Gabe Pressman

Gabriel Stanley Pressman (February 14, 1924 – June 23, 2017) was an American journalist who was a reporter for WNBC-TV in New York City for more than 60 years. His career spanned more than seven decades; the events he covered included the sinking of the Andrea Doria in 1956, the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr., the Beatles' first trip to the United States, and the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. He was one of the pioneers of United States television news and has been credited as the first reporter to have left the studio for on-the-scene "street reporting" at major events. Pressman was dubbed the "Dean of New York Journalism"; his numerous awards include a Peabody and 11 Emmys, and he was considered a New York icon.

Early life and education Pressman was born and raised in the Bronx, the son of Jewish immigrants, Benjamin Pressman (1893–1970), who was born in Austria, and Lena Rifkin Pressman, born in Russia. His father, a dentist, became a professional magician later in life; he got his start in magic by performing tricks to entertain children when he would go to schools to teach them about proper dental care. Gabe had a younger brother, Paul (1929–2003), who was a psychiatrist.

Pressman graduated from Morris High School. He got his start in journalism early; as a young boy of 8 or 9, he made a newspaper for his family, with cheeky headlines such as "Grandma's Spongecake Made With Real Sponges".

He attended New York University, majoring in History and Government, but his education was interrupted during World War II. At 19, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served from 1943 to 1946. He took part in the Philippines Campaign while serving as a communications officer aboard the submarine chaser USS PC-470 in the South Pacific.

Among the events he covered in Europe was the 1949 show trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty, who opposed the communist regime of the new Hungarian People's Republic, which Pressman covered for The New York Times and for Edward R. Murrow's radio program. Later that evening he reported from darkened Times Square and interviewed a New York City patrolman about the somber mood in the area.

Pressman was co-anchor (with Bill Ryan) of New York's first early-evening half-hour newscast, the Pressman-Ryan Report, born out of a devastating 1963 New York City-area newspaper strike. He covered the New York region for NBC News, WNBC-TV and WNBC-AM radio. He was sent by the network to report on many historic events, including the 1956 sinking of the Andrea Doria, Elvis Presley's Army stint which went through Brooklyn, one-on-one interviews with Marilyn Monroe, Harry S. Truman and Fidel Castro, the 1964 arrival of the Beatles at Kennedy Airport, the assassination of Malcolm X, chasing after newly inaugurated New York mayor John Lindsay in the streets during the 1966 transit strike, the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he reported on the clashes between demonstrators and police, and the aftermath of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

His reputation as an intrepid reporter is the subject of a gentle lampoon on a recording of Bob and Ray ("The Two and Only," Columbia Records, c. 1970). A reporter billed as "Gabe Pressman" was played by actor J.D. Cullum in Billy Crystal's HBO film 61*, reporting unfavorably on the baseball exploits of Roger Maris (played by Barry Pepper).

He was a past president of the New York Press Club, from 1997 to 2000, and as head of that organization fought for the rights of New York's journalists, both print and electronic.

Up until the time of his death in June 2017, Pressman still worked part-time at WNBC, mostly as a blog writer about New York City news on the station's website, and he was active on Twitter. In 2014, he stated that it was an arthritic knee that kept him from chasing stories like he used to.

Personal life Pressman was married to Emma Mae Kracht from 1953 until their divorce in 1967. They had a son and two daughters. In 1972, he married Vera Elisabeth Olsen, a psychotherapist, with whom he had another son. 1981: Lincoln University's Unity award for "Blacks and the Mayor: How Far Apart?" 1983: Deadline Club Award 2017: City Limits Urban Journalism Award (posthumous)