Brokaw Signs Off for the Last Time

Tom Brokaw, the principle anchor and managing editor for "NBC Nightly News," will step away from the anchor desk after over twenty years of news reporting. Having difficult shoes to fill, Brian Williams will take over his spot at the news desk. Some negative press has been thrown around about the successor, but Brokaw suggest this advice for the new anchor: Don't listen to what they say about you in the press.

"Don't read the columns," says Brokaw. "Stay away from letting other people define you. Define yourself."

Brokaw, along with his peers-CBS's Dan Rather (who announced his retirement last week) and ABC's Peter Jennings-- have been three of the strongest forces in the constantly changing field of journalism.

Reflecting about when he first started in the news business in the mid-1960s, Brokaw says that the anchors on the nightly newscasts were mainly middle-aged white men on the East Coast broadcasting news for viewers who were typically middle-aged white men on the East Coast. Brokaw says he has enjoyed the increased diversity and the evolving of the journalism business in the United States.

Wednesday marks Brokaw's last news broadcast with the "Nightly News," and he feels that there is much to say, besides the gratitude he expresses to his viewers for letting him into his home every night.

"It won't be at great length," he says. "It won't be an opus of some kind."

Brokaw stands firm on his retirement and hasn't questioned his choice to leave the news desk. Although he is leaving the anchor chair, he is not quitting television completely. He plans to work on some NBC documentaries.

"One of the reasons why I'm doing documentaries is that I want to spend more time on fewer subjects at greater length," he says.