Campbell Brown Biography

Campbell Brown (born June 14, 1968) is an American television news reporter and anchorwoman. She previously hosted the Campbell Brown Show on the Cable News Network, and she was the former co-anchor of Weekend Today on NBC-TV.

Brown won an Emmy Award as part of the NBC-TV team reporting on Hurricane Katrina.

Early life and family

Campbell Brown was born Alma Dale Campbell Brown on June 14, 1968, in Ferriday, Louisiana, the daughter of the former Louisiana Democratic State Senator and Secretary of State James H. Brown Jr., and Brown's first wife, Dale Campbell. According to Brown, "Alma Dale" was her grandmother's name, while "Campbell" was her mother's maiden name.

Brown was raised as a Roman Catholic, though her father is a Presbyterian. She has two sisters.

Brown grew up in Ferriday, Louisiana, and she attended the Trinity Episcopal Day School. She was expeled from the Madeira School for sneaking off campus to go to a party. Brown attended Louisiana State University for two years before graduating from Regis University. After graduation, she spent a year teaching English in Czechoslovakia.

On April 2, 2006, Brown married Daniel Samuel Senor, the former chief spokesperson for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Brown converted to Judaism, her husband's faith. Brown had been married before, briefly, to a Washington, D.C., real estate broker.

On June 24, 2007, Brown announced on Weekend Today that she and her husband were expecting their first baby. On December 18, 2007, Brown gave birth to their son, Eli James Senor, named after his grandfather, James Senor.

On October 27, 2008, during a guest appearance on The Daily Show, Brown announced her second pregnancy. On April 6, 2009, Brown gave birth to her second son, Asher Liam Senor. She returned from maternity leave on Monday, June 1.

Career

She began her career in local news reporting for KSNT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Topeka, Kansas, and then for WWBT-TV, the NBC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia, and she also reported for WBAL-TV in Baltimore, Maryland, and WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. Brown joined NBC News in 1996. She was later assigned to The Pentagon and she covered the war in Kosovo. Before Weekend Today, she was the White House correspondent for NBC News.

Presidential election coverage in 2000

During the Presidential campaign of the year 2000, she covered George W. Bush, the Republican National Convention, and Republican party primary elections. She became the main substitute anchor for Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News.

In March 2006, Brown was named as one of five women who might replace Katie Couric when she left the Today Show, but that position was assigned to Meredith Vieira, instead.

Move to CNN

Brown announced July 22, 2007, on Weekend Today, that she would be leaving NBC News after 11 years to devote time to her family and expected baby. CNN confirmed it had hired Brown, and that Brown would start work for CNN in February 2008 (originally November 2007), filling the spot previously held by Paula Zahn, who left the network in turn. Brown began anchoring CNN Election Center, which ran from February through October 2008. The show was renamed Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull in October 2008, right before the election in order to ensure a smooth transition when the election was over. Roland Martin filled in as guest host in April and May 2009 while Brown took maternity leave. When she returned in June 2009, the show was renamed again to simply Campbell Brown.

Interviews during the 2008 election season

On September 1, 2008, Brown conducted a controversial interview with Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, concerning Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Brown questioned Palin's executive experience and asked for examples of decisions Palin had made as the commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard. Bounds did not name an example, but he stated that Palin had more executive experience than Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Brown accused Bounds of sidestepping with his answers and she repeated some of the same questions. Brown asserted that Senator McCain had made a point of wanting a Vice-President with a lot of experience, including foreign policy experience, and that his selection of Palin seemed to abandon that principle. She asked Bounds to explain the decision on that basis. Bounds contended that Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin together had more executive experience than Senator Obama and U.S. Senator Joe Biden combined.

Brown also asked if Palin should accept the Republican Vice-Presidential nomination given that her teenage daughter is pregnant out-of-wedlock. The McCain campaign later accused Brown of anti-Republican/anit-McCain bias, alleging that she had "gone over the line." In response, the campaign canceled McCain's scheduled interview with Larry King, but it later rescheduled the interview.

Departure

On May 18, 2010, Brown announced that she would be leaving CNN, after the network agreed to release her from her contract. She stated that poor ratings had been the primary reason for her departure.

"I'm pretty sure the last time any anchor could honestly ignore ratings was well before I was born. Of course I pay attention to ratings. And simply put, the ratings for my program are not where I would like them to be. It is largely for this reason that I am stepping down as anchor of CNN's Campbell Brown."

She went on to say:

"The 8:00 p.m. hour in the cable news world is currently driven by the indomitable Bill O'Reilly, Nancy Grace, and Keith Olbermann. Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might co-exist in that lineup is simply impossible for me. It is not who I am, or who I want to be."

Brown's last day at CNN was on July 21, 2010. Beginning on July 22, her 8:00 p.m. prime time slot was filled by a second hour of Rick Sanchez's Rick's List TV program. In October, the show Parker Spitzer debuted at the 8:00 p.m. time slot.

Other roles

After leaving CNN, Brown began writing opinion pieces for publications that included The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Beast and Slate. Brown has become an outspoken advocate for school choice and education reform. In June of 2013, Brown founded the Parents Transparency Project, a nonprofit watchdog group on behalf of parents seeking information and accountability from the teachers' unions and New York Department of Education on actions impacting children in schools. The group, working with the New York Daily News, investigated and reported on school employees accused of sexual misconduct with children but still kept their jobs.

In addition to the Parents Transparency Project, Brown also serves on the boards of Success Academy Charter Schools, a New York City charter school network and Turnaround for Children,a nonprofit organization that addresses the emotional effects of poverty on childrens learning environments.

Brown is a Board Member at the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF). She also performed as a "broadcast journalist" in the play 8.

In popular culture

Brown was parodied by the actress and comedienne Tracey Ullman in her Showtime comedy series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union, and by Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live.