Credit: KING 5 archives
Posted on 01/01/2025 7:25:16 PM PST by Widget Jr
Aaron Brown got his start reporting at KING 5 in Seattle before going on to anchor and report at ABC News and CNN.
EATTLE — Aaron Brown, a former CNN anchor who got his start at KING 5 in Seattle, has died.
CNN, citing a statement from Brown's family, reported that he died Sunday. A cause of death was not given. He was 76.
Brown rose to prominence for his coverage of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, where he narrated the events from a rooftop in Manhattan.
He got his start in TV journalism at KING 5, where he started as an assignment editor in 1976 and then worked as a reporter and news anchor. Politics was one of Brown’s beats at KING, including coverage of President Jimmy Carter’s visit to Seattle after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in June 1980. Brown left KING 5 in 1986 to anchor at KIRO 7.
Credit: KING 5 archives
Former KING 5 anchor and reporter Aaron Brown reports on President Jimmy Carter's visit to Seattle in June 1980.
From Seattle, Brown joined network television, first at ABC News. Brown anchored for “World News Tonight Saturday” and “Good Morning America Sunday.” He also reported for "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" and “Nightline,” according to ABC.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Brown started his career at the network earlier than expected, anchoring from a Manhattan rooftop as the attacks were happening. When the second tower fell that morning, Brown responded with the horror most viewers no doubt felt.
“Good lord,” he said. “There are no words.”
His coverage of the attacks earned Brown the Edward R. Murrow Award. He also won three Emmy awards during his career, along with other honors.
Throughout his tenure, Brown was recognized for his commitment to journalistic integrity and his ability to connect with viewers during critical moments in history.
Brown’s quirky, cerebral 10 p.m. CNN newscast “NewsNight” had a following with fans who enjoyed his commentaries and “The Whip,” a quick review of top international stories, but he lost ratings ground to Greta Van Susteren of Fox News.
Brown left CNN during a shakeup in November 2005, when his time slot went to rising star Anderson Cooper.
Looking back at this time at CNN, Brown said he was confronted by the challenge of doing serious journalism while also being in a “very ratings-driven environment.”
“I don’t want to get into the business of indicting cable TV, but some of what went on was just television, not journalism,” he told The Associated Press in 2008.
“I didn’t practice the ‘high church’ of journalism all the time, but I think there was some sense that I was uncomfortable in that other, tabloidy world, and I think viewers knew that and I couldn’t pull it off," Brown said in that 2008 interview.
After leaving CNN, Brown taught for years at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite professor of journalism. In 2008, he came back to TV on PBS’ "Wide Angle," a weekly public affairs show. Brown began his career in Minneapolis as a radio talk show host. Brown attended the University of Minnesota for about a year in 1966 before signing up to serve in the Coast Guard Reserve, according to the university. “Aaron got to do the work that he loved - and he felt lucky to do that work as part of a community of people who were dedicated to good journalism and who became good friends,” Brown’s wife, Charlotte Raynor, said in a statement.
She noted that Brown worked varying shifts over his career, but “he always found a way to make both ordinary and special times with our daughter Gabby and me."
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Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri. Rico reported from Atlanta.
Brown was a real journalist and reported the news with a quirky sense of humor and wit.
He was not one of the agenda driven narrative-pushers so common in cable and online news today.
Aaron Brown and Jean Enerson, credit: Seattle PI
RIP and condolences to his family.
Archival links: Archive.org, Arhive.is
Seattle Times obituary for Aaron Brown.
his first on air live broadcast on CNN was 9/11
9/11/01 - CNN Live coverage of the Pentagon attack starting at 9:42am
https://rumble.com/vhip25-91101-cnn-live-coverage-pentagon-attack.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp
RIP Newsman.
76 is the new 96.
God bless Aaron and his family. We corresponded from before the 9/11 attacks. People often think journalists are immune to events such as these. He was devastated and horribly afraid for his family, co-workers, city and nation. He was center-left, or so I believe. It was hard to be certain. He tried so hard to be fair.He was a good man, so caring when my region was utterly devastated in hurricanes. He put the word out, reading from our front news pages; holding up photos of our devastation. He cared for us when we lost loved ones. He was one in a million. I ask God’s love on his family... his wife of decades, his little girl and her family. He was my friend. God rest his soul.
Rest In Peace, Aaron.
I watched him as I grew up in Kent. He was reasonable, amusing and amused, and a decent guy. As a budding radical conservative, I could tell he was left of me, but not wacky in any way. He mostly delivered news without noticeable slant.
Good guy.
“Zichronó LiBerachá” (זִכְרוֹנוֹ לִבְרָכָה)
May his memory be a blessing.
I doubt he could get hired by KING5 these days
I also remember watching him. He was never pushing an agenda, but trying to report the actual news withOUT editorializing. His slight left tilt came out sometimes, but he was honest and true to his viewers.
One of the good guys, even if he was a bit left of centre.
He was a regular anchor for ABCs’ World News Now, from the beginning.
RIP
Yeah, I didn’t have a bad opinion of him - seemed decent enough even though - the organization
Back when the Media was mostly Liberal, not traitor leftist like now.
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