Roger Mudd, Anchorman Who Stumped a Kennedy, Is Dead at 93

Longtime broadcast journalist Roger Mudd dies at 93

Longtime TV news anchor Roger Mudd died at his Virginia home on Tuesday of kidney failure. He was 93. Mudd covered Congress and narrated documentaries from 1961 to 1980. He appeared to be destined to replace Walter Cronkite as CBS Evening News anchor. He left after Dan Rather got the job instead. He then became NBC's chief Washington correspondent and co-anchored the network's Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. Mudd was perhaps best known for an interview he did at CBS with Sen. Ted Kennedy, who was leading Jimmy Carter in the polls ahead of the 1980 Democratic presidential primaries. Mudd caught Kennedy off guard by asking, "Why do you want to be president?" Kennedy's momentum stalled. Mudd won a prestigious Peabody Award for the interview. [The New York Times]