'Elder statesman' of TV news David Brinkley dies at 82

Veteran broadcast journalist David Brinkley has died. He was 82.

One of the most prominent U.S. television newscasters, Brinkley's career spanned more than five decades, most of it in Washington, and saw him cover the administrations of every president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

ABC News said Brinkley died Wednesday night in his home in Houston of complications after a fall.

"If I were 20 years old, I would try to do the same thing again, all of it," he said in a New York Times profile in February 1997. "I have no regrets."

Brinkley said at other times that he benefited in his career from being a pioneer in the television news industry. "If I was to start today I probably couldn't get a job because I don't look like what people think an anchorperson should look like."

He got his start in the news business as a high school student with the newspaper in his home town of Wilmington, N.C.

He went to the University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University, and served in the army. On his discharge he worked in southern bureaus for the United Press syndicate.

In 1956, Brinkley and Chet Huntley covered the political conventions together and their teamwork impressed NBC executives enough that they were handed the evening news slot.

NBC dominated the news ratings during the 1960s, and the anchors enjoyed more name recognition in some surveys than the Beatles or John Wayne.

Their trademark signoff, "Goodnight, Chet; Goodnight, David," became a pop culture touchstone, although Brinkley said neither of them liked it.

Huntley retired in 1970 and died in 1974.

Former president George Bush once called Brinkley the "elder statesman of broadcast journalism."

Brinkley won the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, the highest honour the United States bestows on civilians. He also earned 10 Emmy awards, and three George Foster Peabody Awards.

He wrote three books, including a memoir with the subtitle: "11 Presidents, 4 Wars, 22 Political Conventions, 1 Moon Landing, 3 Assassinations, 2,000 Weeks of News and Other Stuff on Television, and 18 Years of Growing Up in North Carolina."

He played down his role in charting the course of a brand new journalism medium. "I didn't create anything. I just got here early."

In 1992 he said: "I've simply been a reporter covering things, and writing and talking about it."