Aaron Brown
Host, WIDE ANGLE

There are very few stories in our lifetime that Aaron Brown has not covered. Beginning with the Vietnam protests and Watergate in the 1970s to the beginning of the Iraq war he has, quite literally, been there. But it is likely that he is best remembered for one story – the attack of 9/11. On his first day of work at CNN, he was on the air a half-hour after the first attack, broadcasting from a rooftop in lower Manhattan. Brown’s coverage has been called courageous, calming and insightful.

Before he arrived at CNN, Brown was the anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight Saturday and reported for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline and other ABC news broadcasts. He was the founding anchor of ABC’s World News Now. Brown played a lead role in covering many news stories, including the British return of Hong Kong to the Chinese government, the Columbine High School shootings, the trial of O.J. Simpson, and Nelson Mandela’s historic election as president of South Africa. He also reported on the restoration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the head of Haiti’s government, the death of Princess Diana, the trial of Susan Smith in Union, S.C., and the California earthquake in 1994. Additionally, Brown spent a year reporting and covering the tobacco industry. As an essayist for ABC News, Brown covered subjects ranging from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton to the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Brown has garnered numerous awards including three Emmy awards, a duPont-Columbia Award, a New York Film Festival World Medal, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of 9/11.

Brown is the first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism at Arizona State University in Tempe.