Two Scholastic Student Reporters met with Tom Brokaw on the set of NBC Nightly News. Brokaw has anchored NBC Nightly News since 1983, and has covered every presidential election since 1968. He also conducted the first one-on-one interview with then Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. Brokaw will retire on December 1. Brian Williams is expected to be the new anchor of NBC Nightly News.
 Bianca Ramos and Philip-Michael France interview Tom Brokaw on the set of NBC Nightly News. (Photo: James Levin/Studio 10) |
Tom Brokaw: Well, it was one of the jobs that I always wanted to have, which was to be down on the floor as a floor correspondent, running around the convention, finding out what's going on from delegation to delegation. It was hard physical work, to begin with. You had to know where all the delegates were, which states were really important. But it was so exciting at the end of the night, you just felt exhilaration. One of the changes that I made is that I put on running shoes to be down on the floor. Other people wore their dress shoes, and I put on my running shoes so I could get from one part of the floor to the other.
How has the importance of the conventions changed since you first covered them?
Tom Brokaw: Well, when I first began to cover them, they really decided who was going to be the presidential nominee at the convention. Almost no one arrived with enough votes to be the nominee, so they would settle it at the convention. Now, by the time that we get to the convention, we know who the nominees are going to be. We know this year, for example, that it's going to be John Kerry for the Democrats and George Bush for the Republicans. And therefore, it's not as suspenseful as it once was, or as important. So they try to make the conventions into kind of big commercials for their parties. That's the big difference.
What is the main purpose of the convention?
Tom Brokaw: Originally, the main purpose of the convention was to determine who the party would have as the presidential nominee and the vice-presidential nominee. Now the purpose is to try to get people together before they begin the general election campaign, and treat it like a pep rally so they can get their spirits up and tell the nation why they are the superior party. And we always have to be very careful that they don't just use us for their own purposes. We have to examine what they're saying, analyze the speeches, and analyze the platform and talk to the people on the floor about the differences that may exist within the party.
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Tom Brokaw: In some cases they can, but in some states they're bound by the results of the election. But some are elected at large and they can change their votes. The parties like to have it all packaged and ready to go by the time they get to the conventions, because they don't want to take the chance on things happening that are unexpected.
Since one candidate almost always has the nomination locked up long before the convention began, why do conventions matter?
Tom Brokaw: That's a very good question. It matters because it gives the party a chance to put on their Sunday best, so to speak, to get all dressed up and put on a show that they hope will persuade the country that they're the best-prepared party to run the country for the next four years. So it does become kind of like a big commercial. When you're watching television from time to time, and you see those people who are selling gymnastic equipment, or "If you buy this you'll get to be really muscular," or "If you buy this you'll get to be stronger, you'll be better looking"—that's kind of what these conventions are all about. They're selling you on the idea that they're the best prepared to run the country.
 Bianca Ramos and Philip-Michael France talk to Tom Brokaw at NBC Studios. (Photo: James Levin/Studio 10) |
Tom Brokaw: Well, I think in every convention there's something to learn. We were talking earlier today about Colin Powell, who is a Republican, who made a very strong speech at the Republican Convention about maintaining affirmative action. Most Republicans at that convention I'm sure didn't agree with him. But he said it's important for the Republican Party to take a stand for affirmative action. You'll learn more about the person who is going to be the candidate for President, but also who he or in the future she may choose as the vice-presidential candidate. And then you find out that within the party there are some issues that are more important than others. There will be a big debate about the war in Iraq; was it a good idea? There will be a big debate about the American economy; who is at fault for losing these jobs? So we can have these debates, and we can try to make that happen at the convention.
How has the role of reporters and the press changed since then?
Tom Brokaw: Well in those days, it really was a matter of trying to determine who was going to be the nominee. You spent a lot of time counting the votes on the floor and seeing where the shift was going on. . . . I remember in 1968 for example, in Chicago, Hubert Humphrey was trying to become the presidential nominee. Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, Gene McCarthy was still in the race, there was talk about Teddy Kennedy taking his brother's place. So there was talk right till the end about who was going to win. And we're out trying to find out whether the challenges to Hubert Humphrey were going to hold up, and whether they had enough leverage really to overturn his chances, and in the end they didn't.
