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TV Journalists

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Anchors are some of the most-trusted presences on the small screen, the faces we lookto in times of national crisis to bring us the news ... along with a bit of reassurance. FromGwen IfillandMarlene Sanders, toWalter CronkiteandEd Bradley, these are the great television news anchors of decades past, memorable for their voices, faces and unique styles of sharing the news of the day with us. We pay tribute to TV broadcasters with this photo tribute to those we've lost.

Jim Lehrer (19342020)

PBS News Hour host Jim Lehrer

Getty Images / The Washington Post / Carol Guzy

Lehrer was the lauded news anchor for the "PBS NewsHour" on PBS for 36 years.

View Jim Lehrer's obituary

Cokie Roberts (19432019)

NPR and ABC journalist Cokie Roberts

Getty Images / Walt Disney Television / Heidi Gutman

Roberts was a pioneering political correspondent on the radio and television. She is considered one of the Founding Mothers of NPR.

View Cokie Roberts' obituary

Steve Dunleavy (19382019)

Tabloid TV journalist Steve Dunleavy

Getty Images / Ron Galella Ltd.

The Australian-born tabloid journalist was a lead reporter on the television show "A Current Affair" as well as a columnist for the New York Post.

View Steve Dunleavy's obituary

Charles Krauthammer (19502018)

Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer

Getty Images / Washington Post / Ray Lustig

Krauthammer was a prominent conservative voice on Fox News and as a columnist for The Washington Post.

View Charles Krauthammer's obituary

Brenda Buttner (19612017)

Fox News commentator Brenda Buttner

Fox News

Buttner won a Cable Ace Award in 1996 as the host of The Money Club on CNBC. More recently she hosted Bulls & Bears on Fox News.

View Brenda Buttner's obituary

Gwen Ifill (19552016)

PBS NewsHour host Gwen Ifill

Getty Images / Frederick M. Brown

The veteran journalist co-anchored PBS NewsHour and served as moderator and managing editor of PBS talk show Washington Week.

View Gwen Ifill's obituary

John Saunders (19552016)

Sports journalist John Saunders

Getty Images

The Canadian-born sports journalist worked for ESPN and ABC. ESPN President John Skipper said in a statement after his death, John was an extraordinary talent and his friendly, informative style has been a warm welcome to sports fans for decades. His wide range of accomplishments across numerous sports and championship events is among the most impressive this industry has ever seen.

View John Saunders' obituary

Jeanne Parr (19242016)

Journalist Jeanne Parr

Getty Images

The pioneering journalist was one of the first female correspondents hired by CBS and later hosted her own talk show. She is also the mother of actor Chris Noth.

View Jeanne Parr's obituary

Morley Safer (19312016)

CBS reporter Morley Safer

Getty Images / Cindy Ord

The longtime CBS reporter worked on "60 Minutes" for 46 years and also covered the Vietnam War.

View Morley Safer's obituary

Stuart Scott (19652015)

ESPN anchor Stuart Scott

Getty Images / Joe Robbins

The ESPN sportscaster and anchor was known for his colorful catch phrases such as "Boo-Yah!" and inspired fans with his fight against cancer.

Read more about Stuart Scott

Marlene Sanders (19312015)

Journalist Marlene Sanders

Getty Images / ABC

In 1964, Sanders (pictured with Peter Jennings) became the first woman to anchor the prime-time network news when she filled in for ABC's Ron Cochran. She was a prolific, Emmy-winning documentarian for ABC and CBS until her retirement in 1987.

View Marlene Sanders' obituary

Bob Simon (19412015)

Journalist Bob Simon

AP Photo / Andy Kropa

During his five-decade career in journalism, the longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent covered most major overseas conflicts and news stories from the late 1960s on.

View Bob Simon's obituary

Tim Russert (19502008)

Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert

AP Photo / Kathy Willens

The "Meet the Press" anchor "pointedly but politely questioned hundreds of the powerful and influential as one of America's most prominent U.Stelevisionjournalists."

View Tim Russert's obituary

Garrick Utley (19392014)

TV journalist Garrick Utley

AP Photo

Utley was a veteran TV journalist whose far-ranging career included anchoring duties as well as reporting from more than 70 countries.

View Garrick Utley's obituary

John Palmer (19352013)

TV reporter John Palmer

AP Photo / Evan Agostini

In nearly four decades with NBC, Palmer served as Washington correspondent and "Today" show news anchor. The team of Palmer, Bryant Gumbel, Jane Pauley, Willard Scott, and Gene Shalit helped vault "Today" to the top of the ratings in the 1980s.


Peter Jennings (19382005)

Peter Jennings

AP Photo / Charles Dharapak

As the anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight" from 1983 until his death in 2005, Jennings was there for millennial America's biggest stories. His reassuring presence carried us through times of tragedy as he presented marathon news broadcasts, testing his own endurance in order to keep the public informed.

Read more about Peter Jennings

Mike Wallace (19182012)

TV journalist Mike Wallace

AP Photo / Mario Suriani

The CBS newsman was known as a dogged, merciless reporter and interviewer who took on politicians, celebrities, imams and other public figures in a 60-year career highlighted by on-air confrontations that helped make "60 Minutes" the most successful prime-time TV news program ever.

