Martin Agronsky

American journalist

Died when: 84 years 194 days (1014 months)
Star Sign: Capricorn

 

Martin Zama Agronsky ( ə-GRON-skih;January 12, 1915 – July 25, 1999), also known as Martin Agronski, was an American journalist.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 and covering the last few years of the war from Washington, D.C., with ABC.

After the war, Agronsky covered the McCarthy hearings for ABC; fearless against McCarthy, he won a Peabody Award in 1952.When broadcast journalism moved away from radio, Agronsky returned to NBC, covering the news as well as interviewing prominent figures, particularly 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 John F.Kennedy.The next year, he joined CBS, becoming reportedly the only journalist to work for all three commercial networks.

With them, he moderated Face the Nation and won an Emmy for his interviews with Hugo Black, 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.

He continued hosting Agronsky & Co. until 1988, when he retired from his over 50-year journalism career.

---