Dusty Johnson: “I rise today to publicly honor and recognize one of South Dakota's favorite sons, Tom Brokaw. He has had an…”

“I rise today to publicly honor and recognize one of South Dakota's favorite sons, Tom Brokaw. He has had an extraordinarily successful career as anchor of NBC Nightly News. During his 21-year reign as anchor, NBC moved from the least watched to the most watched network newscast. Born in Webster, SD, in 1940, Mr. Brokaw attended high school in Yankton, SD, and began his journalism career after graduating from the University of South Dakota in 1962. He was hired by NBC news in 1966. Throughout his tenure at NBC, Mr. Brokaw has gathered an impressive list of accomplishments. In 1987, he was the first American to interview Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, and this exclusive one-on-one from the Kremlin earned him the prestigious Alfred I. duPont Award. Mr. Brokaw was also the first American anchor to interview the Dalai Lama and to report on human rights abuses in Tibet. In 1989, Mr. Brokaw was the only anchor at the scene when the Berlin Wall fell, and in 1995 he was the first anchor to report from the site of the Oklahoma City bombing. He was also the first American anchor to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2000. Mr. Brokaw has reported live from war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo. Mr. Brokaw is a highly respected political journalist, having covered every American election since 1968. He anchored all of NBC's political coverage from 1984 through 2004, including primaries, national conventions, and election nights.”