Chuck Scarborough, a year after retiring from WNBC: 'I don't know if I've found a proper substitute or a new direction yet'

Almost exactly one year ago (Dec. 12), Chuck Scarborough retired from WNBC/4. No one had spent more time as a TV anchor in New York (50 years), and — barring some reversal of fortune in TV news itself — no one ever will again. Along with Sue Simmons (32 of those years), he was the other half a legendary tag team that symbolized local TV news.

On the occasion of his own departure, Walter Cronkite said that "old anchormen, you see, don’t fade away; they just keep coming back for more." But this particular anchorman — who turned 82 last month — isn't so sure about that. Scarborough admits he's still casting about for his next move (a book? documentary?) What was self-evident during a wide-ranging Zoom interview is that the word "retirement" sits uneasily with him.

How has this past year been for you?

I was in broadcast journalism for almost six decades — I started in 1966 — so to step away at the age of 81 from all that time watching the world around me was a bit difficult. I don't know if I've found a proper substitute or a new direction yet.

Had you ever envisioned what you'd do next?

Yes, I thought a lot over the last 20 years about what else I'd like to do, and the problem is, I couldn't come up with an answer. I found what I was doing very fulfilling and exciting — and quite a privilege.

Do you worry about what's going on in media — fragmentation, the spread of disinformation and so on?

That's something I fretted about for the last year as well. I see the predations of AI and the vulnerability we all have to AI manipulation [and] worry about those of us who have toiled in the world of traditional journalism, where we tried very hard to be fair, balanced ... I'd like to think there's still a market for that but I fear the competition is pretty stiff.

Seems to me you represented the news monoculture for a very long time — a good reason to remain in the chair over those decades?

There was a stability there we could provide [but] I was very lucky because the only way to stay in that seat is to have an audience. I owe my longevity to the audience more than anything else.

What was the logic to retiring last year?

I discussed [with Ch. 4] what the future might look like and I decided that I didn't want to just get older and older and older on the anchor desk. I simply needed to go before I began to decline, or lose my capabilities or whatever else age had in store for me — and pass the torch to someone a couple decades younger, namely David Ushery, who is very smart, very capable. That seemed logical to me, rather than to hang on with my fingernails to the bitter end.

You've never spoken out on issues, and there are quite a few to speak out about right now. Any temptation to do so?

I am careful about interjecting my personal political views [because] all the time I spent looking over my shoulder to make sure they didn't inadvertently slip outside the boundaries of neutrality has left me with that habit. I'm just uncomfortable with that.

Nevertheless, your own industry has faced unprecedented challenges this past year, especially political ones. Your thoughts?

I'd say, hang tough. Every president has pushed back against the media. Our job is to ask them pointedly what they're doing and why they're doing it. That's unpleasant for a president and this president has had a much more aggressive stance. But we have to stand our ground and trust that the system is resilient enough, tough enough, that we'll get through anything. I don't think we should be wringing our hands nor do I think we should capitulate.

And your thoughts on Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani?

It's astounding to me that in the citadel of capitalism, you have somebody who is a democratic socialist [but] I don't know that his policies are going to generate the benefits he thinks they will; the issues are far more complex than free bus rides and cheaper groceries. But there are a significant number of people who are struggling to get by ... ... I can't tell you how many times during the course of my 50 years in New York that people predicted the end of the city [yet] somehow New York City always manages to bounce back. Somehow we'll pull through. We'll get through all of this.