All three evening newscasts updated the west coast versions of their broadcasts last night to report the news of the death of American diplomat Richard Holbrooke. The news of Holbrooke’s death at George Washington University Hospital broke around 7:40pmET.

Katie Couric updated for the CBS Evening News. Vicki Mabrey updated for ABC World News and NBC News correspondent Than Truong updated for “Nightly News” from NBC’s LA bureau.

Upon hearing the news Couric Tweeted:

“He was a brilliant man, a dedicated public servant and a helpful friend. Richard Holbrooke 1941-2010.”

Holbrooke’s widow is Kati Marton, the former wife of the late ABC Newsman Peter Jennings. Marton, a journalist who’s worked at ABC News and NPR, and Holbrooke were married in 1995.

On GMA this morning, ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff talks with Elizabeth Jennings, the daughter of legendary ABC News anchor Peter Jennings. Elizabeth, and her brother Chris, are speaking out now during national lung cancer awareness month. The disease took their father’s life in August, 2005. In the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, Jennings, who’d quit a decade earlier, began smoking again. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in April 2005 and died four months later.

In December of that year, Woodruff was paired with Elizabeth Vargas to take over the anchor duties on World News Tonight. Just a few weeks into their pairing, Woodruff was seriously injured in an IED attack in Iraq.

Chris Jennings writes an essay about his father’s fight to quit on ABCNews.com, while his sister talked with Woodruff on today’s “Good Morning America.”

Woodruff: What’s it like to not have your father anymore?

Jennings: Well, the obvious answer is that it’s very difficult. And I sometimes always think that, “maybe, you know, maybe he’ll walk through the door.” Or there are times when you really need a dad’s advice. So you have this dialogue inside. And in my head, he’s still there in a lot of ways.

Woodruff: Given the fact that your father was so well known, do you think that people really woke up about lung cancer because of that?

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MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow was among the recipients of the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award from the Interfaith Alliance. Maddow was honored for her “passionate coverage of the intersection of religion and politics.” Maddow spoke of faith, politics, and challenging extremism at the event on Sunday.

Past honorees include Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, George Clooney, Judy Shepard and Larry King.

The award ceremony had several famous guests in attendance: Mr. Cronkite’s son, Chip Cronkite and his wife, the actress Deborah Rush, MSNBC President Phil Griffin, and Bill Wolff, the executive producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

The official press release is after the jump…
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Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown is interviewed by OnMilwaukee.com. Brown is now a professor at the Walter Cronkite school of journalism at Arizona State University.

The interview is interesting, as Brown expresses his displeasure at the increasingly political focus of the cable news channels:

Of TV news, Brown says he doesn’t watch that much. But he’s still high on the traditional network newscasts, despite their steady decline in viewers. He spent a decade at ABC News, which he remembers warmly, along with its late anchor, Peter Jennings…

And cable news?

He’s not exactly enamored with the move toward constant political debate, with ideologues on both sides. He talks of “hundreds” of people who’ve come up to him with the same complaint:

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Fox News Channel senior VP Michael Clemente is featured in this week’s “Frequent Flier” column in the New York Times.

The executive, who spent many years at ABC News before joining FNC, recalls a rather remarkable story involving the three evening news anchors at the time, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings.

Specifically, Clemente recalls the three anchors and their staff, all flying back to New York from France on the same flight:

Though everyone made a great show of being cordial, it was awkward because there are always some underlying issues about ratings. The people who were in first place were the happiest.

Within a few minutes of the plane taking off, a light went on in the cabin indicating a problem. The plane had to dump some fuel and circle back to the airport. It wasn’t a big deal. No one was in any danger. It was a nonevent…

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A couple staffing changes at ABC News.

Dan Arnall has been promoted to senior producer of business coverage at the network. In a memo to staff, obtained by TVNewser, ABC News president David Westin calls the six-year ABC News vet “a key member of our award-winning editorial team covering the economy and financial crisis.” And “World News” EP Jon Banner upped staffer Judy Isikow to senior producer of futures and features for the Diane Sawyer broadcast. Isikow joined “World News Tonight” as Peter Jennings‘ assistant.
A couple staffing changes at ABC News.

Dan Arnall has been promoted to senior producer of business coverage at the network. In a memo to staff, obtained by TVNewser, ABC News president David Westin calls the six-year ABC News vet “a key member of our award-winning editorial team covering the economy and financial crisis.” And “World News” EP Jon Banner upped staffer Judy Isikow to senior producer of futures and features for the Diane Sawyer broadcast. Isikow joined “World News Tonight” as Peter Jennings‘ assistant.

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MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has been named a Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award winner by The Interfaith Alliance.

“Rachel’s passionate coverage of the intersection of religion and politics exhibits a strong personal intellect coupled with constitutional sensitivity to the proper boundaries between religion and government,” Interfaith Alliance president Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy says in a press release.

Previous Cronkite honorees include Tom Brokaw, Larry King, and the late Peter Jennings. Maddow will receive her award at an October 24 dinner in Manhattan.

Saturday marked five years since “ABC World News” anchor Peter Jennings passed away from lung cancer.

The network remembered the star journalist with a package looking at that day and his career, as well as providing some updated statistics on smoking and lung cancer. As David Muir said on the night’s broadcast:

“Always the reporter, he would likely want us to ask, has anything changed? And so tonight, new numbers that even Peter would welcome.”

Muir ends the report with a letter from a viewer, who says they had not touched a cigarette since Jennings’ death.

PBS “Washington Week” moderator and “NewsHour” correspondent Gwen Ifill was honored Monday by Quinnipiac University with the 17th Fred Friendly First Amendment Award at a luncheon in New York.

Former recipients of the award include Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Bill Moyers, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, Jim Lehrer, Don Hewitt, Peter Jennings, Mike Wallace, and Tim Russert.

“I scanned the list of previous recipients and my insecure side kicked in,” reflected Ifill in her remarks. “Such company. Here I was a black girl from Queens walking among giants. And then I thought, if George Clooney could play Fred Friendly in the movies, then why couldn’t I get this award?”

CBS’ Andy Rooney and NBC’s Hoda Kotb were among the attendees.

More after the jump.

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ABC News medical correspondent John McKenzie is leaving the network. McKenzie is one of more than 300 ABC News employees who took a buyout. He’ll remain with the network for another couple months.

McKenzie was brought to ABC News by the late Peter Jennings in 1980. Jennings hired McKenzie away from Canada’s CTV to cover the Solidarity movement in Warsaw, Poland. McKenzie returned to the U.S. and was a Boston-based correspondent from 1982-1988. He later moved to New York and from 1993-1995, was a correspondent for the newsmagazine “Day One.” For the last 15 years, McKenzie has been ABC’s medical science reporter.

Says ABC News spokesperson Jeffrey Schneider, “John’s a great guy and a terrific reporter and we’re all glad he’s going to be here in the coming months until his buyout takes effect.”