William Thomas Pettit (April 23, 1931 – December 22, 1995) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

, who was a television news correspondent for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

from the 1960s through 1995. During most of that period, he filed reports for ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...

'' (as well as the preceding '' Huntley-Brinkley Report'') and served numerous times on the panel of ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the longest-running program on American television, though the current format bears little resemblance to the debut episode on November 6, 1947. ' ...

.'' He served as one of NBC's floor reporters at the political conventions in 1972, 1976, and 1980.

Biography

Pettit began his broadcasting career in the state of his upbringing,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

, first working for

WOI-TV WOI-DT (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Ames, Iowa, United States, serving the Des Moines area as an affiliate of ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside CW affiliate KCWI-TV (channel 23), also licensed to Ames. Both station ...

located then in Ames, Iowa, followed by a stint with

KCRG-TV KCRG-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States, serving Eastern Iowa as an affiliate of ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station has studios on Second Avenue Southeast in do ...

in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during the 1950s before moving on to positions at

WCCO-TV WCCO-TV (channel 4) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the CBS network to the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities area. It is owned-and-operated station, owned and operated by th ...

in Minneapolis, Minnesota and at the NBC owned-and-operated station, now KYW-TV in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. His first position with the NBC network was in the network's

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

bureau, where he worked for 13 years, except for a brief tenure with

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American educational broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It operated from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970, and ...

. By 1975, Pettit moved to the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

bureau, where he would cover national affairs until 1982, when he became executive vice president of NBC News under president

Reuven Frank Reuven Frank (7 December 1920 – 5 February 2006) was an American broadcast news executive. Life and career Born Israel Reuven Frank (he later dropped his first name) to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, he earned a bachelor's degree in soci ...

. In 1985, he returned to reporting, serving as national affairs correspondent until 1989, when he began a three-year stint in NBC's

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

office. He continued working as a correspondent until 1995, the year of his death. After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Pettit was dispatched to Dallas where he served, in effect, as a police reporter. In the famous footage of

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...

being killed by Jack Ruby in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Pettit, standing six feet away, is heard exclaiming, "He's been shot. He's been shot. Lee (Harvey) Oswald has been shot." NBC was the only network airing Oswald's transfer live. Pettit died after complications from surgery, at the age of 64.

Awards

Pettit was best known for his acumen in interviewing national leaders, including several presidents. He won several awards for his coverage, notably the Peabody and Emmy awards.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pettit, Tom American television reporters and correspondents Executive Vice Presidents of NBC News 1995 deaths 1931 births People from Cincinnati