Campbell Brown | |
|---|---|
 Campbell Brown in 2012 | |
| Born | Alma Dale Campbell Brown (1968-06-14)June 14, 1968 (age 57) |
| Education | Regis University |
| Occupation | Broadcast journalist |
| Notable credit(s) | Co-anchor ofWeekend Today Anchor ofCNN Election Center Anchor ofCampbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull Anchor ofCampbell Brown |
| Spouse(s) | Peregrine "Pere" Roberts (divorced) Dan Senor (2006 – present) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent(s) | James H. Brown Dale Campbell Fairbanks |
| Awards | Emmy Award |
Alma Dale Campbell Brown (born June 14, 1968) is an American who was head of global media partnerships atMeta[3] and a formertelevision news reporter andanchorwoman. She was a co-anchor of theNBC news programWeekend Today from 2003 to 2007, and hosted the prime time news programCampbell Brown onCNN from 2008 to 2010. Brown won anEmmy Award as part of the NBC team reporting onHurricane Katrina.[4][5] She is a senior advisor to Tollbit, a website services provider.[6]
Campbell Brown was born Alma Dale Campbell Brown inFerriday, Louisiana,[7] the daughter of the former Louisiana Democratic State Senator and Secretary of StateJames H. Brown Jr., and Brown's first wife, Dale Campbell.[1][2] Her father was also elected three times for Louisiana Insurance Commissioner.[8] Alma Dale was her maternal grandmother's name.[9] Her parents divorced when she was young.[10]
Brown was raised as aRoman Catholic,[11][12] although her father is aPresbyterian. She has two sisters.[13]
Brown grew up inFerriday, Louisiana, and attended the Trinity Episcopal Day School. Her family was involved in hunting, politics, and cooking, "It was all aboutCajun and tight-knit families and big parties," according to Brown.[14]
She was expelled from theMadeira School for sneaking off campus to go to a party.[15] Brown attendedLouisiana State University for two years before graduating fromRegis University. After graduation, she spent a year teaching English inCzechoslovakia.[16]
She began her career in local news reporting forKSNT-TV, the NBC affiliate inTopeka, Kansas, and then forWWBT-TV, the NBC affiliate inRichmond, Virginia, and also reported forWBAL-TV inBaltimore, Maryland, andWRC-TV inWashington, D.C..[17][18] Brown joined NBC News in 1996.[17] She was later assigned toThe Pentagon and covered the war inKosovo.[19] BeforeWeekend Today, she was theWhite Housecorrespondent forNBC News.[17]
During the2000 U.S. presidential election, she coveredGeorge W. Bush, theRepublican National Convention, and Republican partyprimary elections.[19] Then, she became White House correspondent for NBC News. She was also named the main substitute anchor forBrian Williams on theNBC Nightly News.[18]
Brown announced July 22, 2007, onWeekend Today, that she would be leaving NBC News after eleven years to devote time to her family and expected baby.[20] CNN confirmed it had hired Brown, and that Brown would start work for CNN in February 2008 (originally November 2007), filling the spot previously held byPaula Zahn, who left the network. Brown began anchoringCNN Election Center, which ran from February through October 2008.[21] The show was renamedCampbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull in October 2008, shortly before the election in order to ensure a smooth transition when the election was over.[22]Roland Martin filled in as guest host in April and May 2009 while Brown took maternity leave; when she returned in June 2009, the show was again renamed, this time simply toCampbell Brown.[23]
In the face of low ratings, Brown asked CNN to be released from her contract. On May 18, 2010, Brown announced that she would be leaving CNN[24] and wrote a much talked about statement where she said, “Shedding my own journalistic skin to try to inhabit the kind of persona that might coexist in that line up is simply impossible for me”.[25] She later told theLos Angeles Times that she had originally hoped that a straight news program like hers could compete successfully against the opinion-driven shows of her competitors, Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann.[26]
After leaving CNN, Brown wrote opinion pieces forThe New York Times,[27][28]The Wall Street Journal,[29]The Daily Beast[30] andSlate.[31] Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol proposed that Brown run for Charles Schumer's Senate seat.[32]
In January 2017, Facebook announced that Brown would be joining to lead the company's news partnerships team. Her title was head of global news partnerships.[33][34]
In 2018, The Hollywood Reporter named Brown one of the year’s 35 most powerful New York media figures.[35]
Brown led the development and launch of Facebook News,[36] a tab focused on news and lifestyle coverage, and Bulletin,[37] a newsletter platform for marquee writers including the memoirist Mitch Albom, the magazine writer and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell and the Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.[38]
In May 2022, Brown was named head of all of media partnerships at Meta. In the new role, Brown oversaw entertainment, sports, and news across all Meta platforms. Her team managed relationships with broadcasters, streamers, film studios, digital publishers, news publishers, sports teams and leagues. Brown also oversaw a global team that works with governments and policymakers on new regulations for on-platform content, and managed Meta's partnerships with fact-checkers globally working to reduce misinformation on the platform.[39] Brown left Meta in October 2023.[40]
In April 2024, Brown joined the AI startup Tollbit as a senior adviser.[41]
In 2006, Brown won an Emmy Award for her coverage on Hurricane Katrina.[42]
After leaving journalism, Brown emerged as a major player in the pitched political battles over charter schools, prominently clashing with teachers’ unions while coming out against teachers’ tenure. She became an outspoken advocate for school choice and "education reform".[43][44] In June 2013, Brown founded the Parents Transparency Project,[45] a nonprofit watchdog group on behalf of parents seeking information and accountability from the teachers' unions and New York Department of Education on actions impacting children in schools. The group, working with theNew York Daily News,[46] investigated and reported on school employees who were accused of sexual misconduct with children but still kept their jobs.
