PIERRE THOMAS, OUR THANKS TO YOU…
Charles Gibson; Bob Woodruff & Elizabeth Vargas.
Peter Jennings; Harry Reasoner/Howard K. Smith/Barbara Walters; Frank Reynolds; and Bob Young.
Working forward to back. ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and its companion week-end broadcast, ABC World News Tonight are the present renditions of what began in earnest in the summer of 1948 when H.R. Baukhage and Jim Gibbons hosted the network’s nightly newscast known as News and Views.
This debut production was followed by After The Deadlines in 1951 and All Star News in 1952. Then came John Charles Daly. John Charles Daly and the News was a 15-minute foray into whatever was considered headline news at the time.
Anchors succeeding Daly included Alex Dreier, John Secondari, Fendall Winston Yerxa, Al Mann, Bill Shadel, John Cameron Swayze, Bill Lawrence, Bill Sheehan and then Ron Cochran.
Cochran was a relative big-timer, his short tenure (1962–1965) notwithstanding; in November 1963 he served as the ABC network’s principal anchor in its around-the-clock coverage of the Kennedy assassination.
Following Cochran in order were:
Jennings (Peter Jennings with the News, Feb. 1,1965 — Dec. 29,1967);
Young (ABC News, Jan. 1,1968 — May 24,1968);
Reynolds (ABC News, May 27,1968 — May 16,1969);
Reynolds and Howard K. Smith (ABC News, May 19,1969 — Dec. 4,1970);
Howard K. Smith and Reasoner (ABC Evening News, Dec. 7,1970 — Sept. 5,1975);
Reasoner (ABC Evening News, Sept. 8,1975 — Oct. 1,1976);
Reasoner and Walters (ABC Evening News, Oct. 4,1976 — July 7,1978);
Reynolds, Max Robinson and Jennings (World News Tonight, July 10,1978 — April 20,1983);
Robinson and Jennings (World News Tonight, April 23,1983 — Aug. 8,1983);
Jennings (World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Aug. 9,1983 — April 5, 2005);
Woodruff and Vargas (World News Tonight with Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas, Jan. 3 — May 26, 2006);
Gibson (World News with Charles Gibson, May 29, 2006 — Dec. 18, 2009);
Sawyer (ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, Dec. 21, 2009 — Aug. 27, 2014); and
Muir (ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, since Sept. 2, 2014).
Due to the vagaries of viewership and ratings, personal lives, demographics and a host of other factors and considerations, anchors rotate, sets change and the competitive fine edge is forever tweaked and honed.
Jennings’ second solo act of nearly 22 years — giving him an overall 27-year streak — was the longest of any anchor.
Tom Brokaw’s 22.7 years of on-air tenure was by far the longest of any NBC evening news anchor. Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were on the air together for 13.2 years. The average tenure of NBC anchors was (in 2015) 3,485 days or roughly 9.5 years, just a smidgen less than the 10.2 years Brian Williams sat in the chair before his credibility issue forced him out.
NBC’s first nightly news anchor, Cameron Swayze was cancelled after 7-plus years. (The show was sponsored by Camel cigarettes and the Plymouth automobile brand produced by Chrysler. Predictably it was called either the Camel News Caravan or the Plymouth News Caravan depending on who was kicking in more dough during that sweep).
Then-President Dwight David Eisenhower was known to be demonstrably upset at the turn of events. Other anchors including Frank McGee and Roger Mudd who originally hosted with Brokaw didn’t even last two years.
Overall, the average tenure of an ABC news anchor has been a little over three years.
And CBS News which had but four nightly news anchors in its first 56 years on TV, featured Scott Pelley as its fourth anchor (following Katie Couric, Bob Schieffer and Dan Rather) in the past ten years. He delivered his last newscast at the end of May and was replaced by Anthony Mason on an interim basis.
At the end of October Jeff Glor was named by the network to assume the full-time position, beginning in late 2017. A far cry indeed from the halcyon days of Douglas Edwards, Walter Cronkite and Rather who each orchestrated (dominated?) airtime for between 13 and 24 years. In toto, the average stint for CBS News anchors has been 10.8 years.
So much for the anchors. Many of the contributing journalists and correspondents are critically important in spite of their relative lack — snippets really — of on-air face-time, as the producers, behind-the-scenes crew and anchors know all too well.
Without them, without their reporting either on-site or from locales deemed convenient, there is no newscast. They represent both the substance and the glue which holds it all together.
How many incisive and cogent reports have Martha Raddatz or Terry Moran filed for ABC over the years? Brian Ross or Byron Pitts? Paula Farris? Bob Jamieson? Jonathan Karl? Dan Harris? Deborah Roberts? Matt Gutman? Clayton Sandel? Cynthia McFadden? Steve Osunsami? Sally Kidd? Or the well-coiffed Dr. Richard Besser?
