History Channel premieres '1968 With Tom Brokaw'
Like any good journalist, which he indisputably is, Tom Brokaw has a tough time with the word "I."
Using "I" means talking about yourself, and saying what you think and feel and believe. It's a great word for a talk-show host. Oprah, let's say. It's a terrible word for a veteran TV journalist who's spent the past 40 years - with some degree of success - keeping onlookers out of the sanctum sanctorum inside his head.
There was that 2002 book of fond reminiscences, "A Long Way From Home," but that pretty much stopped at age 20. Brokaw has carefully maintained a wall of privacy for the subsequent 47 years.
Because he's not a first-person-singular type of guy by disposition, Brokaw typically resorts to talking about other people instead. There's an inexhaustible supply of those stories, which have nourished his bestsellers, such as "The Greatest Generation" and, most recently, "Boom!," his "reflections" on the '60s.
But that book and Sunday's History Channel spin-off, "1968 With Tom Brokaw" (9 p.m.), are billed as "personal," so even Brokaw can't avoid the almighty "I." Over dozens of interviews in recent weeks promoting both projects, he's invariably asked about Tom Brokaw. You get the sense that it bugs him, but - damn - you just gotta ask anyway: What's "retirement" been like? Did the '60s change you? Were they good for the country or bad? And wouldn't your answer betray your political beliefs to a certain extent?...
Read entire article at Newsday
Using "I" means talking about yourself, and saying what you think and feel and believe. It's a great word for a talk-show host. Oprah, let's say. It's a terrible word for a veteran TV journalist who's spent the past 40 years - with some degree of success - keeping onlookers out of the sanctum sanctorum inside his head.
There was that 2002 book of fond reminiscences, "A Long Way From Home," but that pretty much stopped at age 20. Brokaw has carefully maintained a wall of privacy for the subsequent 47 years.
Because he's not a first-person-singular type of guy by disposition, Brokaw typically resorts to talking about other people instead. There's an inexhaustible supply of those stories, which have nourished his bestsellers, such as "The Greatest Generation" and, most recently, "Boom!," his "reflections" on the '60s.
But that book and Sunday's History Channel spin-off, "1968 With Tom Brokaw" (9 p.m.), are billed as "personal," so even Brokaw can't avoid the almighty "I." Over dozens of interviews in recent weeks promoting both projects, he's invariably asked about Tom Brokaw. You get the sense that it bugs him, but - damn - you just gotta ask anyway: What's "retirement" been like? Did the '60s change you? Were they good for the country or bad? And wouldn't your answer betray your political beliefs to a certain extent?...