Read more about Mike Wallace

Andy Rooney (19192011)

Andy Rooney

AP Photo

For more than 40 years, Rooney spared few punches as he skewered pretty much anything that had ever annoyed him on the "60 Minutes" segment "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney."

Read more about Andy Rooney

Harold Dow (19472010)

TV journalist Harold Dow

CBS Publicity Photo

The Emmy-winning CBS News correspondent helped shape the documentary program "48 Hours" and covered events such as the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He died at 62 as a result of asthma.

Read more about Harold Dow

Walter Cronkite (19162009)

Walter Cronkite

AP Photo / G. Paul Burnett

"The world's most trusted anchorman" was an authoritative, mustachioed presence who managed to soothe CBS viewers for almost two decades, no matter how horrible or terrifying the nightly news.

Read more about Walter Cronkite

Ed Bradley (19412006)

Ed Bradley

Getty Images / CBS

Bradley broke racial barriers at CBS News, covering everything from the fall of Saigon and the rise of AIDS to the music of Ray Charles and the career of Sir Laurence Olivier. His dedication won him 19 Emmys as well as a shrapnel wound, received while covering the war in Cambodia in the 1970s.

Read more about Ed Bradley

David Bloom (19632003)

TV journalist David Bloom

Getty Images

The NBC News correspondent had been reporting on the war from the Iraqi desert when he died of a pulmonary embolism at 39. Bloom was the anchor of the weekend "Today" show and had been traveling with U.S. troops for several weeks in Iraq.

View David Bloom's obituary

David Brinkley (19202003)

TV journalist David Brinkley

AP Photo / NBC

The journalist first gained fame as one-half of NBC's Huntley-Brinkley anchor team and for more than a half-century loomed large in the newscasting world he helped chart.

View David Brinkley's obituary

Charles Kuralt (19341997)

TV journalist Charles Kuralt

AP Photo / Tim Rue

Kuralt was known best for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on the "CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of "CBS Sunday Morning," a position he held for 15 years.


John Chancellor (19271996)

TV newsman John Chancellor

Getty Images / Time Life Pictures / Hugh Patrick Brown

Chancellor spent most of his career with NBC News, serving as anchor of "NBC Nightly News" from 1970 to 1982.


Harry Reasoner (19231991)

TV journalist Harry Reasoner

Getty Images / Time Life Pictures / Carl Mydans

Reasoner was a journalist for ABC and CBS News, known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator and as a founder of the "60 Minutes" program.

Read more about Harry Reasoner

John Charles Daly (19141991)

TV newsman and game show host John Charles Daly

Wikimedia Commons

Daly is remembered best as the warm, charming friend Americans welcomed into their homes every Sunday from 1950 to 1967 as host of television game show "What's My Line?" But Daly (pictured right with Quincy Howe while covering the 1956 presidential campaign) was also a seasoned journalist who served as a reporter during World War II and later as vice president of news at ABC. Daly anchored ABC's news broadcasts for several years, even while hosting "What's My Line?," and won an Emmy and three Peabody Awards for his television journalism.

Read more about John Charles Daly

Max Robinson (19391988)

TV journalist Max Robinson

AP Photo / Dave Pickoff

The "ABC World News Tonight" co-anchor was the first African-American network news anchor in the U.S. A founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, Robinson died of AIDS at the age of 49.

Read more about Max Robinson

Jessica Savitch (19471983)

TV journalist Jessica Savitch

AP Photo

As the New York weekend anchor of "NBC Nightly News," Savitch was the first woman to hold that position. The first woman to fill in on the weekday "NBC Nightly News" broadcast, Savitch became the host of "Frontline" on PBS shortly before her death at 36 in an automobile accident.

View Jessica Savitch's obituary

Frank Reynolds (19231983)

TV journalist Frank Reynolds

Wikimedia Commons

Reynolds was the New York anchor of the "ABC Evening News" from 1968 to 1970 and later the Washington D.C. co-anchor of "World News Tonight" from 1978 until his death in 1983. During the Iran hostage crisis, he began the 30-minute late-night program "America Held Hostage" that later became "Nightline."

View Frank Reynolds' obituary

Dave Garroway (19131982)

Today show host Dave Garroway

Getty Images / NBC

Morning television was a different ball game when Garroway became the original "Today" show host in 1952. Here's how a New York Times critic described him: "He does not crash into the home with the false jollity and thunderous witticisms of a backslapper. He is pleasant, serious, scholarly looking and not obtrusively convivial."

Read more about Dave Garroway

Frank McGee (19211974)

TV journalist Frank McGee

Getty Images / NBC

McGee was an anchor on "NBC Nightly News" before moving to the "Today" show on NBC. He is pictured here at the 1972 Democratic National Convention with Barbara Walters.

View Frank McGee's obituary

Chet Huntley (19111974)

TV newsman Chet Huntley

Wikimedia Commons

The television newscaster was known best as the co-anchor of "The Huntley-Brinkley Report," NBC's evening news program.

View Chet Huntley's obituary

Edward R. Murrow (19081965)

TV news pioneer Edward R. Murrow

Getty Images / NY Daily News Archive

Murrow first came to prominence with a series of radio news broadcasts during World War II that millions of U.S. listeners followed. A pioneer of television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of TV news reports that helped lead to the censure of U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Here he lights a cigarette for Marilyn Monroe during an interview on his television show "Person to Person."

Read more about Edward R. Murrow

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