NBC's Brokaw challenges journalists to expose fake news


              FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2014 file photo, Tom Brokaw speaks at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry annual dinner in Hershey, Pa. Brokaw, the former NBC anchor has a memoir coming out May 12, Random House announced Monday, March 2, 2015. The book is called “A Lucky Life Interrupted” and will draw upon a journal Brokaw began keeping in 2013 after learning he had multiple myeloma. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 22, 2014 file photo, Tom Brokaw speaks at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry annual dinner in Hershey, Pa. Brokaw, the former NBC anchor has a memoir coming out May 12, Random House announced Monday, March 2, 2015. The book is called “A Lucky Life Interrupted” and will draw upon a journal Brokaw began keeping in 2013 after learning he had multiple myeloma. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

NEW YORK (AP) - NBC News' elder statesman Tom Brokaw is challenging fellow journalists to write more about the scourge of "fake news."

The newsman said he has a close friend who believes blatantly false stories even though Brokaw demonstrates to him that they're not true. The 77-year-old Brokaw, longtime anchor at NBC's "Nightly News" before stepping down in 2004, accepted an award from Syracuse University on Tuesday.

Brokaw says the amount of false stories in the news ecosystem doesn't get enough attention.

He said the lesson of the last election for journalists is too many were covering the story from the top down instead of the bottom up - meaning they need to get out in the country and find out what people are thinking.

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