Longtime NBC News host and current NBC special correspondent Tom Brokaw issued a warning against one-sided media outlets, urging broader coverage of the important issues of the day.
The 79-year-old said that he’s informed executives at his network that reporting at present doesn’t showcase enough angles.
“My impression is, and the people at NBC know, that I think there’s too much duplication,” Brokaw told Survivor Net. “There’s too much repeating the same thing all day long—a cycle.”
Brokaw, who said he’s totally engaged in the political life of the nation and how the news media covers it, feels a hunger for fresh stories. One way to do that is to leave the coasts, where many reporters and news outlets are based, and venture to new locales.
SurvivorNet Interviews Tom Brokaw: “I Just Want to Stay Vertical” — Politics Keep His Mind Off Cancer, And Medical Marijuana Helps Too https://t.co/maNvtOKe9g
— Claire Atkinson (@claireatki) March 26, 2019
“Tell me something new. Tell me something that takes the story a little farther down the line,” he said.
“Also … get the hell out of Washington and out of New York—and go out there and cover it where it’s going on. Find out what’s happening there.”
The interview focused on how Brokaw has survived after being diagnosed with a blood cancer six years ago, with the legendary newscaster telling the blog: “Politics keep me distracted from cancer.”
Koppel Weighs In
Brokaw’s criticism of the media comes after longtime journalist Ted Koppel said that major publications, including the openly liberal New York Times and Washington Post, are consistently anti-President Donald Trump.
“I’m terribly concerned that when you talk about the New York Times these days, when you talk about the Washington Post these days, we’re not talking about the New York Times of 50 years ago. We are not talking about the Washington Post of 50 years ago,” Koppel said on March 7 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“We’re talking about organizations that I believe have, in fact, decided as organizations that Donald J. Trump is bad for the United States,” Koppel said. “We have things appearing on the front page of the New York Times right now that never would have appeared 50 years ago.”
Longtime journalist Ted Koppel said recently that @nytimes and @washingtonpost are consistently anti-President @realDonaldTrump and have changed from 50 years ago.
“The Times is absolutely committed to making sure that this guy does not get elected.”https://t.co/M9udNNntEv
— NTDNews (@news_ntd) March 20, 2019
In one case, Koppel remembered getting to his copy of the Times during the presidential campaign and in disbelief reading the front page.
“I turned to my wife and I said, ‘The Times is absolutely committed to making sure that this guy does not get elected,’” he said.
Trump’s frequent comments about how the media is biased against him are accurate, Koppel said, noting that many people who described themselves as writers, journalists, or reporters are veering into activism.
“He’s not mistaken when so many of the liberal media, for example, described themselves as belonging to the Resistance. What does that mean? That’s not said by people who consider themselves reporters, objective reporters of facts,” Koppel said. “That’s the kind of language that’s used by people who genuinely believe, and I rather suspect with some justification, that Donald Trump is bad for the United States.”
