N. J. Burkett
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| N. J. Burkett | ||
|---|---|---|
| Birth name | Newton Jones Burkett, III | |
| Born | 1962 | |
| Birth place | Orange, New Jersey | |
| Circumstances | ||
| Occupation | Journalist | |
| Spouse | Margie Rice, former TV producer and radio anchor | |
| Children | Newton Jones (Jay) IV (1997); Amanda Lee (1999) | |
| Notable credit(s) | Senior Reporter for WABC-TV (1989-present) | |
Newton Jones Burkett (b.1962) is an award-winning correspondent for WABC-TV, the largest ABC television station in the United States. Burkett joined the Eyewitness News team in July of 1989 from WFSB-TV in Hartford, Connecticut where he had been a correspondent since 1986.
Burkett is best known for his coverage of the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001, for which he shared or was awarded-outright many of the most prestigious honors in American television news.
Over his twenty-five year career, he has reported on everything from war and diplomacy to crime and politics; from aviation disasters to natural disasters, race relations and police misconduct. After the two jets struck the World Trade Center, Burkett and WABC-TV photographer Marty Glembotzky narrowly escaped the subsequent collapse of the South Tower. Their work was later seen on television news broadcasts across the nation and around the world.
He spent nearly three months covering the war in Iraq, and the military build-up that preceded it. Burkett reported from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf, airstrips and desert base camps in Kuwait, and war-ravaged Iraqi cities.
He covered the terrorist bombings in Madrid (2004) and London (2005), as well as the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon (2006). He has reported on the last three Israeli elections and the death of Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat. In 2005, Burkett covered the historic Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and chronicled the Palestinian popular uprising, known as the Intifadeh, in a series of overseas assignments from 2000-2004.
After New York City's puzzling outbreak of West Nile Virus in 1999, he traveled to Bucharest, Romania, once the scene of the world's largest West Nile epidemic. His investigative reporting on the Romanian outbreak earned him the prestigious Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Burkett was honored with another Emmy in 2000, after he traveled to the United Kingdom for a provocative series of reports on the forensic uses of DNA.
When a growing number of homeless New Yorkers complained that the city’s municipal shelters were unsafe, he went undercover for several weeks, disguised as a homeless man. He, and an undercover photographer, slept in New York’s most notorious men’s shelter.
Burkett is a two-time winner of the coveted Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association.
He shared the George Foster Peabody Award and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award with his colleagues at ABC News for his reporting on the September 11th terrorist attacks. In 2003, and again in 2007, he was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding On-Camera Achievement.
Burkett is a member of the New York Press Club, The Inner Circle, and was elected to the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Chapter, in 2007.
He holds a BA in Political Science and a Master's in International Affairs, both from Columbia University.
