John Chancellor Dead At 68 -- Journalist Spent 40 Years At NBC

PRINCETON, N.J. - John Chancellor, a pioneer of television journalism who brought forthrightness and a reassuring manner to reporting, anchoring and wide-ranging commentary, died yesterday. He was 68.

Mr. Chancellor, who underwent treatment for stomach cancer in 1994, died at his home, said NBC spokeswoman Beth Comstock. He would have been 69 tomorrow.

He spent more than 40 years at NBC, reported from more than 50 foreign countries and lived in five, with a two-year hiatus as director of the Voice of America in the 1960s. He retired in 1993.

Mr. Chancellor first came to the attention of a national TV audience in 1957 as NBC's senior correspondent covering the school-integration crisis in Little Rock, Ark.

A panelist on the 1960 televised debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, Mr. Chancellor had interviewed every U.S. president since Harry S Truman, every British prime minister since Clement Atlee and every Israeli prime minister since Golda Meier.

He was in Berlin when the Wall was built in 1961, and he was there when it was torn down in 1989.

Among his posts over the years: correspondent in Moscow, Vienna and Brussels, Belgium; "Today" show host (1961-62); and national-affairs correspondent.

In 1965, he was appointed by President Johnson to head Voice of America., the radio arm of the U.S. Information Agency. The first professional journalist to hold the post, Mr. Chancellor insisted that VOA broadcasts be solid journalism, not government propaganda.

From 1970 to 1982, he was anchorman of the "NBC Nightly News"; from then until his retirement in 1993, he did commentaries.

Covering his last political convention in 1992 - 40 years after his first - he groused that stage management and a dearth of old-fashioned politicking had made the gatherings "about as interesting as the Miss America pageant."

Mr. Chancellor's most memorable convention appearance came with the Republicans who nominated Barry Goldwater in 1964. He was arrested for blocking an aisle while interviewing someone. Television viewers watched Mr. Chancellor led out of the hall, giving play by play: "Here we go down the middle aisle. It's hard to be dignified at a time like this. I've been promised bail, ladies and gentlemen, by my office."

"This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody."

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and three children.