Tom Brokaw Interview: Inside Watergate & The Unraveling of Richard Nixon

Journalist Tom Brokaw discusses the influence of his mother on his career, covering the Whitehouse as a young broadcaster in the 1970s, and how Watergate was the biggest single political story of his lifetime and one of the biggest stories of this country's history. Brokaw describes Ben Bradlee as fearless in what he did as an editor, and that Woodward and Bernstein gave investigative journalism an elevated place that made the country aware of its importance.

Thomas John Brokaw is a retired network television journalist and author who was born in Webster, South Dakota on February 6, 1940. He graduated from the University of South Dakota where he studied political science. Brokaw began his journalism career in Omaha and Atlanta before joining NBC News in 1966. Brokaw was the White House correspondent for NBC News during Watergate, and from 1976 to 1981 he anchored Today on NBC. He was the sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1983 to 2005, and was a moderator for Meet the Press in 2008. He is the only person to have hosted all three major NBC News programs. He continued as a special correspondent for NBC News, producing long-form documentaries and providing expertise during breaking news events up until his retirement in 2021. Brokaw has won numerous, prestigious journalism awards, including Peabodys, Duponts, Emmys and The Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting. He may be best known for his work documenting the sacrifices made by Americans during World War II in his book The Greatest Generation (1998), which profiled many of those who came of age during that difficult stretch of U.S. history.

From the HBO / Kunhardt Film Foundation (KFF) Documentary “The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee,” about one of America's most influential and celebrated newspaper editors, who found himself at the center of many of the 20th Century's most seismic storms, including: World War II, John F. Kennedy, Watergate and the fall of Richard Nixon.

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Tom Brokaw, Anchor, NBC Nightly News (1982-2004)
Interviewed By: John Maggio
Interview Date: January 11, 2017

Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:15 Getting into journalism
01:27 The seduction of journalism
02:21 A journalist’s lifestyle
03:15 Ben Bradlee’s persona
04:38 Ben Bradlee’s personality
05:01 Ben Bradlee’s time in the navy
07:18 Ben Bradlee’s time in Paris
08:48 Ben Bradlee’s personality
10:13 A lifelong interest in politics
12:06 Changing how the White House was covered
14:06 Watergate and The Washington Post
15:34 Ben Bradlee’s outlook
16:15 Ben Bradlee’s friendship with JFK
17:47 Ben Bradlee’s politics
18:39 Reporting on the president and other public officials
19:53 Ben Bradlee’s relationship with Kay Graham
20:59 Ben Bradlee’s character
21:53 First impressions of Ben Bradlee
22:20 The merging of print and broadcast journalism
24:53 Ben Bradlee turned a good newspaper into a great newspaper
25:52 Ben Bradlee’s persona at the office
27:07 Moving on after Janet Cooke
28:55 All the President’s Men
30:56 Watergate and Nixon’s downfall
32:25 Building the case against Nixon
33:48 The dangers of social media
35:40 The new world of digital journalism
36:51 The mighty Sally Quinn
39:01 Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn
39:48 Ben Bradlee chose his words carefully
41:30 Ben Bradlee’s family dynamic
42:36 Ben Bradlee’s upbringing
44:39 Ben Bradlee loved good reporting
46:04 Ben Bradlee’s father
47:06 Nixon’s resignation
48:12 Watergate and Ben Bradlee’s lasting legacy

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