Tom Brokaw RetiRes

Tom Brokaw stepped down as the Anchor of NBC’s Nightly News back in December of 2004.

But, the longtime Journalist stayed on at the network, offering up incite and adding to NBC’s coverage of special events.

On Friday, after 55 years at NBC News, Brokaw officially retired from the network.

The news game has changed a lot since he first started at NBC in 1966. He worked as an Anchor at KNBC, long before cable news even existed.

Brokaw started covering the White House in 1973 and worked his way up to the anchor desk at NBC News.

When he signed off in 2004, he was replaced by Brian Williams.

Williams helped usher in the new breed of Anchor that wanted to make the story about themselves as much as anything else.

Williams lost his job, when he was accused of lying about some of those stories in which he inserted himself.

Brokaw was in the chair before social media, before selfies and where the story was the focus.

He steps away at 80 years old to “spend more time with his family.”

He was one of the last pieces to an era when Journalism was a calling. Now, it’s about being on TV and shouting at each other on cable news.

Tom Brokaw will be missed as a presence, and more so as an example of when TV news was there to inform, educate and not living and dying by ratings and self promotion.

Good luck Tom and thanks for a job well done.