A long time NBC anchor spent his weekends as a hippy. Appearing on the January 23 edition of "The View" to promote his book "Boom," former "NBC Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw described himself as "kind of a weekend hippy" when he lived in California in the 1960's. Brokaw recalled "wearing bell bottom trousers and sandals" and attending the Renaissance Faire. Of course on Mondays he would put on a coat and tie and "be a network correspondent."
Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked the "did you inhale" question to which Brokaw responded "as Senator Obama has said, isn’t that the point?"The veteran journalist then recounted the strong marijuana culture in 1960's California and that he himself "experimented with it."
The entire transcript is below.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Tom, you know, I want to go back in time a bit. We know in ‘76 you took over at the "Today" show as Barbara was leaving to come here to ABC. But I want to go back even further into the 60's with the emergence of the drug culture, and Barbara alluded to this earlier in the segment prior to this. Did you inhale?
TOM BROKAW: As Senator Obama has said, isn’t that the point?
[laughter]
HASSELBECK: Good for you.
BROKAW: You know, when I moved to California in 1966, it was pretty startling because I grew up in the working class town in the Great Plains, and I was a beer and whiskey kid from the 50's. And suddenly in California, marijuana was everywhere. I mean, it was served as a dessert course, kids were choking up on the corner. You know, they doing everything but smoking in class. And, so sure, I experimented with it, it didn’t particularly take with me. Sometimes it took too well with me. And then I kind of then went back to good red wines and the sup of my youth.
BARBARA WALTERS: You were pretty square.
BROKAW: Well, I was.
WALTERS: When I met you 40 years ago you were pretty square.
BROKAW: Well, of course I had come out of the 50's. I was kind of a weekend hippy. I would take my kids, you know my daughters. And on weekends, Meredith and I would, I’d put on my bell bottom trousers and my sandals and we’d go off to the Renaissance Faire outside of Los Angeles.
JOY BEHAR: Oh my God.
HASSELBECK: Are you serious? Tom!
BROKAW: And hang out there, and then on Monday mornings I’d put on my white button down shirt and my narrow tie and my jacket and then I’d go off and be a network correspondent and I looked like that.
—Justin McCarthy is a news analyst at Media Research Center.
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There's something profound
January 23, 2008 - 14:51 ET by Chris NormanThere's something profound about what Brokaw admits that can applied to most of the MSM: "hippies" masquerading as establishment types...
Oh, the horror.
January 23, 2008 - 14:51 ET by sarcasmoAnd William F. Buckley went out and smoked a joint in his yacht. What's the world coming to??? (Dud. This post has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with media bias -- but for a big-ass dose of that look at NB's latest poll!!) Note: The NB poll I was mocking due to typical [& therefore brain-dead] news-media like antilibertarian bias is here.
JMR
Rally online with fans of Dr. Ron Paul. (All purpose anti-slander-link, sadly-needed these days...)
I go to Ren Faires too
January 23, 2008 - 15:11 ET by greenfairieAnd I'm definitely not a hippie.
As a member of GenX who has seen many a peer end up junkies and losers thanks to the jokey "it's just a little harmless pot smoking" attitude toward drugs the baby boomers had, I'd like to say, burn in hell all of you.
No love,
Me
Wha the hell?
January 23, 2008 - 15:12 ET by dronetekI've always been annoyed at how baby boomers recount the 60s
as some kind of historical age of change. In fact it was nothing more than a
bunch of people on drugs. What exactly is so admirable or redeemable about
that?
the 60s
January 23, 2008 - 15:19 ET by seaniepfrom what I understand about the 60s is was just getting wasted and getting laid
they were lucky to have the war to rebel against, it just gave them an excuse to skip classes
Don't care.
January 23, 2008 - 15:24 ET by gib4ksuWent to college, inhaled, experimented and enjoyed with many liberal and conservative friends. Personal choice. Find this post to be irrelevant in the greater scheme of advancing conservative thought.
"Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." Ronald Reagan
Sarc has a point
January 23, 2008 - 15:37 ET by OldSailor88No bias. Don't give a flying monkey fart about Tom Brokaw either. Let's move on.
Stultus est sicut stultus facit
You know, not every last
January 23, 2008 - 17:22 ET by Chris NormanYou know, not every last post on here always deals directly with media bias - or has to. There are enough examples on NewsBusters already that it isn't a crime to have an occasional media related post that's just interesting or maybe even humorous. Besides, Brokaw's background does affect his political philosophy and therefore his known bias. This wasn't just about the fact he smoked pot. He admits he was a hippie (and seems to be proud of that fact). Hippies weren't known as conservatives - quite the contrary. I want to know about Brokaw. He's still a role model and a leader at NBC News. He is relevant.
I disagree, it shows that
January 23, 2008 - 17:31 ET by BDI disagree, it shows that Brokaw will have a proclivity to support certain "Issues" and likely not others based on his past behavior.
The Flip side of the 60's
January 23, 2008 - 22:36 ET by bfrankThe 60's also gave us an increase in STD's, drug-related and sexual crimes, Charles Manson, sexual perversions, legitimate children, inner-city slums, abortions, Soviet-supported radicals, pornography and the ill-conceived ideal of 'civil rights' for any group to have 'special' rights more than described in the Constitution for all U.S. citizens. Under this guise, special interests such as Indian rights, chicano rights, women rights, 'gay' rights, student rights, senior rights, worker rights, prison rights, animal rights, etc. sprouted.
Good Grief!
January 23, 2008 - 23:10 ET by vaboxrboyTom Brokaw is actually one of the last great journalist. He didn't get his talking points from some higher up and he has NEVER been accused of false info or being anything less than honest. His candor was refreshing and if you watched the entire segment on the View he said he was a beer and whiskey guy, but did the trendy hippie thing on the weekends with his FAMILY.
As for his book, he also wrote about the WWII generation and how great they were. If you get a chance look at his special on cable and you will know why the boomers did move this country in new directions. Many of the freedoms (from women's rights to integration) came from the youth of that time period doing the protesting and getting beaten down. Everyone wasn't stoned, but everyone did know someone who had been drafted to or killed in Nam and let's face it, that would make everyone of a certain age a little angry and looking for a little escape.
If you weren't there
January 24, 2008 - 08:35 ET by MidAmericaIf you weren't there during the 60's, there's no way to explain what it was like. I graduated high school in 1968 so I read Tom's book and was surprised that he would ruin it by constantly referencing the present and bashing Bush. After the next election his book will be out of date.
What were the sixties really like? I've not been able to explain it to my own kids. Everything was happening at once and so much was changing. One good way to get a feel for the sixties is to watch the Forrest Gump movie. The way Forrest just went through life with all this activity going on around him is the way it was for most people back then. You couldn't get emotionally invested in everything that was going on.
But keep in mind, it was a fun time to be young. We didn't all do drugs and engage in random meaningless sexual encounters. We didn't all feel terrible because of Viet Nam. I especially liked the womens liberation idea that bras were a symbol of men's oppression and should be discarded. We had roaring muscle cars that could lay some serious rubber and the radio played great music.
And speaking of music. That was our 'internet'. The WWII generation controlled mass media. Us boomers ALL listened to the SAME music and it transmitted all the ideas that were effecting our generation. Without the music there would have been no Boomers.