Former ABC News anchor, reporter Tom Jarriel dead at 89: Buzz - syracuse.com

ABC News(ABC News)

Former ABC News anchor Tom Jarriel has died at age 89, his family announced Thursday. A cause of death has not been announced.

Jarriel, a Louisiana native who began his broadcast TV career as a reporter at Houston’s KPRC in 1958, joined ABC News in 1965 and quickly earned national attention with his coverage of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., according to an obit. He became Chief White House Correspondent in 1969, covering Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, including during the Watergate scandal.

In 1979, Jarriel was named anchor of ABC’s “Weekend Report” and joined the primetime news magazine, “20/20,” as an investigative correspondent. He received six Emmy Awards over more than 20 years at “20/20,” covering topics like children suffering in Romanian orphanages and female military members who were allegedly raped and sexually abused.

Jarriel retired in 2002. Syracuse native David Muir, who currently anchors ABC’s “World News Tonight” and co-anchors “20/20,” called Jarriel a “mentor and role model to many at ABC” during an on-air tribute Thursday.

“We honor the depth and breadth of Jarriel’s 38 years at ABC. We celebrate his sense of fairness, of integrity, but most of all, his humanity,” ABC News said in a statement. “On and off the air, Jarriel embodied the best of everyone at ABC News.”

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, Joan, and three sons.

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