While studying at Columbia, Brown met television executive
Fred W. Friendly, who worked as a professor at the university. For a few years, Brown helped produce and write the seminars that were aired on public television about, among other things, ethics, law, foreign policy, and the
Constitution. At first, Brown worked as a reporter and a producer, before being promoted to the position of senior producer for national affairs. He became an on-camera correspondent in 1998, covering both general events and arts. Brown was named the ''NewsHour's
arts correspondent, when that position was created, in March 2002. Brown was promoted to senior correspondent three years later. In December 2008, the NewsHour
launched a blog called "Art Beat", covering arts and culture, which is written by Brown and other NewsHour'' reporters. Brown became part of the anchor team, when
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer was renamed
PBS NewsHour in December 2009;
Jim Lehrer was joined every broadcast by either
Judy Woodruff,
Gwen Ifill, or Brown. After Lehrer stepped down in June 2012, the program was hosted by Woodruff, Ifill, Brown,
Ray Suarez, and
Margaret Warner on a rotating basis. That situation ended in September 2013, when Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff became the sole anchors. Simultaneously, Brown was named "chief correspondent for arts, culture, and society". Between September 2012 and May 2014, Brown presented the series "Where Poetry Lives" on the
NewsHour together with Poet Laureate
Natasha Trethewey. They travelled through the US to report on societal issues through the lens of poetry. In 2014, Brown started presenting the
NewsHour series "Culture at Risk" about threatened heritage in the United States and abroad. For that series, he has reported from numerous countries, including
Myanmar,
Peru,
Mali,
Nepal (after the
April 2015 earthquake),
Cuba,
Italy,
Spain,
Tunisia, and
South Africa. When the
PBS NewsHour launched a monthly
book club in collaboration with
The New York Times called "Now Read This" in 2018, Brown became its host, interviewing the writers. Besides covering arts, culture, and society, Brown has during his years as an arts correspondent for the
NewsHour also occasionally reported on other subjects including science and politics. Brown has also released a poetry collection called
The News, that contains 45 poems about reporting on television, things he encountered while reporting, and personal events in his life. It was published by
Copper Canyon Press in May 2015, and has a foreword written by poet
Robert Pinsky. == Accolades ==