At the age of 25, Tom Brokaw was just another television face with small town values and large life ambitions. While working as a news editor in Omaha, Neb., however, one phone call changed the course of his entire career.

The call came from an employee at WSB-TV, a news station in Atlanta, recommending a position that eventually placed him in the throngs of the Civil Rights Movement.

‘I was totally fearless; I was willing to go anywhere, anytime,’ Brokaw said, adding that the job move ‘happened in a hurry, and was in many ways irrational.’

Nevertheless, the chance opportunity was enough to ensure Brokaw’s extended, successful entrance into the field of broadcast journalism.

The NBC veteran provided insight on other experiences and personal values during ‘A Conversation with Tom Brokaw,’ a town hall style meeting conducted at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Friday afternoon. Brokaw came to Syracuse University to speak at ‘The War on Terrorism – Round II,’ a symposium sponsored by The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, the SU College of Law, and the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism

An iconoclastic news figure of the late 20th century, Brokaw’s interview addressed a wide variety of issues pertinent to media oriented students and professors. Five Newhouse broadcast journalism majors posed questions to Brokaw throughout the talk, providing topics ranging from the future of television news formats to the recent news scandals of Dan Rather and Armstrong Williams.

Brokaw not only referred to his retirement from the NBC Nightly News desk last December, when he stepped down as anchor and managing editor of the show, but also his raw beginnings as a journalist.

Brokaw says his career ambitions have always included journalism and a lifelong objective of covering politics. After growing up in South Dakota, he entered the field during what he called the ‘stone age,’ a time when the evening news was 15 minutes long, and Walter Cronkite was the primary broadcast figure.

‘I figured the best way to get to Washington and see the world on someone else’s money was through the network,’ he said. Brokaw went on to describe a ‘general plan’ for assimilating himself into the field, and how it was much easier to attain in the ’60s because of a smaller applicant pool.

Several questions asked by the panel involved the issue of declining viewer pools from younger generations, and in what ways news stations planned to deal with the growing problem.

‘As someone who belongs to that older generation of audience, I am not prepared to dismiss them’ said Brokaw, arousing a brief spurt of laughter from the crowd.

On a more serious note, he suggested solutions such as a greater selection of stories, the use of the Internet in news ‘simulcasts,’ and a more innovative approach to the way news stories are covered. He also posed the possibility of extending the evening news from half an hour to a full hour, as well as examining ‘younger’ cultures such as urban radio.

‘When 50 Cent went out and dissed his partner, e-mails went to New Zealand and Australia within 25 minutes,’ Brokaw said. ‘There is a whole undercurrent that doesn’t get covered by network news.’

Brokaw revealed more of his informal side when he quickly interrupted one of the female broadcast students as she began to ask a question. ‘Christina, the first rule of broadcasting is lean into the microphone,’ he said.

Another topic addressed by the panel pertained to a declining credibility in evening news after the controversial errors made by Dan Rather and Armstrong Williams. The student panelist asked if and how future journalists would be able to rebuild trust from the public eye after these events.

‘CBS made a huge mistake … they hung the story without being sure of the source of the document’s authenticity. That’s a cardinal sin in journalism, but they paid the price and will move on,’ Brokaw responded. ‘We’ve all been through this, but we learn from it and are stronger as a result.’

Brokaw explained that the way to reestablish trust with viewers is to avoid thinking that one is bigger than the story, and avoid imposing one’s values or views on a story.

‘They take you seriously, and you must take them seriously in turn,’ he said.

As the Washington correspondent during Watergate and the Cold War, the first journalist to secure a one-on-one interview with Mikhail Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama and a reporter who covered every presidential election since 1968, Brokaw has experienced many successes. His achievements have earned him numerous awards, including two Dupont Awards, a Peabody Award and seven Emmys. At the same time, his coverage has led to many difficult ethical decisions in the field.

One of his toughest ethical situations, Brokaw pointed out, involved a woman who claimed she was raped by President Clinton during the height of the Monica Lewinski scandal. After three weeks of deliberation, the news station finally decided not to run the story on nightly news because it would have been ‘disproportionate to what was going on,’ Brokaw said.

‘It was a very, very difficult decision to make,’ Brokaw said. ‘I had to ask myself ‘Is she credible?’ and ‘Is it relevant?’ … I still wrestle with that decision today.’

Frank Currier, a broadcast journalism professor who spent almost 20 years working for CBS news, was impressed by the examples Brokaw had to offer and described him as having a ‘natural honesty about him.’ He said that one of Brokaw’s greatest strengths is that ‘he wears well with the public over a long period of time … he rarely missed a beat with the number one rating for many years.’

Drawing upon his lengthy experience in the field, Brokaw offered numerous caveats of wisdom for future journalists throughout different portions of the interview. For example, he said that the key to providing captivating stories is to get interesting people involved in the stories. If the story is on a local scale, one should find elements that could implications on a national level, Brokaw added later on.

‘Your place in journalism is to advocate for citizens and tell them what’s going on in their name … not to waste time titillating or entertaining them, but to inform them.’

Jennifer Luzzo, a sophomore broadcast journalism major and one of the many Newhouse students in attendance, said she was greatly affected by these words of advice.

‘He made a point to try to reach all the students that were here,’ Luzzo said. ‘I consider him a role model because he is such a big figure.’

Another broadcast journalism major, graduate student Nicole Ferguson, said she was impressed not only by Brokaw’s message, but by his personality as well.

‘He has a very natural presence – it makes you feel like you’re talking to someone you know. After years of letting him into your living room, it felt no different,’ Ferguson said. ‘He has such perspective; he’s living history.’

Published on April 3, 2005 at 12:00 pm