Aaron Brown, former CNN anchor who led 9/11 coverage, dies at 76

Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, the veteran broadcaster who earned widespread acclaim for his coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, died Sunday at 76, per CNN.

Brown's television career began in Seattle, first as an assistant night assignment editor at KING 5 starting in 1976, then anchoring the 11 p.m. newscast at KIRO 7 in 1986. In 1991, he hosted a national overnight news show for ABC.

A decade later, he joined CNN to host "NewsNight." The show hadn't yet launched on Sept. 11, 2001, when a group of terrorists hijacked and crashed airplanes at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Penn.

But Brown sprang into action, delivering calm, incisive and heartfelt reporting from the roof of CNN’s Manhattan office. He became a guiding figure for millions of viewers during one of the most significant days in American history, reporting live for 17 hours, according to CNN.

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CNN anchor John Vause, who also reported from New York on 9/11, remembered Brown taking off his reporter hat when the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

"When he was live on air, he just stopped and looked at it. And paused. And he shared this moment that everybody was thinking, ‘Good Lord. There are no words,’" Vause said in a CNN report announcing Brown's passing.

Brown won the Edward R. Murrow Award for his coverage of the attacks.

Brown's colleagues praised him as "first and foremost a writer and craftsman" with a "biting sense of humor." He also stressed the importance of empathy in reporting, according to former CNN producer Amanda Turnbull.

"His storytelling was driven by the facts, but his delivery was always deeply human," Turnbull said, per CNN.

Brown was born and raised in Minnesota. He hosted a radio talk show in Minneapolis before attending the University of Minnesota for about a year in 1966, according to the university, then joined the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.

Brown's departure from ABC was to lead CNN's primetime news show "NewsNight," but in 2005 the network changed its lineup and Anderson Cooper replaced Brown's show. 

Brown later taught journalism at Arizona State University's Cronkite School.