Roger Mudd

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Roger Mudd (born February 9, 1928, Washington, D.C.) is an Emmy Award-winning U.S. television journalist and broadcaster, most recently as the primary anchor for The History Channel. Previously, Mudd was weekend and weekday substitute anchor of CBS Evening News, co-anchor of the weekday NBC Nightly News, and hosted NBC's Meet the Press, and NBC's American Almanac television newsmagazine.

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[edit] Early career

Mudd received a B.A. degree from Washington and Lee University in 1950 and a Master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1951. He began his journalism career in Richmond, Virginia as a reporter for the Richmond News Leader and for radio station WRNL. He moved to Washington, DC in the late 50's to become a reporter with WTOP News, the news division of the radio and television stations owned by Post-Newsweek. Although WTOP News was a local news department, it covered many national stories. CBS News was located on the third floor of WTOP's studios at 40th and Brandywine in NW Washington. Mudd quickly came to the attention of CBS News and moved "downstairs" to join the Washington bureau in 1961.

[edit] CBS anchor, 1970s

During the heyday of CBS News in the 1970s, Mudd was the weekend anchor (along with Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer and Morton Dean) and frequently substituted on the weeknight broadcasts when popular anchor Walter Cronkite was on vacation or working on special assignments. Mudd was also the congressional and national affairs correspondent for CBS News, and hosted the seminal documentary The Selling of the Pentagon in 1971. He was a candidate in 1981 to succeed Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS Evening News. Despite substantial support for Mudd within the ranks of CBS News, network management gave the position to Rather after the longtime White House and 60 Minutes correspondent threatened to leave the network and sign a contract with ABC News.

Over two decades later, after Rather's eventual unceremonious ouster, some bloggers online called for Mudd's return.

[edit] Post-CBS years

Mudd chose to leave CBS News and accepted an offer to co-anchor NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, which he did from 1982 until 1983, when Brokaw took over as sole anchor. From 1984 to 1985, he was co-anchor of NBC's Meet the Press with Marvin Kalb. From 1987 to 1992, he was an essayist and political correspondent with the MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour on PBS. He was a visiting professor at Princeton University and Washington and Lee University from 1992 to 1996. Mudd was also a primary anchor for over ten years with The History Channel, where many of his programs are often repeated in reruns. He retired from full-time broadcasting in 2004, yet remains involved with documentaries for The History Channel.

March 24, 2008 was the publication date of Mudd's memoirs, The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News.

[edit] Ted Kennedy interview

Mudd is perhaps best remembered for an interview he conducted with Senator Edward M. Kennedy for a November 4, 1979 CBS special, "Teddy," aired three days before Kennedy officially announced his candidacy for the 1980 Democratic Presidential nomination. Mudd asked Kennedy, "Senator, why do you want to be president?," and Kennedy's supposedly vague and rambling answer was considered to be the beginning of the sharp decline in Kennedy's impressive poll numbers. President Jimmy Carter defeated Kennedy 50 percent - 38 percent in the Democratic primary vote. Although the Kennedy family refused any further interviews with Mudd, the interview helped strengthen Mudd's reputation as a leading political reporter. Broadcaster and blogger Hugh Hewitt has used the term "Roger Mudd moment" to describe a self-inflicted disastrous encounter with the press by a presidential candidate.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Mudd is the recipient of the Peabody Award, the Joan Shorenstein Award for Distinguished Washington Reporting, and five Emmy Awards.

Mudd is an indirect, distant relative of Dr. Samuel Mudd, the doctor who was implicated with inadvertently aiding John Wilkes Booth shortly after he assassinated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Many accounts have misrepresented the facts, assuming incorrectly that he is a direct descendant.[1] Roger Mudd has a son, Jonathan Mudd, who has 2 granddaughters, named Emma and Maddy Mudd.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Samuel A. Mudd, "Dr. Samuel Alexander Mudd and His Descendants". Saginaw MI: Bastion Brothers and Co., 1989. 57 pages.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
John Chancellor		 NBC evening news anchors (as the NBC Nightly News)
April 5, 1982 - September 5, 1983
co-anchor with Tom Brokaw		 Succeeded by
Tom Brokaw
v • d • e
Anchors of The NBC Nightly News