It was around 1971 when my father had finally had enough of Walter Cronkite at CBS. He angrily announced, to no one in particular, that Cronkite was “a g**damn communist”. Dad loved Richard Nixon. Cronkite was not a Nixon man.
We started watching John Chancellor at NBC the next day. I could never tell what Chancellor’s personal politics were (though I could once he retired and started writing opinion pieces). Tom Brokaw came in to replace him and did a pretty good job as well. But that ended after Ronald Reagan got elected and Brokaw ruined his image (with me at least) by giving a Reagan attacking interview to Mother Jones Magazine.
From that moment on it’s all been down hill and into the sewer for NBC.
When the protagonist of the piece fit the liberal agenda, the camera would cut to Brokaw for a goodnight approving nod and smile. If the last piece featured a conservative issue, or person, Brokaw would give a disproving "harrumph". Like clockwork. Made me so mad sometimes I wanted to throw a shoe through the screen (never did).