David Brinkley

Television Newscaster. He is remembered for his 50-year television career beginning in the 1940s. He appeared as a co-anchor with Chet Huntley on the National Broadcasting Company evening news program, "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" from October 1956 through July 31, 1970, the date that Huntley retired. Receiving an Emmy Award yearly from 1958 to 1964, their NBC broadcast defined how the news would be presented to the public on television. He reported from Washington D.C., while Huntley was in New York City, and their trademark sign-off was him saying "Good night, Chet" followed by Huntley's reply of "Good night, David." From 1961 to 1962, he also produced for NBC a series of documentaries under the title of "David Brinkley's Journal." During the 1970s, he continued, although not as active as he would have liked, reporting the news or hosting various programs for NBC. In 1980, he hosted "NBC Magazine with David Brinkley," which was not as successful as the CBS counterpart show of "60 Minutes." His next career step was moving to the American Broadcasting Company, ABC, to host a Sunday morning political program, "This Week With David Brinkley" from 1981 until he retired from full-time airing on December 8, 1996, thus ending his run as the longest-serving news anchor or host of a daily or weekly national TV program in the history of American broadcasting. After hosting a few more programs, he retired in 1997. He also appeared as a narrator on the 1961 film, "The Challenge of Ideas," and as himself in an episode of "The Jack Benny Program" on September 25, 1964. He was well-known to television audiences as a news analyst with his tense, biting comments and dry wit. His journalism career actually started while still in high school after writing for his hometown newspaper, the Wilmington Morning Star. His first story was about a non-blooming century plant; the article was picked up by Associated Press and was published nationally. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Emory University, and Vanderbilt University before entering the United States Army in 1940, but was soon discharged for medical reasons. During World War II, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, for a position with United Press International, then to Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Washington D.C. At this point, he became a radio reporter for NBC, stepping into television journalism when the opportunity opened. In 1952, he was a reporter for John Cameron Swayze's nightly news broadcast before pairing with Huntley in 1956. Earlier in 1956, he and Huntley had covered the Democratic National Convention and impressed NBC. In 1992, he was the recipient of the George Foster Peabody Award for his report on the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, starting World War II for America. He was the recipient of two more George Foster Peabody Awards and 10 Emmy Awards. In 1992, President George Herbert Walker Bush presented him with the highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Showing his dry wit, he wrote in 1995 his memoirs, "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News, and Other Stuff on Television." He also wrote the 1988 bestseller "Washington Goes to War," which was based on his own observation of the transformation of the nation's capital during World War II. Six months before he died, a wheelchair-bound Brinkley was rescued through a window during a fire at his ranch.