The TV Zone

Before this day gets completely away from me, I wanted to make note of a passing: Jim Cummins, a redoubtable network news reporter who graced "Nightly News" for almost thirty years, died Friday after a long battle with cancer.

Cummins? Anyone with even the slightest familiarity with "Nightly" knows his work - blessed with both Mid-Western solidity and intelligence. The moment he came on screen, there was no edge or hype, but a calm recitation of fact and analysis. He was first-rate, and no doubt a reason he lasted at NBC News through so many difficult network "transitional periods," as we now euphemistically refer to them.

Just to give you a sense of what this guy did over so many years, here's his bio, as posted on MSNBC (and dated 2004):

"Jim Cummins was named Bureau Chief and Correspondent, NBC News Southwest Bureau, in June 1989. Currently based in Dallas, Cummins had been an NBC News correspondent in Chicago since 1978 when he joined NBC.

"Cummins has covered a broad spectrum of domestic and international news developments including the Iran hostage crisis in 1979; the 1981 civil war in El Salvador; America’s worst domestic U.S. airline disaster, in Chicago, in 1979; Presidential election-year politics; labor negotiations in the U.S. auto industry; the U.S. farm-debt crisis; Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992; the Killeen Texas Massacre in 1991; the Midwest floods in 1993; the California earthquake in 1994; and the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995.

"Cummins began his broadcast news career in 1969 at KGLO-TV, Mason City, IA. He moved to WOTV-TV in Grand Rapids, MI, as an anchor/reporter in 1970. Three years later, he joined WTMJ-TV, the NBC-TV affiliate in Milwaukee. Just before joining NBC News in 1978, Cummins was a general assignment reporter for WMAQ-TV, the NBC-TV station in Chicago.
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"Cummins won a National Emmy in 1993 for his reports on the Midwest Floods. Additionally, he earned 2 National Emmy nominations for his journalistic efforts during Hurricane Hugo and the Civil War in El Salvador. In 1995 he was awarded the Marquis Who’s Who In America.

"Born in Cedar Rapids, IA, Cummins received his B.A. degree in 1967 and his master’s degree in 1968, from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He and his wife, the former Constance Driscoll, are the parents of six children."

Steve Capus, NBC News president, said this, in part about Cummins late Friday:

He was “a gentle giant of a man” who had “spent decades making Americans feel right at home, with his down-to-earth, warm reporting style, delivery and presence...Jim and Connie had a vision for life after NBC. A damnable cancer diagnosis came a short time after he left the job, and those plans took a backseat to a courageous battle."