Bruce Johnson news anchor

Bruce Johnson, a longtime Washington, D.C., news anchor, died at the age of 71 on Sunday, his wife confirmed on her Facebook page.

Johnson covered D. C. politics, earning two shows with his namesake at the network, and received 22 Emmy Awards for his broadcasts. “Like many Washingtonians, he’s been a part of my life since I was a little girl, delivering the news and giving voice to DC residents. “Bruce Johnson was a giant of DC journalism, a father, grandfather, husband, & proud author,” Washington, D. C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) tweeted Sunday night.

Bruce Johnson, American TV news anchorman and reporter for CBS affiliate WUSA 9 for more than four decades has died aged 71. Read on.

Like many Washingtonians, he’s been a part of my life since I was a little girl, delivering the news and giving voice to DC residents. Like many Washingtonians, he’s been a part of my life since I was a little girl, delivering the news and giving voice to DC residents. My heart breaks for his wife Lori and his family.” His family is mourning his death and requested well-wishers, followers to respect their privacy in this moment of grief. Bruce Johnson was a giant of DC journalism, a father, grandfather, husband, & proud author. Mayor Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washinton DC offered tributes to the late anchor by tweeting, “Bruce Johnson was a giant of DC journalism, a father, grandfather, husband, & proud author.

Bruce Johnson, a Washington broadcast journalist and television personality for more than four decades known for his street-savvy coverage of local politics ...

They had homes in Washington and Lewes, Del.In addition to his wife, survivors include two children from his first marriage, Brandon Johnson of Bowie, Md., and Kurshanna Dean of Washington; a stepdaughter, Carolyn Smith of Yonkers, N.Y.; several siblings; and four grandchildren.Throughout his career, Mr. Johnson continued to show up at news conferences and interview people on the street — a reporting role that he found more fulfilling than reading scripts behind an anchor desk.“That’s where you really earn your money,” Mr. Johnson told the Times in 2004. In 2004, Mr. Johnson interviewed six Ballou Senior High School seniors about living in Washington’s poorest neighborhoods while trying to graduate from school.“I have gone home and broken down and cried over some of these kids,” Mr. Johnson told the Washington Times. “They don’t have a chance.”His first marriage, to the former Madge Williams, ended in divorce, and he married Lori Smith in 2003. He also hosted “Off Script With Bruce Johnson,” a conversational newscast on national and local news stories featuring Mr. Johnson interviewing “the people behind the headlines,” according to WUSA. He occasionally hosted documentaries and specials, including one about institutionalization of the mentally ill in Washington, and reported from world capitals such as Paris and Dakar.In 1992, at 42, Mr. Johnson suffered a massive heart attack while on a routine assignment in Southeast Washington.“The pain was intense and unrelenting, and I immediately thought someone had shot me,” he later wrote in his book about cardiovascular disease, “Heart to Heart: 12 People Discover Better Lives After Their Heart Attacks.” “My hands moved to my chest to put pressure on a hemorrhage that wasn’t there. … The pain was somewhere deep in my chest where I couldn’t get to it.”Mr. Johnson also interviewed other heart attack survivors and produced and moderated a documentary about heart disease afflicting the Black community, “Before You Eat the Church Food, Watch This Video.” Mr. Johnson also spoke about overcoming personal struggles, including years of heavy drinking before the heart attack and bouts with depression afterward, and became an advocate in the heart health community.He spent two months recovering from the heart attack before returning to Channel 9 and took up running. That’s why I’ve offered a job to every person who wants to work in the summer.”In his memoir “Mayor for Life,” Barry wrote that Mr. Johnson “had always been a straightforward guy, off the record. He graduated in 1973 from Northern Kentucky University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and, in 1975, he received a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Cincinnati.He spent four years working in Cincinnati at WCPO-TV, which was then a CBS affiliate, before joining Channel 9 in Washington. One of the first stories in the District to bring him recognition was the 1977 Hanafi Muslim hostage siege of a city government building, the Islamic Center and B’nai B’rith International. One person was killed. Is there some theme, some message here you’ve got for the low-income people in the city?”The mayor replied: “I think government has the responsibility to take care of the poor in the areas where they can’t take care of themselves. The cause was a heart attack, said his wife, Lori Smith-Johnson. In April 2018, Mr. Johnson ended his newscast announcing that he had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was taking a hiatus to undergo chemotherapy. But he said that at the end of the day, the reporters all had to do their jobs, whether they liked what was going on or not.”As he accumulated 22 local Emmy Awards and other honors, he gradually balanced weekday reporting and weekend anchoring duties. He returned to the air later that year and retired in December 2020.Following the groundbreaking path set by Max Robinson and Jim Vance, Mr. Johnson was part of the second wave of Black journalists to appear on camera in major markets, spending 44 years at WUSA (Channel 9). In 1976, he joined a popular team of news reporters and anchors at Washington’s CBS affiliate (then called WTOP, later WDVM and WUSA) that included Gordon Peterson, J.C. Hayward, Maureen Bunyan and Glenn Brenner.Over the decades, Mr. Johnson developed a reputation for covering grittier parts of the city, getting on-the-ground knowledge of those residents and taking their perspectives into account when asking pointed questions of city leaders.“The real Bruce Johnson is the man you’d see out on the streets, usually two or three steps ahead of his cameraman, trying to get wherever he’s going,” said veteran Washington-area print, radio and television reporter Tom Sherwood. Mr. Johnson, he added, developed a style that was “friendly and brusque.”At a news conference in 1987, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry lambasted residents who seemed to misuse and overburden the 911 emergency response system to address more routine health problems.“A little while ago, you accused a certain segment, I guess low-income people in the city, of abusing the 911 system,” Mr. Johnson said. … But the message here is self-reliance, self-help, self-responsibility.”“Mr. Mayor,” Mr. Johnson followed-up, “won’t you also find in these [poor] communities the most violent crimes, the most domestic violence? WUSA (Channel 9) anchor Bruce Johnson speaks with SiriusXM host Joe Madison during a 2018 broadcast from Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for SiriusXM)Bruce Johnson, a Washington broadcast journalist and television personality for more than four decades known for his street-savvy coverage of local politics and urban affairs and for moderating community forums and debates, died April 3 at a hospital in Rehoboth Beach, Del. He was 71.

