Martin Agronsky

Martin Zama Agronsky (ə-GRON-skih; January 12, 1915 – July 25, 1999), also known as Martin Agronski, was an American journalist, political analyst, and television host. He began his career in 1936, working under his uncle, Gershon Agron, at the Palestine Post in Jerusalem, before deciding to work freelance in Europe a year later. At the outbreak of World War II, he became a war correspondent for NBC, working across three continents before returning to the United States in 1943 and covering the last few years of the war from Washington, D.C., with ABC. After the war, Agronsky covered McCarthyism for ABC; fearless against McCarthy, he won a Peabody Award for 1952. When broadcast journalism moved away from radio, Agronsky returned to NBC, covering the news as well as interviewing prominent figures, including Martin Luther King Jr. as a young man. He returned to Jerusalem for a time and won the Alfred I. duPont Award in 1961 for his coverage of the Eichmann trial there. At the end of 1962, he recorded a documentary aboard the submarine USS George Washington which received an award at the Venice Film Festival. A prominent news reporter, and associate of John F. Kennedy, he extensively covered the 1963 assassination of Kennedy. The following year, he joined CBS, reportedly becoming the only journalist to work for all three commercial networks. With CBS, he moderated Face the Nation and won an Emmy for his interviews with Hugo Black, which marked the first television interview with a sitting Supreme Court Justice. He left major companies in 1968, joining a local network to helm his own show, Agronsky & Co. A success, the show pioneered the "talking heads" news format. He added the Evening Edition, an interview format, to his show, which became prominent for its coverage of the Watergate scandal. Agronsky then joined PBS, swapping the Evening Edition for a longer interview show, Agronsky at Large. In his later career, he also acted as variations on himself in film and television. A graduate of Rutgers University, this institution would also award Agronsky an honorary Master of Arts and the Rutgers University Award (its highest honor), as well as inducting him into its Hall of Distinguished Alumni. He continued hosting Agronsky & Co. until 1988, when he retired from his over 50-year journalism career.