Jon Entine - Television Journalism

Television Journalism

Entine began his journalism career in high school, when he worked as a weekend copyboy for the CBS owned-and-operated TV station then known as WCAU. During his freshman year of college, he edited and produced the 11 p.m. news for the local NBC affiliate in West Hartford/New Britain. After the 1974 Congressional campaign, in January 1975, Entine was hired as a writer by the ABC News program AM America, which was renamed Good Morning America the following year. Entine worked for ABC News as a writer, assignment desk editor, and producer in New York City and Chicago from 1975-1983 for various ABC News programs, including the ABC Evening News, 20/20 and Nightline. He took a leave of absence from ABC News in 1981-1982 to study at the University of Michigan under a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship in journalism.

Entine joined NBC News in New York in 1984 as a special segment producer for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, where he worked until 1990. He became Brokaw’s long-time producer. In 1989, Entine and Brokaw collaborated to write and produce Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction, named Best International Sports Film of 1989. Entine was later named the executive in charge of documentaries at NBC News (1989–1990). He rejoined ABC News in 1991 as an investigative producer for Primetime (TV series). In 1993 Entine produced a story with reporter Sam Donaldson on eye surgery clinics that led to a lawsuit against them and Primetime alleging trespass and defamation due to the use of "test patients". The case was mostly dismissed in January 1995 and a defamation suit was dismissed in 2000. He produced a prime time special on the Miss America Pageant, "Miss America: Beyond the Crown" for NBC Entertainment in 1994 before transitioning to book writing and print journalism.