During his five decades in broadcast news, John Palmer covered breaking stories throughout the world. As White House Correspondent for NBC News, he covered Presidents Bush, Clinton, Reagan and Carter. Palmer also served as news Anchor for the Today Show in New York for 7 years and later hosted a weekly series for the Discovery channel, anchored the Christian Science Monitor’s “World Monitor with John Palmer” and hosted a syndicated series for RLTV.
Palmer began his broadcasting career in 1960 at WSB-TV in Atlanta. He joined NBC News in Chicago in 1963 and was subsequently based in New York, Tel Aviv, Beirut, Paris and Washington. Palmer is a native of Kingsport, Tennessee. He graduated from Northwestern University and received a master’s degree from Columbia University. He has been awarded several honorary doctoral degrees.
Prior to his White House assignment, Palmer was posted in Beirut, where he covered the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Arab oil embargo, the war in Cyprus and the civil war in Angola. His coverage of the fighting in Lebanon won him the National Headliners Award. Palmer was chief NBC News Correspondent in Paris from 1976 to 1979.
In 1990, Palmer anchored the daily nationally syndicated news program, “Instant Recall” which featured interviews with prominent people who played significant roles in major news events during the past three decades, including Presidents Carter, Reagan, Ford, Egyptian President Sadat, former Sec. of State Kissinger, scientist Jonas Salk, astronaut Alan Sheppard and test pilot Chuck Yeager. John Palmer passed away on August 3, 2013. He is survived by his wife Nancy and daughters Molly, Carter and Hope.