How have you changed as a reporter and as a person since the 1960s?
Tom Brokaw: I now get to sit up in a big booth and I don't have to wear my running shoes anymore.
How have the presidential elections changed since then?
Tom Brokaw: They've not changed a lot. The one thing that we know now because we have these very good systems of talking to voters when they leave the voting place—somebody goes in, they come out, we say, "Who did you vote for? Why did you vote for them that way?"—and there's a system in place around the country where we can generally tell which way the election is going to go, so we don't have to wait until the last vote is in to make a determination about who is going to win. Now, in 2000, as you probably are aware of, that system broke down on us, and we had it wrong throughout most of the evening. So we're a lot more careful now about how we say who's likely to win.
Do you think changes should be made in the nomination process to restore a bigger vote to the conventions?
Tom Brokaw: I'd like to see that happen. I'd like to see the primary process change so that you have more states participating in it. What I would do is divide the country up by time zone and then have a drawing the first week in March. All of the states in the Mountain time zone would vote, and then the next week, the second week in March, all the states in the Central time zone would vote, and then the Pacific time zone, and then the Eastern time zone, so we'd have this national kind of referendum. And then I would leave delegates free to vote their conscience at the convention. So that's a change that I would make.
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Tom Brokaw: The Republicans are almost always better behaved than the Democrats. They have more money, and they impose a greater discipline on the delegates. Now, that did not happen a few years ago, when the Republicans had George Bush running for re-election, and the more conservative wing of the party took hold of the convention, and said some things from the podium that did not help President Bush when he was running for re-election. But the Democrats are more likely to have squabbles within the convention than the Republicans are. And at the Republican Convention there's less diversity. It's generally a larger white audience than it is at a Democratic convention because the Democrats attract people of color and different ethnic backgrounds, to a greater degree, than the Republicans do.
What can we learn from the acceptance speech given by the party's nominee?
Tom Brokaw: You seldom learn anything new. What you may get from those kinds of presentations is a sense of how that candidate appeals to your personal values and whether you're comfortable with him. There was a funny thing that happened four years ago. Al Gore was widely believed to be kind of a stiff guy in a blue suit, but he was so excited when he ran down to the podium that he gave his wife a very big and very long kiss, and that seemed to help him with a lot of people. They thought, "Well maybe there's more to this guy than we thought."
What do the platforms tell us about the kind of presidency we can expect from the nominee?
Tom Brokaw: Not much. The platforms are kind of a ritual anymore, they don't count for much. They do them so they can refer to them when they need them. They use them like fire extinguishers. If there's a fire going on about some issue, then they put it in the platform, or they say to some people who are excited about it, "See, we took care of it in the platform." So they really don't count for much anymore. The [candidates] run on their own platform, not on the convention platforms.
I understand that you were going to retire before this election and then you changed your mind. Why?
Tom Brokaw: Because of 9/11. I thought the country was entering a new and very serious phase. I was very interested in the issues that were going on, and I wanted to stick around and see what I could do to help explain it to the American people.
Which convention was the most exciting for you to cover?
Tom Brokaw: 1968 Chicago. There were protests in the street about Vietnam, the outcome was uncertain, and it was a real watershed time in America. We didn't know which way America was going in 1968. Dr. [Martin Luther] King had been killed that year; Bobby Kennedy had been killed that year; there was a terrible war in Vietnam; the country was deeply divided about many of these issues; and you really had the feeling that you were in someplace extremely important.
What would be your advice to kids who are interested in becoming a reporter such as yourself?
Tom Brokaw: I think they would have to do two things. One, learn to write so they can express themselves clearly. And then the next thing that they have to do is get a really broad understanding of how our country works—the politics, the economy, the education system, the culture, and also how we fit into the rest of the world. It's not just about showing up here and putting on makeup and talking out loud, it's really knowing what you're talking about and being interested in it and expressing it in a way that the viewers can walk away at the end of the broadcast and say, "I learned something."
