my uncle Frank...Frank McGee NBC News
Loved ones Mmy uncle was born September 12, 1915 in Ollahoma City and died April 17, 1974. Uncle Frank was a news reporter for NBC beginning in the mid 1950s. He had a great talent for descriptive language giving viewers a word picture of the day's events.

Uncle Frank was a real journalist paying his dues during world war two... when NBC News's Chet Huntley broke the news of John F. Kennedy's assasination, and Uncle Frank was on the phone from Dallas giving an account of this and was on air for 45 hours able to report without a script.

In the early 60's, he was also a news reporter on the NBC radio show Monitor.

In 1970, he was a co-anchor with John Chancellor on NBC Nightly News and in 1971, he moved to The Today Show, replacing Hugh Downs, who'd hosted the show since 1962.

Uncle Frank moved the Today Show into a more serious news presentation.The Vietnam war and president Nixon along with the Bobby Kennedy assisination all were topics of his focus including a white paper identified by Walter Cronkite as turning the tide of the Vietnam War "SAME MUD SAME BLOOD" produced by my Uncle Frank.

He co-hosted the TODAY show with Barbara Walters, but insisted on opening and closing the show by himself. His contract actually said she could not interrupt him.

He remained on the air until April 1974, when he took off because he was suddenly ill. It turned out to be bone cancer, which he succumbed to less then two weeks after his last Today broadcast. He was replaced by another Oklahoma native, Jim Hartz, who co-hosted the show with Walters until 1976.

My Uncle Frank was always honest with me about world issues. While staying with him in Scarsdale New York back in 1967 he provided me with insights on U.S. media. Actually I asked many questions of him as God made me to be a seeker...

Uncle Frank understood the power of the T.V. as a political device...as another possible implement to manage and control individuals...and my uncle Frank indicated to me...that a free news entity...an news service without capitalistic controls insured a free and unbiased news source.....a free and independent news within a free and independent society.

Too bad my uncle was silenced.
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 4:53 PM