Legendary journalist Tom Brokaw will receive the Fred Dressler Leadership Award at the 11th annual Mirror Awards ceremony June 13 in New York City. The awards are sponsored by the Newhouse School.
Tom Brokaw, Special Correspondent — Photo by Virginia Sherwood/NBC
Brokaw has spent his entire distinguished journalism career with NBC News. He joined the network in 1966 in the Los Angeles bureau, where he covered Ronald Reagan’s first run for public office, the rise of the Sixties counterculture, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign.
From Los Angeles, Brokaw went to Washington during Watergate, serving as the White House correspondent and principal back up for John Chancellor as anchor of “NBC Nightly News.” He went to New York to work on the “Today” show before being named anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw.” He took over “Meet the Press” for the 2008 presidential campaign after the death of his close friend and colleague, Tim Russert.
In addition to his daily newsgathering responsibilities, Brokaw reported on more than 30 documentaries, covering subjects that included AIDS, Los Angeles gangs, race, education, medicine, immigration and global warming.
He has an impressive list of firsts, including the first American interview with Mikhail Gorbachev and the first network report on human rights abuses in Tibet, accompanied by an exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama. He was the only American network anchor to report from Berlin the night the Berlin Wall came down, which earned him the Order of Merit from the German government.
In 1998, Brokaw published his first book, “The Greatest Generation,” one of the most popular nonfiction books of the 20th century. He followed that with six other books, including “Boom! Voices of the Sixties,” “The Time of Our Lives” and “A Lucky Life Interrupted: A Memoir.”
Brokaw has won every major award in his craft, including the Peabody Award, DuPont Awards, Emmy Awards and lifetime achievement designations. In 2016, the French government honored Brokaw with the Legion of Honor for his extensive reporting on World War II. In 2014, Brokaw received the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
The Mirror Awards ceremony will be held Tuesday, June 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., at Cipriani 42nd Street, 110 E. 42nd St., Manhattan. In addition to the Dressler Award, juried journalism awards will be presented in four categories. Tickets and tables may be purchased online. Follow on Twitter at #Mirrors17.
