- In full:
- David McClure Brinkley
- Born:
- July 10, 1920, Wilmington, N.C., U.S.
- Died:
- June 11, 2003, Houston, Texas (aged 82)
- Awards And Honors:
- Emmy Award
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992)
David Brinkley
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Who was David Brinkley?
David Brinkley (1920-2003) was an American television reporter and anchor of influential, long-running news programs. Brinkley interned at a local newspaper as a boy. During World War II, he wrote news stories for United Press International (UPI). In 1943, he became a reporter for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio network. When NBC expanded to television in the early 1950s, Brinkley became one of their first television reporters. From 1959 to 1964, The Huntley-Brinkley Report won an Emmy Award every year. In 1992, Brinkley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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What kind of work did David Brinkley do as a journalist?
David Brinkley was an American television reporter and anchorman known for his work on several influential news programs. He began his journalism career with an internship at a local newspaper and later wrote news stories for United Press International. Brinkley became one of the first television reporters for NBC in the early 1950s. In 1956, he was paired with Chet Huntley to cover the presidential nominating conventions, which led to The Huntley-Brinkley Report. Brinkley later hosted This Week with David Brinkley on ABC until 1996 and served as a commentator until he retired in 1997.
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What famous news programs was David Brinkley known for?
David Brinkley was an American television reporter and anchor of several influential news programs. He is known for co-anchoring The Huntley-Brinkley Report on NBC with Chet Huntley, where he reported from Washington, D.C., while Huntley reported from New York. The show won an Emmy Award every year from 1959 to 1964 and included the catchphrase exchange, "Good night, Chet," and "Good night, David". After Huntley's retirement in 1970, Brinkley continued with NBC, hosting and commentating on the nightly news and hosting NBC Magazine with David Brinkley. In 1981, he moved to ABC to host This Week with David Brinkley, a Sunday program featuring interviews and political analysis.
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How did David Brinkley help change television news reporting?
David Brinkley helped change television news reporting through his instinctive understanding of the visual medium. Brinkley, paired with Chet Huntley, anchored The Huntley-Brinkley Report. In an innovative move, Huntley reported from New York, and Brinkley from Washington, D.C. The broadcast helped define how news would look and sound on television and won an Emmy Award every year from 1959 to 1964. Brinkley's distinctive Midwestern enunciation, developed from his radio days, stressed each word's importance. The show concluded with the famous exchange, "Good night, Chet," and "Good night, David."
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Who were some of David Brinkley’s most important colleagues?
David Brinkley, an American television reporter, is known for anchoring influential news programs. In 1956, he was paired with Chet Huntley to cover the presidential nominating conventions. The team was successful, and NBC placed them at the helm of their own evening news broadcast, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, later that year. Every year from 1959 to 1964, the broadcast won an Emmy Award and helped define how news would look and sound on television. The broadcast ended each night with Brinkley saying, “Good night, Chet,” and Huntley replying, “Good night, David.”
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What awards or honors did David Brinkley receive during his career?
David Brinkley was an American television reporter and anchor of influential news programs The Huntley-Brinkley Report. The Huntley-Brinkley Report won an Emmy Award every year from 1959 to 1964 and helped define how news would look and sound on television. In 1992, Brinkley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George H.W. Bush.
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David Brinkley (born July 10, 1920, Wilmington, N.C., U.S.—died June 11, 2003, Houston, Texas) was an American television reporter known for anchoring several long-running, influential news programs. Together with Walter Cronkite, Brinkley became one of America’s most well-known and beloved news personalities.
Brinkley enjoyed writing as a boy, and in high school he obtained an internship at a local newspaper. His first story—according to his memoirs, about the nonappearance of a bloom on a century plant and the crowd it drew—was picked up by the Associated Press (AP) and printed in newspapers across the country. During World War II Brinkley moved to Atlanta to write news stories for United Press International (UPI), and he was soon transferred to Nashville to become a bureau manager. On a mistaken notion that he had been offered a UPI job in Washington, D.C., Brinkley moved to that city in 1943. Finding no job waiting for him, he quickly found alternative employment as a reporter for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) radio network.
When NBC expanded from radio to television in the early 1950s, Brinkley became one of the first television reporters. Although he came from a radio background, he displayed an instinctive grasp of the new visual medium. As he said in his 1995 autobiography, David Brinkley: A Memoir, “In talking over a television picture, never tell the viewers what they can easily see for themselves.”
In 1956 Brinkley was paired with reporter Chet Huntley to cover the presidential nominating conventions, and the team proved so successful that NBC placed them at the helm of their own evening news broadcast, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, later that year. In an innovative move, Huntley reported from New York and Brinkley from Washington, D.C. The broadcast, which won an Emmy Award every year from 1959 to 1964, helped define how news would look and sound in the medium of television. Brinkley became known for his distinctive, Midwestern enunciation of words, a speech pattern he said came from his days reading radio news, where, without pictures, the proper stress of each word counted. The broadcast ended each night with an exchange between the two anchors that became an American catchphrase, Brinkley saying, “Good night, Chet,” and Huntley replying, “Good night, David.” The Huntley-Brinkley Report lasted until Huntley’s retirement in 1970. During this period, from 1961 to 1963, Brinkley also produced a series of documentaries under the banner of David Brinkley’s Journal.
Brinkley remained associated with NBC, hosting and commentating on its nightly news program at various times throughout the ’70s. In 1980 he hosted NBC Magazine with David Brinkley, a failed attempt to match the popular CBS program 60 Minutes. In 1981 he moved to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) to host This Week with David Brinkley, a Sunday program featuring Brinkley and a panel of other journalists that conducted interviews and provided analysis of the week’s events from various political perspectives. Brinkley hosted the show until 1996 but played a continuing role as a weekly commentator until his retirement in 1997. In 1992 Brinkley was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Pres. George H.W. Bush.