Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Roger Mudd, R.I.P.

Former TV news anchor and correspondent Roger Mudd has passed away of complications of kidney failure. He turned 93 last month. 

Mudd spent two decades with CBS where he served as the weekend anchor of the CBS Evening News and would frequently substitute for Walter Cronkite on weekdays. In 1979, Mudd had his finest hour when he stumped Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy when he asked him why he wanted to be President of the United States

Mudd would leave CBS for NBC after the network chose Dan Rather over him to succeed the retiring Walter Cronkite. While with NBC, Mudd co-anchored the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw in 1982 and 1983 before becoming co-moderator of Meet the Press with Marvin Kalb. 

In 1987, Mudd would join PBS where he would become a correspondent on the McNeil-Lehrer Newshour. He would spend the final decade of his TV career as the principle of The History Channel. Mudd retired from broadcasting in 2004.

I leave you with a clip of Mudd anchoring the CBS Evening News on August 5, 1974 - three days before President Nixon announced his resignation. R.I.P.

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