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Pioneer newsman David Brinkley dies at 82
(CNN) -- Legendary television newsman David Brinkley, who became a national figure co-anchoring NBC's "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" and who later hosted "This Week With David Brinkley" on ABC, has died. He was 82. He died Wednesday night at his home in Houston, Texas, from complications from a fall. During a career lasting more than 60 years, Brinkley won 10 Emmys, three George Foster Peabody Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, The Associated Press reported. "Since the mid-1950s, Brinkley has not only reported the news, he has also helped to shape the industry of television news," according to a biography on the Web site of the Museum of Broadcast Communications. "His renowned wit, his singular delivery, and his superb TV news writing style have made him an institution in broadcast journalism." Brinkley, known for that dry wit and caustic commentaries, was modest about his achievements in a 1992 interview with the AP. "Most of my life, I've simply been a reporter covering things, and writing and talking about it," he told the AP. Always a journalistDavid Brinkley was born July 10, 1920, in Wilmington, North Carolina. His journalism career began as a teenager with a local newspaper. He wrote engagingly about his upbringing in his 1995 memoir, "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News and Other Stuff on Television." After college at the University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University, he joined the Army, then worked for the United Press wire service. He moved to Washington during World War II as a radio reporter. As he noted in his memoir, as well as his history, "Washington Goes to War," he thought he had a job lined up with CBS. Instead, the job was a few blocks away, at NBC. He soon became NBC's first White House correspondent and started appearing on a rapidly growing medium: television.
He was first teamed with lanky Westerner Chet Huntley during the 1956 political conventions. The combination of Brinkley's puckish wit and Huntley's straightforward delivery made their news show, "The Huntley-Brinkley Report," the top-rated news program for many years until it was overtaken by Walter Cronkite's CBS report in the late 1960s. The pair had a famous sign-off -- "Good night, Chet; Good night, David" -- that both he and Huntley disliked, according to ABCNews.com. After Huntley retired in 1970, Brinkley became a commentator on the "NBC Nightly News" for several years, primarily working with John Chancellor. A contract dispute brought him to ABC in 1981, where ABC News chief Roone Arledge built a new Sunday morning show, "This Week With David Brinkley," around his personality. The show was the top Sunday public-affairs program for many years. A different takeLike many of his generation, Brinkley did not look or sound like today's polished, blow-dried news anchors. His delivery, which always retained a touch of his Southern accent, had a start-stop rhythm that gave added spin to his opinions. He looked craggy and slightly bemused, as if he could not quite believe what he was reading -- particularly in Washington's spin-machine culture. "If I was to start today, I couldn't get a job because I don't look like what people think an anchorperson should look like," he once said, according to the AP. He also didn't shy away from saying exactly what he thought. In 1996, Brinkley sparked a controversy when he uttered negative comments about President Bill Clinton. Brinkley called Clinton a "bore" and predicted -- in opinionated election night commentary -- four more years of "goddamned nonsense." Brinkley apologized to Clinton when he interviewed the president a few days later. "After a long day election day, and seven hours on the set, what I said at the end of election night coverage was both impolite and unfair, and I'm sorry. I regret it," Brinkley said. Clinton accepted and told him he had taken no offense: "I always believed you have to judge people on their whole work, and if you get judged on your whole work, you come out way ahead." His guests generally appreciated his civility, and his colleagues had great respect for his storytelling. "David Brinkley was an icon of modern broadcast journalism, a brilliant writer who could say in a few words what the country needed to hear during times of crisis, tragedy and triumph," his former NBC colleague Tom Brokaw said in a statement. "He was also great personal company: charming, witty and mischievous. He was my hero as well as my friend." "He can take a story, compress it into nine or 10 words, and have a greater clarity and punch than when I write two paragraphs," Sam Donaldson of ABC News was once quoted as saying. CBS anchor Dan Rather agreed that Brinkley was a superb writer. "David was such a good writer that he brought a sense to all of us who were coming up in his wake that ... good writing could really make a difference in how good your work was," Rather told talk show host Larry King during an interview on CNN. Brinkley retired from ABC News in 1997. "If I were 20 years old, I would try to do the same thing again, all of it," he told his son Joel for a New York Times interview in 1997. "I have no regrets. None at all." Brinkley is survived by his four children, including Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joel and American Book Award-winning historian Alan; and his wife, Susan. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Most of my life, I've simply been a reporter covering things, and writing and talking about it.
