holding room where he will grab a quick sandwich before he speaks to students.
The room where he will speak is crowded, overflowing and I have to make a path through the crowd in the hall to lead Brokaw to the holding room. In my path is a young woman with a tiny baby. I smile at the woman, smile at the baby, and then move around them to get into the holding room.
I look behind me but Brokaw is not there. He is talking to the young woman. "How old is he?" Brokaw asks her about her baby "What's his name?" This goes on for about a minute before Brokaw finally comes into the holding room.
As you might imagine, where ever Brokaw goes, he causes quite a stir. And he caused quite a stir while talking to the young woman and her baby. But Brokaw operates as if the stir did not exist. He rarely allows it to alter his behavior.
This is something I have always admired about him.
Due to Institute of Politics rules, Brokaw's talk to the students was off the record, so I can't quote from it. But this is from my introduction of him:
The guy next to me is Tom Brokaw. You may recognize the face.
Brokaw was hired by NBC News in 1966 and from 1976-1981 he anchored "Today."
After John Chancellor retired, Brokaw and Roger Mudd became co-anchors of the Nightly News, until Brokaw was chosen as the sole anchor of the top-rated broadcast in 1983.
Brokaw has won two Alfred I DuPont awards, two Peabody awards, and nine Emmys.
On March 19, 2003, Brokaw was the first American news anchor to report that the war with Iraq had begun, and in April 2003, he landed the first television interview with President Bush after the President declared the end of major combat. During the summer of 2003, Brokaw was the first evening news anchor to return to Baghdad to report for five nights for NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC on post-war Iraq and the reconstruction efforts.
In 2003, NBC Nightly News was honored with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast, representing the program's fourth consecutive win in this category.
Brokaw has covered every Presidential election since 1968.
So what else does Brokaw do? He writes books. His four best-sellers are "The Greatest Generation," "The Greatest Generation Speaks", "An Album of Memories," and "A Long Way from Home, "
On December 1, 2004, Brokaw stepped down after 21 years as the anchor and managing editor of the NBC Nightly News. But he will stay at the network doing documentaries and other reporting.
Most of what I have just told you about Brokaw you can find in various bios, but what you can't find is this: Of all the people in television today, nobody is better liked or more respected by print reporters than Tom Brokaw.
Who cares what print reporters think? Well, hardly anybody. But why print reporters admire Brokaw so much is instructive.
And that is because first and foremost, Tom is and always has been a reporter. Presidential cycle after presidential cycle you go to some small event in Iowa or New Hampshire and there is Tom Brokaw, pad and pen in hand, no crew, no entourage, just taking notes and reporting.
Has this become increasingly tougher for a man who now is, after all, a living logo, and who attracts attention wherever he goes? Yeah. But he does it anyway.
I first met Brokaw in 1984, in the basement of what was then Loop Junior College, now Harold Washington College, in Chicago. It was a small rally for Jesse Jackson, covered by a handful of reporters and Tom Brokaw walked in. All by himself. Just a notebook and pen. He came up to me, stuck out his hand, introduced himself, asked if I was a local reporter, and then asked me a few questions about Jackson.
I am not saying I was impressed, but I have not washed my hand to this day.
Here is a passage from my decidedly non-bestselling book "Road Show" about a day in Iowa just before the presidential caucuses of 1988, when Brokaw let me follow him around for a day:
Brokaw heads back outside and drives to the Prince Masonic Hall where the Jackson rally is underway. There are no seats left and Brokaw stands to one side of the hall, taking notes in a spiral notebook with a black felt tip pen as Jesse Jackson speaks. Jackson's speeches often do not have clear-cut endings (you know they are over when he leaves the hall) and now he is going through his ritual of inviting children up on the stage.
While this is going on, a black man in a camel coat and gray hat stands up, moves to the aisle, turns his back on Jackson and heads directly for Brokaw. He reaches out his hand and Brokaw shakes it. "You are very popular here," the man says. Brokaw mumbles a word or two, but now a crowd is gathering, people are peering over each other's shoulders to get a look at him.
"He's goin' to run for president," the man says of Brokaw. "And he's goin' to win!"
Will Tom Brokaw ever become president of the United States? I do not know. There may be some pay-cuts not worth taking.
But I will always remember what Tom Brokaw once said: "It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference."
Here is Tom Brokaw. A man who has made a difference.
Posted by rsimon at April 26, 2005 03:43 PM