Aaron Brown died on Sunday in Washington, D.C. He was a veteran radio journalist who was known for keeping calm while reporting on the hijackings on September 11, 2001. He was 76 years old. The person speaking for the family, Molly Levinson, stated that pneumonia was what killed him.
The most important thing that happened to Brown was on September 11, 2001. He saw the World Trade Center towers fall while reporting live from a CNN rooftop in Manhattan. He turned his back on the camera and looked at the disaster 30 blocks away, saying, “Just look at that; that’s the scariest scene you will ever see.” Over the next 17 hours, his steady speech and deep thoughts helped millions understand what was happening.
Brown discussed that day in an interview with NPR’s “All Things Considered” in 2011. “In some ways, you were too focused to be anything other than a reporter with the biggest story anyone had ever had,” he told me. He stated that he was feeling excited, which he knew might seem strange.
After studying political science at the University of Minnesota and serving in the Coast Guard Reserve, Brown, born November 10, 1948, started working in journalism. He started as a radio host in Minneapolis. Later, he went to Seattle and worked as a TV newscaster at NBC and CBS stations for ten years.
When Brown joined ABC News in 1991, he became known nationwide. His first job was as a reporter on “World News Now,” the network’s overnight news show. His work as Peter Jennings’ main fill-in on “World News Tonight” and his ability to report from dangerous places around the world, like Bosnia, made him a major figure in television. His coverage of O.J. Simpson’s murder trial made him even more well-known.
In June 2001, CNN hired Brown as the network’s prime-time host, Bernard Shaw. He won an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the September 11 attacks and became known for combining breaking news with deep analysis.
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But as TV news started to focus on more shocking stories, Brown felt increasingly out of place. An interview with the Associated Press in 2008 showed that he didn’t always follow the “high church” of journalism. He also said, “I think there was some sense that I was uncomfortable in that other, tabloidy world.” He quit CNN in 2005 when the network was changing how it worked.
Brown became the first Walter Cronkite journalism professor at Arizona State University, where he taught and guided aspiring reporters. He was also the host of PBS’s “Wide Angle,” which was more of the in-depth reporting he liked.
Charlotte Rayner, Aaron Brown’s wife, said, “Aaron got to do the work that he loved, and he felt lucky to do that work as part of a community dedicated to good journalism.” She also said that the last few years they spent together in the same place were the best for both.
Besides his wife, Charlotte, Aaron Brown leaves behind two grandkids, a brother, and a sister.
