WEIGHING ANCHOR
Former CNN broadcaster Brown finds second career in teaching

Aaron Brown, the former lead anchor for CNN, has been appointed the inaugural Walter Cronkite Professor Journalism at Arizona State University.

Brown will join the full-time faculty of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass communication in January 2008. He will hold the faculty rank of professor of practice. Brown was at ASU in the spring semester as the JOhn J. Rhodes Chair in Public Policy and American Institutions, a one-semester visiting lecturer position at the Barrett Honors College.

Cronkite, the longtime CBS News anchor, was active in recruiting Brown to the school that bears his name.

"I have long been an admirer of Aaron Brown both on ABC and later on CNN," Cronkite said. "He's a terrific journalist with high ideals and great integrity. His passion for our profession and his commitment to its highest standards of objectivity and fairness has been the hallmark of his work - and will be a source of great inspiration for our students."

Journalism school Dean Christopher Callahan says Brown "was nothing shortly of spectacular" in the seminar he taught with Assistant Professor B. William Silcock, "Turning Points in Television News History." Brown is a natural teacher who will inspire Cronkite students for years to come, Callahan added.

Brown, 58 served as news anchor of CNN's flagship show, "NewsNight," from 2001 to 2005, covering stories ranging from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to the 2004 presidential elections to the Iraq War. Brown won the coveted Edward R. Murrow Award for his Sept. 11 coverage, broadcasting from a rooftop in lower Manhattan.

Before joining CNN, Brown was a founding anchor for ABC's "World News Now," the network's overnight newscast, and later was the anchor at "World News Tonight Saturday" as well as a correspondent for"World News Tonight with Peter Jennings."

In addition to the Murrow Award, Brown also won three Emmys, a DuPont, two New York Film Society World medals and a George Foster Peabody Award during his illustrious career.