For Now, NBC Anchor Brokaw Remains on Deck

For a man possibly on the verge of retirement from the “NBC Nightly News,” anchor Tom Brokaw is working awfully hard. Or maybe he’s just trying to get it all in before signing off.

Three weeks ago, Brokaw was reporting from Beirut and Israel. On his way there, he stopped to spend two days on the U.S. aircraft carrier John C. Stennis for a one-hour special, “Ship at War: Inside the Carrier Stennis,” which will air Wednesday night. He was forthcoming about his trip to the Afghanistan war theater, less so about what he plans to do when his contract expires this summer.

Of whether he plans to stay at the anchor desk or step back into a less demanding role at NBC News--as he has hinted he might, fueling speculation in news circles--Brokaw joked, “I’ll tell you what I’ve told all the other reporters who have asked me: Give me your home phone number, and you’ll be the first person I tell.”

He said he expects that his decision will be made sooner rather than later but declined to say when that would be.

The uncertainty surrounding Brokaw coincides with worries on the part of some TV industry observers that the evening newscasts could be in peril once Brokaw, CBS’ Dan Rather and ABC’s Peter Jennings--who have each spent almost two decades in their respective anchor chairs--step down.

The most recent debate was set off when ABC attempted to recruit comedian David Letterman, which would have bumped ABC News’ “Nightline” from its long-established late-night slot. Brokaw quipped that he told his friend Letterman to ask for a 6:30 p.m. spot next time, so the media attention could focus on him.

Brokaw called the debate over the future of broadcast news “an awful lot of intra-fraternity council stuff going on. The public has always been able to move from one era to another pretty seamlessly.... We’re good to go here for a while.”

Network news is dealing with what Brokaw called “the big bang”--new technology, the cable explosion and the “voracious appetite for news and information on the part of the public.”

Newscasts will evolve to find their place in that environment, he predicted, “although that doesn’t mean they will be the same as when [Chet] Huntley and [David] Brinkley were doing it.”

The Stennis special came about when NBC News and Brokaw were looking for a follow-up to “The Bush White House: Inside the Real West Wing,” a hit with viewers in January, although Aaron Sorkin, creator of NBC’s dramatic hit “The West Wing,” charged Brokaw in a New Yorker interview with going easy on the president, showing him with a busier schedule than usual.

Sorkin later apologized to Brokaw.

The Pentagon also has been criticized for allowing selective access to its Afghanistan operations, largely keeping news reporters far away while allowing in entertainment producers who want to profile military personnel, presumably in a more flattering, less discerning way.

Brokaw noted that NBC News also has reporters trying to get independent access to the battlefield. “This is just one component to our coverage,” he said, adding, “I think it’s a useful exposition from the point of view of how one of these big ships operates ... [and] a reminder that there is a war going on.”

NBC negotiated with the Navy over access almost to the end, Brokaw said, and unlike the entertainment specials was not required to get Pentagon review.

NBC, which used a team of 16 cameras and 40 production people to document the floating city of more than 5,000 military personnel, had the free run of the ship, except for its nuclear power operation.

“I was not led around by the nose,” he said.