In a January 2014 op-ed, Brown criticized teachers' unions for failing to support a bill before Congress that would require more stringent background checks for teachers. Noting that 97 tenured New York City teachers or school employees had been charged with sexual misconduct during the previous five years, she complained that while ordinary employers would exhibit zero tolerance toward such offenders, New York law required an elaborate, expensive process that involves the participation of the teachers' unions, which "prefer suspensions and fines, and not dismissal, for teachers charged with inappropriate sexual conduct."[47] United Federation of Teachers vice president Leo Carey disputed Brown's account of this process and its outcome, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg agreed with Brown, saying that "maybe if you were a serial ax murderer, you might get a slap on the wrist."[48]
In June 2014, Brown founded the non-profit organization Partnership for Educational Justice.[49]
In its first major endeavor, Brown's group helped nine New York families organize and file a lawsuit against New York state, challenging the state's teacher tenure, teacher dismissal, and "Last In, First Out" seniority statutes.[50] InWright v. New York, filed in New York City on July 28, 2014, the plaintiffs claim that these teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority policies violated their children's state constitutional right to a "sound basic education". Brown said she hoped that taking the issue of teacher tenure reform to the courts would "force a new legislative process" around New York's tenure policies.[51]
In September 2014, the case was consolidated with another lawsuit challenging New York tenure laws, and continued litigation asDavids v. New York.[52] In June 2024, the case was dismissed.[53]
In July 2015, Brown co-foundedThe 74,[54] a non-profit, news site covering education in America; it gets its name from the fact that there are roughly 74 million children under the age of 18 in the United States. The 74 receives funding from a variety ofcharter school advocacy groups including theWalton Family Foundation, the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund andBloomberg Philanthropies. According to a report in theLos Angeles Times, critics accuse The 74 of being pro-charter schools and anti-union.[55]
She is currently on the boards of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,[56] the Board of Governors at the Paley Center for Media,[57] and the advisory board ofSuccess Academy Charter Schools,[58] a New York City charter school network.
Brown was married to aWashington, D.C. real estate broker, Peregrine Roberts, for two years.[15]
Brown metDan Senor in Iraq in March 2004. Senor was then spokesman for theCoalition Provisional Authority inIraq andBaghdad; Brown was one of the journalists covering the war. According toThe New York Times, "their first date was a group dinner, with Tom Brokaw and another journalist". Senor and Brown married at the Beaver Creek Chapel inBeaver Creek, Colorado[13][59][14] on April 2, 2006. Brownconverted to Judaism, her husband's faith.[11][60][61]
On June 24, 2007, Brown announced onWeekend Today that she and her husband were expecting their first baby.[62] On December 18, 2007, Brown gave birth to their son, Eli James Senor, named after his grandfather, James Senor.
In an August 2008 article, Brown addressed charges that her marriage to Senor, who at the time was working as an advisor for theMitt Romney presidential campaign, represented a conflict of interest for her as a journalist. Brown noted that such marriages were commonplace in Washington, with NBC reportersChuck Todd andAndrea Mitchell married to a Democratic consultant andAlan Greenspan, respectively.[63]
On October 27, 2008, during a guest appearance onThe Daily Show, Brown announced her second pregnancy.[64] On April 6, 2009, Brown gave birth to her second son, Asher Liam Senor.[65]
Brown made a cameo as a reporter in the 1997 movieContact.
In 2012, Brown performed as a "broadcast journalist" in the play8.[66]
Brown was portrayed by the actress andcomedianTracey Ullman in herShowtime comedy seriesTracey Ullman's State of the Union,[67] and byKristen Wiig onSaturday Night Live.
| Media offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Weekend Today Co-Anchor withLester Holt 2003 – July 22, 2007 | Succeeded by |