Yankee Doodle Dandies

NEW YORK —  It’s the Fourth of July, and what better way to put the historic moment into perspective than . . . tuning in to see what our nation’s network news anchors have to say?

Dan, Peter and Tom. They’ve become so familiar to us in the two decades or so that each has been in the anchor chair, important papers in hand, night after night sharing with us the important news of the day, that we feel as though we’re on a first-name basis with them.

We’ve followed their ratings ups and downs, their haircuts, their careers through foreign wars and interviews with Soviet leaders and battles with presidents. They’ve become as American as apple pie.

But just in case we’ve missed the point, they’ve now turned their off-air attentions to “America.” Strike up “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” as we’ve moved--for better or worse--into the era of anchorman as patriot.

With the power of television behind them, an anchorman has always been someone who seemed larger than life, part of the elite caste of journalists who hobnobbed with the high and mighty. They still do, of course, but these days NBC’s Tom Brokaw, ABC’s Peter Jennings and CBS’ Dan Rather aren’t just reporters of history, they have begun offering themselves up as historians, too.

Along the way, their jobs have also evolved--they are no longer mere news celebrities but brands for their networks. And today, more than ever, that brand has come full circle: The side they want us to see and identify with is the anchorman as man of the people, chronicler of our hopes and dreams.

Blame it on Brokaw. He has described his 1998 book “The Greatest Generation” as a “labor of love.” It chronicles the World War II generation, their sacrifices and stories, under-chronicled until Brokaw gave them a voice.

Some critics have sniffed, but he touched a nation’s nerve. “It wasn’t just a bestseller. It changed the cultural agenda,” says Andrew Tyndall, a consultant who analyzes the network newscasts and, despite the impact of Brokaw’s book, thinks the anchors should stick to journalism, calling their new ventures “cashing in on the prominence they have.”

Although some like Tyndall are critical of the new trend, others see it in a positive light. “Is there a marketing connection? Certainly,” says Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute, a St. Petersburg, Fla., journalism school.

“But is it illegitimate for them to write about history? I certainly don’t think so. All three have strong professional credentials as journalists and writers,” he notes, and they have been in a position to see “decades of significant events and issues unfold before their eyes.”

Moreover, he says, “while they may not be authoritative for some readers, for others they may offer a popular view of history that’s more enticing and meaningful.” And, having been in their anchor chairs for so long, “it’s only natural that their roles and personas evolve.”

Brokaw didn’t stop with the one book. He followed it with “The Greatest Generation Speaks,” a sequel composed of the stories that poured forth from the everyday people who went to war and those left behind.

The stories kept on coming, however--NBC just shipped 45 boxes of material Brokaw has received to Florida State University’s Institute on World War II and the Human Experience--so now Brokaw has just published a third volume, “An Album of Memories: Personal Histories From the Greatest Generation.”

Some of the proceeds of the book are being donated to a Web site, to be established in conjunction with the new World War II monument in Washington, D.C., that will allow veterans to track down members of their unit and families to share histories.

Brokaw’s colleague Brian Williams joked at a recent New York media party for new NBC News President Neal Shapiro that soon Brokaw will be publishing tomes on “Recipes of the Greatest Generation” and even “Shoe Sizes of the Greatest Generation.”

Brokaw is more serious about the endeavors, however, writing in the forward to his latest book that, “It has been, simply, the most fulfilling professional experience of my career and a deeply emotional personal experience.”

The experience apparently hasn’t been lost on the publishers who work with CBS’ Rather, already the folksiest of our anchors and known among his colleagues for a heart-on-his-sleeve patriotism, and ABC’s more urbane, and Canadian, Jennings, both already established authors themselves.

Where Rather’s past books have been personal histories and a compendium of his radio reports, his just-published book is titled “The American Dream: Stories From the Heart of Our Nation.” It has a big American flag on its cover. Rather describes its profiles as “the result of my quest to discover the American dream as your neighbors are creating it today.”

In the introduction, Rather writes that the concept of the American Dream “has filled me with awe for as long as I can remember.” He sees the American Dream in the signing of the Declaration of Independence, noting that for the United States, “It brought us into existence.”

The book follows off the weekly segment, also dubbed “The American Dream,” on the “CBS Evening News,” started in 1999. The “American Dream” franchise previously belonged to Brokaw’s “NBC Nightly News” from 1990 to 1997, but that segment later evolved into the broader “American Spirit,” and the newscast now dubs its features on community heroes “Home of the Brave.”

Jennings, co-author with Todd Brewster of the in-depth 20th century history “The Century,” is working away, again with Brewster, on a new book of his own.

In Jennings’ words, passed along through a spokesman, it’s about “rediscovering America at the beginning of the 21st century” and “trying to understand 21st century Americans and their connections to history.” It will come out next year with--not surprisingly in these days of synergy-- a companion ABC television program.

For those who can’t wait, Jennings can be seen tonight on a three-hour program on cable’s A&E; Network, part-owned by ABC, performing a patriotic reading at the traditional Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade, which will also feature Cyndi Lauper and Debbie Reynolds.

Jennings’ appearance there was one of the first things lined up by Joe Armstrong, a synergy and marketing consultant hired recently by ABC News. Jennings declined to say in advance what he will be reading, except to note that it will have “something to do with the nature of independence and what it means,” according to a spokesman.

Because Jennings will be busy in Boston, he won’t be seen on ABC’s own 10 p.m. Fourth of July special, which is hosted by Diane Sawyer Charles Gibson, dual-duty anchors who hold forth both on “Good Morning America” and the Thursday evening “PrimeTime.” Tonight’s “Independence Day 2001,” live on the East Coast and tape-delayed on the West, will initiate from the equally all-American festivities in Philadelphia.

A highlight of the show will be a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence by stars ranging from Michael Douglas and Kathy Bates to Morgan Freeman, Mel Gibson, Whoopi Goldberg and Edward Norton. The reading will be produced by Norman Lear, proud purchaser recently of an original copy of the document.

There also will be appearances by Garth Brooks, Patti LaBelle and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops, as well as highlights of independence celebrations from each of the 13 original colonies.

We can only imagine what next Memorial Day will bring.