2012-6th Annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture – Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw has spent his entire distinguished journalism career with NBC News beginning in 1966 in the Los Angeles bureau where he covered Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office and the 1968 presidential campaign.
From Los Angeles, Brokaw went to Washington as the White House correspondent during Watergate and as the principal back up for John Chancellor as anchor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.
He has an impressive list of firsts, including the first interview with Mikhail Gorbachev; the first network report on human rights abuses in Tibet accompanied by an exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama; the only American network anchor to report from Berlin the night the Berlin Wall Came down.
In 1998 Brokaw published his first book, The Greatest Generation, one of the most popular non-fiction books of the 20th century. He followed that with five other books, including BOOM! Voices of the Sixties and, most recently, The Time Of Our Lives.
Brokaw has won every major award in his craft, including the Peabody, Duponts, Emmys and lifetime achievement recognition.