A Man Of My Era

Just a blurb here to fill you in on the Post-Trump Presidency and how I will be handling this satirical political humor that I have been entertaining you all with since the election.  Going to be pretty much the same format, as I will always be picking on someone that irks me and expounds themselves unfavorably in my direction.  So, who could today’s target be, then?  There is so much to choose from in the extreme elements of the political realm.  Spoiler Alert: Look Out FOX NEWS, I’m Coming For Youse.  All I need to do is turn on my laptop and go to my home page, containing tons of pictures and headlines.  I tried to get an estimate of how many of these headlines there are, but it appears to be bottomless.  In order to come up with some sort of guesstimate, I pressed the down arrow for one minute and I would say more than 250 articles flashed before my eyes. Obviously some of these articles are repetitious, but there certainly is a vast plethora to choose from that I could denigrate, however, an article caught my eye and immediately filled me with memorable admiration.

The article came as a surprise in that Tom Brokaw, anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News for 22 years, retired yesterday.  It has been a few years since I had last seen one of his broadcasts, but he is the last of a throwback for me of a time and place that began with Edward R. Murrow on the radio.  Brokaw had a steady calming manner to his voice that was pleasant to listen to.  I remember the last xmas gift I received in the 20th century was his book “The Greatest Generation” which I immediately read cover to cover, albeit not all in one sitting.  For the unorthodox out there, the greatest generation would be that of my parents, the ones who went through The Roaring 20’s, The (Not So Great) Depression and World War ll.  I have friends and family that are bewildered in my habit of using something up completely, such as socks, underwear, t-shirts, gloves, vehicles, appliances, carpeting, winter coats, galoshes, wild game, leftovers, girl friends, wives, kids and, of course, tires!  These are simply by-products of being raised by Depression parents.  Nowadays, it has become a plastic throw-away world with a gazillion news programs in real time whose news journalists not only report the news, but are news items themselves.  I haven’t watched regular news programming for quite some time, but I came back online on election day.  I regret not catching Brokaw’s Broadcast, he was the Johnny Carson of NBC News.  Being that he turned 80 last February, I was sure that he had already retired.  I reflect back through the years of Broadcast Journalism and all those other hallowed names and their reporting practices: Cronkite, Huntley, Brinkley, Walters, Jennings, Rather, Downs, Koppel, Donaldson, Hume, Bradley, Chancellor, Garroway, Reasoner, Sevareid, Collingsworth, Mudd, Reynolds and “On The Road With Charles Kuralt.”  A cast of characters in my life that started off with Mr. “Good Night And Good Luck” on the radio.  Brokaw is the end of an era, enshrined in an honored place of my memories of broadcast journalism.  And that’s the news!  Stay tuned…..!

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