[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 19]
[Senate]
[Page 25555]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING TOM BROKAW

  Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise today to publicly honor and 
recognize one of South Dakota's favorite sons, Tom Brokaw. He has had 
an extraordinarily successful career as anchor of NBC Nightly News. 
During his 21-year reign as anchor, NBC moved from the least watched to 
the most watched network newscast.
  Born in Webster, SD, in 1940, Mr. Brokaw attended high school in 
Yankton, SD, and began his journalism career after graduating from the 
University of South Dakota in 1962. He was hired by NBC news in 1966.
  Throughout his tenure at NBC, Mr. Brokaw has gathered an impressive 
list of accomplishments. In 1987, he was the first American to 
interview Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and this exclusive one-on-
one from the Kremlin earned him the prestigious Alfred I. duPont Award. 
Mr. Brokaw was also the first American anchor to interview the Dalai 
Lama and to report on human rights abuses in Tibet. In 1989, Mr. Brokaw 
was the only anchor at the scene when the Berlin Wall fell, and in 1995 
he was the first anchor to report from the site of the Oklahoma City 
bombing. He was also the first American anchor to interview Russian 
President Vladimir Putin in 2000. Mr. Brokaw has reported live from war 
zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo.
  Mr. Brokaw is a highly respected political journalist, having covered 
every American election since 1968. He anchored all of NBC's political 
coverage from 1984 through 2004, including primaries, national 
conventions, and election nights. He has also moderated nine primary 
and general election debates, including the Presidential debates of 
1987 and 1991.
  In 1997, Mr. Brokaw won his second duPont award for ``Why Can't We 
Live Together,'' a documentary examining the racial separation within 
American suburbs. He won his first Peabody award in 1989 for examining 
American society in his report, ``To Be An American,'' and received 
another Peabody in 2004 for ``Tom Brokaw Reports: A Question of 
Fairness,'' which discussed the University of Michigan affirmative 
action case and the history of affirmative action in the United States. 
Mr. Brokaw has received seven Emmy awards for reports on China, the 
1992 floods in the Midwest, and the 1999 Kosovo conflict, among others.
  With his 1998 book ``The Greatest Generation,'' Mr. Brokaw became a 
best selling author. ``The Greatest Generation Speaks,'' ``An Album of 
Memories,'' and ``A Long Way from Home'' subsequently followed. He has 
also contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los 
Angeles Times, Newsweek, and Time.
  Prior to his position as sole anchor for NBC Nightly News, Mr. Brokaw 
served as Whitehouse Correspondent for NBC from 1973 to 1976, reporting 
on the Watergate scandal, and from 1976 to 1981 he anchored NBC's 
``Today.''
  After 38 years with NBC, Tom and his wife Meredith will be moving on 
to new challenges. Tom and Meredith have never forgotten their South 
Dakota roots and have returned home with great frequency. Their 
generous contributions of time and financial assistance to projects in 
Yankton, at the University of South Dakota, and throughout our State 
reflects their wonderful spirit of giving and a commitment to an 
enhanced quality of life for all South Dakotans. It is with great honor 
that I share his impressive accomplishments with my colleagues.

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