Bruce Johnson spent almost 50 years covering D.C. at WUSA9. He was 'part of the fabric of the city's history,' says a former colleague.

In the book, he pays tribute to those who came before him. “I know Bruce had health challenges over the years, but he has always dealt with them in such a careful way that I thought he was doing really well at this point,” Nnamdi said. Since then, he has posted frequent photos of himself relaxing on the beach, riding a bike, and promoting his book, “Surviving Deep Waters.” “You might want to stop at GW Hospital on the way back,” he later recalled telling his cameraman. “The thing I recall most about Bruce is how hard-driving a reporter he was,” said Kojo Nnamdi, a longtime WAMU host, in an interview with WAMU/DCist. “He also had a deep interest in life in the Black community and went where others dared not to go in the African-American community, looking for stories of people facing issues that the general public may not be familiar with. “He really had a deep knowledge of where the city has been and where it was going,” Snyder said in an interview with DCist/WAMU. And he wrote about the domestic violence he and his siblings witnessed as their stepfather struggled with alcoholism. As for the eulogies pouring in from elected officials, Nnamdi said that many local politicians appreciated Johnson for his authenticity, even though his coverage could be tough. Johnson had health troubles in the past. “It enabled us to send our kids to school, college, get a mortgage, put a little money in the bank.” In the book, he recalled a childhood of learning to swim by swinging off tree branches into a river polluted by a nearby rubber factory. He was a cub reporter when Hanafi Muslims stormed what is now the Wilson Building in 1977, shooting and wounding Marion Barry and killing a reporter, Maurice Williams. Johnson was just behind Williams heading into the building under siege.

PRNewswire/ -- Following is a statement by Jen Judson, 115th President of the National Press Club on the passing of Washington broadcasting legend Bruce...

Founded in 1908, The National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists. He was with his wife Lori. They went to dinner at the Reliable Source and sat at a front row table for the show in the Ballroom. It was great to see Bruce's warm smile as he took in the music and to hear his wonderful laugh. He lived through and reported on the biggest stories of our time.