NBC can boast of the stellar reporting done by Lester Holt, the interim and then permanent replacement for Williams, Andrea Mitchell, Kate Snow, Pete Williams, Chuck Todd, Harry Smith, Ron Allen and Kelly O’Donnell. Not to mention old stand-bys Bob Hager, Jim Avila, Campbell Brown, Jim Miklaszewski, David Gregory and Kerry Sanders.
And CBS would do well to salute the likes of Jim Axelrod, Nancy Cordes, Dean Reynolds, Chip Reid, Richard Schlesinger, Jan Crawford, John Dickerson, Elizabeth Palmer, Dr. Jon LaPook and the aforementioned Mason among others.
Which brings me to the ubiquitous and omniscient Pierre Thomas, the senior justice correspondent at ABC News. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland and educated at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, more commonly known as Virginia Tech, Thomas joined the network in November 2000. He reports for World News Tonight with David Muir; Good Morning America; Nightline; This Week with George Stephanopoulos; and other ABC News programs.
Thomas launched his career at The Roanoke Times and World-News and then joined the Washington Post (1987) covering local Virginia politics as well as the court and police beats in Prince William County and the city of Alexandria.
In 1991 Thomas was part of a staff team representing the Metro projects whose investigative work and reporting on illegal gun use in the Washington D.C. area brought them to the doorstep of a Pulitzer Prize, but not over the threshold; they were finalists.
At the Post he advanced as a reporter, taking the lead on such significant stories as the Oklahoma City bombing and the FBI’s role at Ruby Ridge, an August 1992 eleven-day standoff with self-proclaimed white separatist Randy Weaver near Naples, Idaho which resulted in the deaths of Weaver’s wife and son and U.S. Marshal William Degan during the seige.
Thomas joined CNN as Justice Department correspondent in 1997. He broke news on terrorism, cyber-crime, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the FBI’s Most Wanted List and the Justice Department’s involvement in the Elian Gonzalez case.
He received the Pass Award in 1994 from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for his article entitled, “Beyond Grief and Fear,” a Washington Post expose he wrote that year examining the staggering and skyrocketing financial costs associated with the consequences of crime; he has twice won the Mort Mintz Investigative Award (1991; 1992); and he was a finalist for the Livingston Young Journalist Award (1993).
Thomas was a vital member and key contributor when ABC’s correspondents covered the terrorist attacks of September 11th and he continues to report on all aspects and permutations of the aftermath of those attacks. The network’s coverage of the 9/11 tragedy was widely lauded for its excellence, winning the prestigious Peabody and Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Awards along with an Emmy Award.
Thomas also participated in a World News Tonight with Peter Jennings broadcast which won the Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast in 2005.
He was a member of the ABC News team honored with three additional Murrow Awards: in 2012 for the network’s coverage of the tragic Tucson shooting perpetrated by Jared Lee Loughner wounding 18, along with U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a supermarket parking lot and the killing of bin Laden; in 2014 for the network’s coverage of the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks; and in 2016 when ABC News was recognized for Overall Excellence and Breaking News.
He was named the recipient of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) 2015 John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award — named after the organization’s founder and first president — which honors contributions to journalism and freedom of the press, and acted as host of the RTDNA’s First Amendment Awards in 2016.
A bevy of other accolades and salutations accompanied by national and international recognition have come Pierre Thomas’ way. He received an Emmy Award as part of team coverage of the inauguration of President Barack Obama and, in 2011 the Houston Association of Black Journalists honored him with its Pinnacle Award.
The next year he walked off with the organization’s Journalist of the Year hardware. Also in 2011 he was the subject of an hour-long C-Span broadcast which focused on his career and his thoughts on journalism.
In 2015 Thomas distinguished himself further by interviewing the Attorney General, the FBI Director and the Secretary of Homeland Security in less than four months, a tall task on many journalistic levels.
He currently serves as the chairman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and has been featured in the American Journalism Review.
In the interest of full disclosure, I thoroughly enjoy watching the national news in the evenings for its content but also for its presentation. The contributing journalists intrigue me.
When David Muir would cut to Pierre Thomas to deliver a bit of the day’s relevant and breaking justice-themed news — always in 25 seconds or fewer — incredulity, wonder and a touch of bewilderment would course through me.
I would think, “Really, what does this guy do? Is this all he does? Is this it?
Not a bad gig if you can get it.”
Please pardon me.
Now I know.
[Norah O’Donnell was announced as weeknight anchor of CBS Evening News effective July 15, 2019.]
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in November 2017.]
