Hanna a news pioneer

By Sonam Hamilton

Lee Hanna

During the 1976 presidential election, Lee Hanna ('54) looked at a billboard-sized map of the United States divided state by state behind David Brinkley and John Chancellor on the NBC Nightly News and decided to make the Republican states red.

The decision was made "on a whim," Hanna said. He was vice president of NBC news at the time.

Today Hanna, 75, lives in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts. He retired from NBC in 1980, after helping guide television news through most of its first 30 years.

Hanna said he arrived in Boulder in the early 1950s while on his way to California to visit a friend. Originally from Manhattan's Upper West Side, he'd already served two stints in the military and studied journalism at the City College of New York.

He never made it to California.

Hanna stayed in Boulder, earning a B.S. in journalism from CU. Gayle Waldrop was director of the journalism program then, and Hanna remembers him as "an inspiration. Waldrop was very, very caring and very interested in his students. He had wonderful standards and mentored a lot of us."

During college and for a time after graduation, Hanna worked at the Boulder Daily Camera.

He returned to New York with the intention of working in television in "the most exciting city in the world." There were large numbers of war veterans back in the job market then, and finding employment was difficult. Hanna worked in the mailroom of an ad agency for several months before landing a position as copy boy at CBS news. While at CBS, he said, he did some writing and reporting, and began his lengthy career as a successful broadcast news producer.

Network and local news operations worked closely in the 1950s, and Hanna said he discovered the creative challenge of local news production

"I really liked local news in those days. It was more hands-on, with more opportunities to do a lot," he said. "The major problem with network news is it's a half-hour, and you can't do much in a half-hour. In local news, paradoxically, we did have the time for enterprise and special-interest reporting."

During the early 1970s, Hanna said he left New York to become vice president of news at the Boston Herald Traveler, a media company that owned two radio stations, a television station and a newspaper.

"I loved it," he said. "I learned something about running a big company."

Hanna said he returned to network television in 1975, first as director of news at NBC-owned and -operated stations, and then as director of news at the network. While vice president at NBC, he supervised "NBC Nightly News," the "Today Show," "Meet the Press" and news operations for special events.

During his tenure at NBC, Hanna said he had the opportunity to produce a unique news broadcast. WNBC-TV in New York, a station owned and operated by NBC, had at that time "no measurable audience," he said, adding that he spent more than a year developing the station's local news program.

"NewsCenter" was a revolutionary concept in local news, he said. It operated under a beat system, including beats in medicine, science and technology, crime and courts, "children of the city" and others. Top stories of the day were reported from a news desk, and enterprise reporting made up much of the remainder of the two-hour show.

"We gave reporters 2 to 3 minutes," Hanna said. "We built up a cast of specialists in the market. We were way ahead in enterprise and remote reporting."

There were instances of newspapers quoting his newscasts, he said, adding that one of his favorite photographs is a picture of four editors of The New York Times looking at a news broadcast on television.

As a result, the show won many news Emmys, Hanna said.

Also during his time at NewsCenter, Hanna said he developed a belief in the value of medical journalism.

"I thought even back then that it was a big story," he said. At NewsCenter, he aired the pioneering broadcast of a live kidney transplant.

The surgery lasted through the two-hour time slot of the news show, with broadcasts of the procedure throughout the newscast.

Since leaving network television, Hanna said he has served as a consultant to ABC and NBC news and directed the 1980 presidential debates. He remembers the difficulties of organizing an impartial forum.

"The candidates bring a lot of pressure on the producers," he said. They can always threaten to withdraw, he said, and try to control which other candidates are participating and which reporters are allowed to ask questions.

After the 1980 debates, Hanna said he encouraged the creation of a federal election debate commission, which has since occurred.

Over the course of his career, he has won many awards in journalism. Among them are the Peabody Award, George Polk Journalism Award, Overseas Press Club Award, Lasker Award for Medical Journalism, RTNDA Award for outstanding news operation and several Emmys. The University of Colorado honored him in 1976 as a "Graduate of the Century."

Hanna is critical of today's network news. In the 1980s, network news budgets were cut, resulting in bureau closures and the employment of fewer correspondents. Hanna said that lack of resources and the FCC's move to de-emphasize the obligation "to operate in the community interest" have had a negative impact on the news.

"I rarely watch network news anymore," he said. "I watch (PBS' The NewsHour with Jim) Lehrer every night and CNN during major news events. I think they do a very good job."

When asked what advice he would give new journalists, he had a quick response. "Newspapers, first and foremost," he said. "That's the way to get your training. Local news is really the stepping-stone to networks. If I were doing it today, ideally I'd want to start at The New York Times and eventually move to CNN."

Hanna is married to Natalie Lee, a ballerina.

One of their three daughters, Robin, is also a graduate of CU, with a degree in biology.