Tom Brokaw Cancer Diagnosis Interrupts His ‘Lucky Life’: News Anchor Talks Humility And Brian Williams

Tom Brokaw is factual about his cancer diagnosis, as befits a journalist who has dedicated his life to reporting on news facts rather than fiction. But at the same time, the former NBC Nightly News anchor is emotional about the fact that he’s in remission from incurable cancer, reported Parade.

Married for 52 years, Tom views his wife Meredith as a key element of what he describes as a “lucky life.” But, as Brokaw notes in his memoir, good fortune has been altered forever by multiple myeloma.

When he learned about the need for treatment, Tom didn’t hesitate. Now, after surviving the months involved in treating his cancer, which impacts the bone marrow plasma cells, the term “remission” has new meaning for Brokaw, as he describes in A Lucky Life Interrupted, published by Random House this month.

“The conceit of a long, lucky life is that bad things happen to others,” muses Tom.

But on the flip side, says Brokaw, part of a lucky life is tackling everything that faces you with determination and mixture of dignity and adventure.

“I believe you make your own luck. My motto is ‘It’s always a mistake not to go.’ So I jump on the airplane, try new things—sometimes I get in way over my head, but then I think, I’ll work my way out of this somehow. A big part of making your own luck is just charging out of the gate every morning…And if you want to be lucky you’ve got to go out and take advantage of it.”

Has cancer changed him? Yes, says Brokaw immediately. It’s given him both humility and empathy, two qualities that he feels many in the media industry lack.

“If there’s an oxymoron in American life it’s ‘humble anchorman.’ Cancer has given me a dose of humility. I’m much more empathetic. It’s a club I would rather not have joined, but it is a club. People come up to me quietly on the street and say, ‘Mr. Brokaw, I’m a cancer survivor, too,’ or ‘How you doing?’ Cops will say, ‘You going to be okay?’ That’s been quite touching, honestly.”

While Tom reflects on his health, his former colleague Brian Williams is reflecting on his suspension, on which Brokaw has voiced his views, reported the New York Daily News.

Suspended for six months while his embellishments are investigated internally, Williams received what Brokaw describes as suggestions occasionally during his tenure, revealed the 75-year-old. But he denies reports that the two have clashed.

“There’s been way too much speculation about it,” Tom declared. “I want to say two things. One is that Brian and I had a cordial relationship. You know, it was tricky because he succeeded me, and I had my own strong feelings about how things should be done, but I never interfered with it. I would make suggestions from time to time.”

But Brokaw felt annoyed about Brian’s dramatic tales, said a source.

“I always felt (Williams) needed to jack up his stories because he was trying too hard to overcome his insecurities,” said the insider. “And he had to follow Tom, which brought its own set of insecurities. He likes to sort of tell these grandiose tales.”

One of Tom’s friends said that while Brokaw didn’t urge that Brian be suspended, he didn’t attempt to save him.

“Chalk one up for Brokaw,” Brian reportedly said.

As the Inquisitr reported, one of the alleged embellishments concerned a story that Williams told to Brokaw about becoming sick with dysentery because he mistakenly gulped down floodwater.

Wrong, argued Dr. Brobson Lutz, a former city health director who survived the storm in a trailer in that area, asserting that he neither treated nor heard of any cases of dysentery after the hurricane.

[Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival]