NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw Retires

 

By Kerry Sheridan

Three major network television stations - NBC, CBS and ABC - have provided news and entertainment to American television viewers for decades. Each network broadcasts the evening news at 6:30 p.m., and for many American families, gathering¹ around the television set to watch NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, CBS anchor Dan Rather, or ABC anchor Peter Jennings has become a tradition. But some media experts say that era may be coming to an end, with the retirement² of NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw on December 1 after more than 40 years on the air, and the recent announcement by CBS anchor Dan Rather that he plans to step down early next year.

"Good evening! Live from the Berlin wall on the most historic night in this wall's history…" Tom Brokaw was the only Western news anchor to broadcast live at the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

"We have a remarkable³ development here tonight at the Brandenburg gate. On the other side, East Germans have now come to the wall and many of them have been seen crawling up on the wall being helped across by West Germans from this side."

Television news historian Jeff Alan says much of the public relied on Mr. Brokaw for key news events because his passion for the news was clear to see.

"When he was standing⁴ at the Berlin wall, when that Berlin Wall came down, he felt it. He felt every bit of passion that those people were feeling, who had been living for years and years and years under that rule there, and it had a profound impact on his life. And you could tell in his reporting. You can see that he really, really lived the journalism⁵." (Mr. Alan said)

It was just one of many prominent news events Mr. Brokaw covered. A native of South Dakota, Mr. Brokaw started his career in 1962 in Omaha, Nebraska. He later covered news from both the West and East Coasts of the United States, serving as a reporter and anchor in Los Angeles, then as a White House reporter for NBC.

Mr. Brokaw began anchoring the NBC morning Today Show in 1976, and moved to the NBC Nightly News in 1982. His face and his voice have become instantly recognizable to millions of Americans.

"Well, when I was younger I always thought he was the best looking anchor!" she joked.

Gloria Lyndaker from North Carolina is touring New York City, and has stopped by the NBC studio at Rockefeller Center for a glimpse of the morning show celebrities⁶. She says she grew up watching Mr. Brokaw on the news.

"At first I didn't particularly like his style but then as I watched more and more, I really believed and could trust what he was saying. And I would rather watch him than a lot of others."

Mr. Brokaw has spent much of his career traveling around the world to bring news home to American viewers.

Mr. Brokaw also covered the Vietnam war, the Watergate scandal, and the spread of the AIDS epidemic⁷.

When Mr. Brokaw took over as the sole anchor of the NBC Nightly News in 1983, he led one of three network news broadcasts - the others were CBS and ABC - that were the most popular source of evening news for close to 29 million people, or about a third of the estimated television viewing audience according to Nielsen Media Research.

Mr. Alan, the news historian, wrote a book about the television news anchors that have shaped American media. He says the networks' place in the American home is not what it used to be.

"In 1982, when Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings took over those three chairs at the three networks and were doing nightly news broadcasts, there were no remote controls sold with every television set and there was no cable news other than CNN which was less than a year old at the time. So people had to literally⁸ get up, walk across the room, change the channel to turn on a different station."

Now, the public has more choices for news. Cable channels such as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News provide 24-hour news coverage⁹, and the Internet makes updated news accessible any time of day.

Analyst¹⁰ Bob Steele of the Poynter Institute, which focuses on educating future journalists, says the retirements¹¹ of Mr. Brokaw and CBS anchor Dan Rather will be remembered as milestones¹² in the history of television journalism.

"When you have two of the three traditional broadcast network anchors stepping down at approximately the same time, there is a kind of a benchmark moment. The audience has been diminishing for the particular broadcast networks in recent years. I don't think that has anything to do with Brokaw, Rather and Jennings as much as it has to do with the technological¹³ and marketplace changes: cable news as a very viable¹⁴ competitor and also the changing society in which we live. The opportunity for viewers to tune¹⁵ to not just several, not just dozens, but literally hundreds of different channels on television."

But ratings show that even as network news viewership is slightly down, it continues to draw a major part of the prime time television audience. For instance, CNN and Fox News combined draw about 2.7 million evening viewers. NBC, CBS and ABC combine to draw about 26 million viewers.

In an NBC broadcast commemorating¹⁶ his 40-year career in news, Mr. Brokaw recalled the major news events that shaped his life. One of the most recent was broadcasting live from New York the night of September 11, 2001.

"It is one of the darkest days in America as we realize that this country has been attacked in an act of terrorist war in the heart of the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., and also in New York City, and then a plane that was driven into the ground outside of Pittsburgh." (Mr. Brokaw said during a broadcast on that fateful day) "We believe that is the end of the attacks for now but no one is sure because we don't know who is responsible."

"My emotions were pretty close to the surface, and that day I remember thinking, 'Don't lose control.'"

Mr. Brokaw is the author of three bestselling books, and he says he plans to work on documentary projects for NBC after he retires.

I am Kerry Sheridan for Voice Of America in New York.
注释：
retirement 退休
announcement 宣布，公告
Brandenburg 布兰登堡
Nebraska 内布拉斯加州
Watergate scandal 水门事件丑闻
milestone 里程碑
benchmark 基准

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

3 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

6 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

7 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

11 retirements   

退休( retirement的名词复数 )； 退职； 退役； 退休的实例

参考例句：

• We've had two retirements in our office this year. 今年我们办公室已有二人退休。
• Those may take the form of sackings redundancies, temporary layoffs or retirements. 这些形式有开除，作为编余人员，暂时解雇或退休。

12 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网

13 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

14 viable   

adj.可行的，切实可行的，能活下去的

参考例句：

• The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
• The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。

15 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

16 commemorating   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements. 他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The post office issued a series commemorating famous American entertainers. 邮局发行了一个纪念美国著名演艺人员的系列邮票。 来自互联网