| Good-Night, David |
16 June 2003
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David M. Brinkley, 1921-2003
America lost a national, journalistic treasure in the passing Thursday of David M. Brinkley. For most of TV's life, Mr. Brinkley was a part of it. Naturally a modest man, he credited his success and longevity in the business merely to having been present at the creation of TV news. What he left out of that explanation was that he was a gifted reporter who actually did his homework -- a combination almost extinct.
Teamed with Chet Huntly for the 1956 political conventions, he quickly became a household fixture as part of the Huntly-Brinkley Report on NBC. One poll gave them more name recognition in the 1960s than John, Paul, George and Ringo of Liverpool. And their ratings surpassed those of Walter Cronkite for years. After NBC, he helped revive ABC with "This Week with David Brinkley", the quality of which seemed to depart with him a few years ago.
His awards speak for themselves, the Emmys, Peabodys and America's highest civilian honor The Presidential Medal of Freedom. However, his greatest moments came when, after a long and tiring election night, Mr. Brinkley called President Clinton "a bore" and a "man without a creative bone in his body."
Coming from the time and place (the interwar years in the south) that he did, Mr. Brinkley duly apologized, not by press release, but in a face-to-tace interview with Mr. Clinton some days later. The President accepted with grace, saying that a man should be judged over the whole of his life, and on that score, Mr. Brinkley came out way ahead.
Indeed. He was perceptive enough to spot Mr. Clinton for what he was, he was reporter enough to say so on national TV, and he was gentleman enough to apologize for saying it. Through McCarthy, Vietnam, Watergate, hostage crises, Cold War, and Mr. Clinton's peccadilloes, Mr. Brinkley told the truth as he saw it, and was decent enough to be embarrassed by some of what he had to say.
As Mr. Huntley used to say, in a sign-off that neither man particularly liked, "Good-night, David."