Brinkley Gets Up Close and Personal

David Brinkley may have served his last tour of duty as an election-night analyst Tuesday, but he clearly went out with a bang.

The 76-year-old host of “This Week,” who will give up that role in favor of weekly commentaries after this Sunday, was surrounded by his colleagues to be bid farewell on air. He followed up by suggesting the country could look forward to more speeches “full of wit, poetry, music, love and affection, plus more god---- nonsense” and later called President Clinton “a bore.”

According to ABC News, Brinkley didn’t realize he was on the air when he made his initial comments, after anchor Peter Jennings gathered ABC’s correspondents to pay Brinkley tribute on his 40-year career.

“At the beginning David had no idea they were still on the air,” spokeswoman Teri Everett said, adding: “David Brinkley was doing commentary for us Tuesday, and he expressed his opinions.”

After his opening remarks Jennings said, “You can’t say that on the air, Mr. Brinkley,” to which Brinkley responded, “Well, I’m not on the air.” Jennings assured him that he was.

There were no doubts Brinkley knew he was on, however, when Jennings gave him “the last word” in assessing this year’s election.

“I’m not going to say much,” Brinkley began, addressing his ABC colleagues on the air. “Among things I admire, almost near the top is [creativity], and everyone in this group has it. It shows in your speech, what you do, what you write, what you say. And it’s one reason this group is so terrific.

“Bill Clinton has none of it. He has not a creative bone in his body. Therefore, he’s a bore, and will always be a bore.”

White House spokesman Mike McCurry, asked Wednesday about the remark, said Brinkley was simply “tired” at 1:30 a.m. when he said it.

However, late Wednesday, conversations were going on between ABC and the White House over whether the president’s previously scheduled interview with Brinkley on the newscaster’s final outing as host of “This Week” would still occur. The interview was tentatively set to be taped Friday for Sunday’s broadcast, but ABC maintained the announced session with Clinton was never confirmed.

Brinkley wasn’t discussing the matter Wednesday, but he will make the interview rounds this week, including appearances today on “Good Morning America” and “Larry King Live.” In an interview published last week he referred to the president as “a classic politician.”

ABC had the most-watched election coverage based on preliminary results from 35 major cities metered by Nielsen Media Research. The network attracted 11% of all homes during prime time, followed by NBC, at just under 9%, while CBS drew roughly 6% of all households.

Fox, airing the movie “Beethoven,” attracted 9.2% of homes, while comedies on the UPN network averaged 5.6%.