TV news pioneer David Brinkley dead

June 12 - David Brinkley, who gained fame as half of NBC’s Huntley-Brinkley anchor team and for more than a half-century loomed large in the newscasting world he helped chart, has died at the age of 82, it was reported Thursday.

BRINKLEY’S DEATH was reported by the Houston Chronicle and ABC News, both of which said he died from complications from a fall.

Brinkley, who was born in Wilmington, N.C., on July 10, 1920, was described as “the elder statesman of broadcast journalism” by former President George H.W. Bush. But Brinkley spoke of himself in less grandiose terms.

“Most of my life,” he said in a 1992 interview, “I’ve simply been a reporter covering things, and writing and talking about it.”

He stepped down as host of ABC’s “This Week with David Brinkley” in November 1996 but continued to do commentaries. He left amid a rare controversy, and an apology: Late on Election Night, after a long evening, he had said unkind things about President Clinton on the air, calling him a “bore.”

Clinton sat for an interview for Brinkley’s last show anyway, and after Brinkley apologized, told him: “I always believe you have to judge people on their whole work, and if you get judged based on your whole work, you come out way ahead.”