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Longtime NBC news anchor Edwin Newman dies at 91
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Longtime NBC news anchor Edwin Newman dies at 91
Longtime NBC news anchor Edwin Newman dies at 91
Longtime NBC news anchor Edwin Newman has died. Newman was known not only for his reporting chops, but also for his linguistic finesse.
Newman served a stint during World War II in the U.S. Navy, then went to work in radio. He joined NBC in 1952 and served as bureau chief in London, Rome and Paris before heading home.
It was Newman, with his rumpled, squinting delivery, who announced the death of President Kennedy on NBC radio. He analyzed the Vietnam War. He also narrated and helped write documentaries, including the 1966 piece called “Politics: The Outer Fringe,” which examined extremism.
Newman was known for his literacy, wit and energy when he anchored “Meet the Press,” “Today” and “the NBC Nightly News.”
When he retired in 1984, he wrote two best-sellers that battled linguistic pretense and clutter. And he appeared on Saturday Night Live as himself, manning a suicide hotline, only to keep correcting the desperate caller’s grammar.
Edwin Newman died in New York at the age of 91.
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