NBC’s Brian Williams is doing his part as journalist and diplomat while reporting from Bei-jing. This week, he was a guest on CCTV-9, the English language channel from China Central TV. And the host of that show did her research. She asked Williams how he would compare his generation of anchors with “the previous generation, let’s say Tom Brokaw.” Williams:
Tom Brokaw’s here with me on this trip. The other evening he was with us in Tiananmen and I wouldn’t want it any other way. He did our last live broadcast from there in 1987 and so I don’t look at Tom and see a generational difference as much as I see this great continuum at these television networks in America. We’ve had great names — I don’t count myself as as one of them — but I’ve only had what I still consider Tom’s job for three years and I hope you have mentors as terrific and powerful in our great shared business as I have in Tom Brokaw.