A PERSONAL NOTE. . .
Fond Farewell To David Brinkley Coupled With Chet
Huntley Established Once High USA TV Journalist Standards
Unparalleled USA Evening News Ratings Leaders For 13 Years
Peaking At 84%Share Of The Audience
I can remember studying copies of my grandfather's Popular
Mechanics magazine describing the miracle of how network
television, with all its gadgets, was going to cover the democratic
presidential nominating convention of 1956.
Those pages were dog-eared by the time the convention was on
the air at NBC with two new broadcasters named Huntley &
Brinkley. I had studied every sketch and memorized the layout
of the convention hall and how all the floor reporters were going
to report the happenings. I watched the developments every
possible moment, carefully following the diagram sketches and
imagining how each report was put together. Brinkley's
reporting was one of the reasons I decided to pursue college
studies in broadcast journalism.
Always an ardent admirer of Brinkley's clear, crisp, punchy and
pithy skill with words, obvious even in a medium based on
images, I can still remember his voice as he reported on NBC,
``In about four hours, we have gone from President Kennedy in
Dallas, alive, to back in Washington, dead. And the new
president in his place. What has happened today has been too
much, too ugly and too fast.''
The winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, three George
Foster Peabody Awards for journalism excellence and 10 Emmy
awards, fellow adopted Texan David Brinkley died this past
Wednesday at his home in Houston at 82.
Good night, David. And Godspeed.
A Strange:
After their enormous ratings success at the 1956 convention, the
Huntley-Brinkley Report was born at NBC. Within 3 months, it
replaced John Cameron Swayze's evening news broadcast called
the "Camel News Caravan." Two years later, I went to work in
my FIRST job in broadcasting -- working for Darrell Swayze,
brother of John Cameron. TDL
12:54:04 AM
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