Roger Mudd dies: Emmy-winning veteran journalist and anchor on CBS News, NBC News, PBS and History Channel was 93

The Washington Post

Mudd joined CBS News as a political correspondent in 1961 and was at the Ambassador Hotel when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. After the shooting, he saw Kennedy’s wife, Ethel, standing by herself. He put his arm around her waist and elbowed his way through the milling crowd, guiding her to her husband. Mudd is best known for asking Ted Kennedy a simple question in 1979 -- "Why do you want to be president?" Kennedy's inability to give a substantial answer devastated his 1980 presidential campaign ambitions. Mudd was the anchor for the CBS Evening News on weekends and was poised to succeed Walter Cronkite as the main anchor, but he ended up losing out to Dan Rather. Afterwards, Mudd moved to NBC News, where he co-anchored NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw from 1982 to 1983, when Brokaw became sole anchor. Mudd went on to become co-moderator of Meet the Press and an essayist for the MacNeil–Lehrer Newshour on PBS. For more than 10 years, Mudd was the primary anchor at History Channel. Mudd won five Emmys throughout his career and wrote his memoir, The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News, in 2008.