5 Questions For…Tom Brokaw

By Alissa Krinsky 

NBC News Special Correspondent Tom Brokaw has written the newly-released Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the ’60s and Today. Brokaw began his journalism career in 1962 at Omaha’s KMTV-TV, later working at local news stations in Atlanta and Los Angeles. He joined NBC News in 1966, eventually anchoring Today and NBC Nightly News. He left the Nightly anchor chair three years ago.

1. TVNewser: I decided to write about the Sixties because...
Brokaw: I lived through that time as a journalist, husband and father. It was a stunning contrast to my coming of age in the fifties — and, more important, we’re still living with the consequences of the Sixties, good and bad.

2. TVNewser: Life after Nightly News is…
Brokaw: A little more frenetic than I intended but I do have much more personal freedom than when I had to be near a television camera every night at 6:30.

Advertisement

3. TVNewser: My thoughts on the current evening news race:
Brokaw: Brian’s the best. Doesn’t everyone understand that?


4. TVNewser: The phenomenal success of The Greatest Generation was…
Brokaw: Gratifying beyond my wildest expectations. The most rewarding part of the whole experience was making the Baby Boomers appreciate their parents so much more. Almost every day someone will stop me on the street and comment on it.

5. TVNewser: Doing long-form documentary work is….
Brokaw: Particularly satisfying. Over the years I’ve done more than two dozen documentaries for NBC News (two Peabodys, two duPonts, numerous Emmys) and they will always be a center-piece of my career.

Advertisement