Lester Holt
Lester Holt
Lester Don Holt, Jr., is an American journalist. He anchors the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News. He is also the anchor for Dateline NBC. On February 9, 2015, he became the interim weeknight NBC Nightly News anchor, filling in for suspended anchor and managing editor Brian Williams. On June 18, 2015, he was made the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News after NBC decided to keep Brian Williams as MSNBC breaking news anchor and reporter and fill-in NBC News...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNews Anchor
Date of Birth8 March 1959
CityMarion County, CA
CountryUnited States of America
Sometimes, I'll be flipping the channel at home and think, 'Wow, there's a lot of me on TV.'
As a 13, - 14-year-old kid, I'd sit on my bed with a tape recorder and a newspaper. I would do my own newscast. I would practice my diction.
I have a couple of basses in my office. And I try to be courteous of my co-workers, but sometimes I get carried away and I crank up my amp and I rock out. It's kind of my stress reliever.
I reluctantly soldiered on to the raccoon. It actually would have tasted quite good had I not had the image of a raccoon rummaging through the garbage stuck in my head.
Everyone knows I'm black. I am who I am. This is the person that Lester Sr. and June Holt raised, and I make no apology for it. At the same time, I'm never going to pull a race card to get what I want. You can't have it both ways.
What I've come to know is that in life, it's not always the questions we ask, but rather our ability to hear the answers that truly enriches our understanding. Never, never stop learning.
The one thing I don't consume during 'Today' - which surprises many people - is coffee. I find that a lot of water helps wake me up, without the buzz. I love coffee, but usually reserve a double espresso as an afternoon pick-me-up before settling in to do the weekend 'Nightly News.'
But now I'm kind of like, 'Gee, I can't wait to watch it to see how it turns out.'
My first priority is to provide perspective, ... This story is so broad-reaching and there are so many elements. I don't want people to make their judgments based on one report. We should never be in a position where we're firing up a mob. I don't think it's our job to beat people up.
That's no lie, ... So, all I could do was throw some jeans and boots in a bag.
The problem with being a journalist is you go places and you're working. You don't get to appreciate everything. But I got enough of a sampler of South Africa; I thought, 'I want to come here when I don't have to interview people for a living so that I can really enjoy it.' Because I think it was just a magnificent place.
I have this vision of maybe going the way of Bill Kurtis and, I think, Tom Brokaw, to a certain extent - the ability to not be tied to the desk anymore, but to do projects that are meaningful to you.
I'm not terribly athletic. And... there's a lot of things I'm not good at. And if it makes anybody feel better, I was really a pretty bad math student growing up.
I never believed the anchorman should be the know-it-all. And I try to communicate that to the audience. While I have some knowledge from my years of experience, what I want to do is walk you through this because we're all walking through this together.