If you have five minutes with TV veteran and author Tom Brokaw, what would you ask him?

That’s what we asked our readers, and the responses poured in. Here below, Tom answers a collection of questions direct from the wowOwow audience about literature, changes in the news business and more.

Editor’s Note: Questions have been edited for length

From Emcye Edwards: What inspirations in literature, history and economics do you draw from that would redirect our society to start up that world beyond war?

Tom Brokaw: The greatest American example is that time following the bitterness and carnage of the War Between the States/The Civil War. It was traumatic, but slowly the nation began to heal its wounds – with the notable exception of race. It wasn’t until another defining time in this country — the post-Great Depression and World War II years — that the cancer of race began to be addressed in a meaningful way.

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From Diana T: Tom, you are fast becoming the dean of anchormen, newsmen and broadcasters. From the time you began your career, what are the major changes that have taken place in the way you report the news? I am asking this with respect to the negatives as well as the positives.

Tom Brokaw: The screen has been widened in ways I could not have imagined when I began in journalism in 1962 — the presence of so many additional over-the-air and cable channels and the vast universe of the Internet. Personally, I like what I call this Tom Paine environment — so many voices and so many opportunities for citizens in even the most remote locations to have access to the world’s greatest newspapers and periodicals.

The downside is that the culture thrives on the shouted voice rather than the thoughtful and more muted expression.

Viewers and readers have a role in all of this in their more energetic and vigilant use of these various media.

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From M L Staats: Are there times when a new development emerges that you feel a need to want to call Mr. Russert and get his opinion?

Tom Brokaw: Several times every day I say aloud, "Timmy, where are you? We need to talk."

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From joan larsen: In looking back over the years in the public eye – interviewing, commentating, serving as anchor – we’d like to know the women you have met in any of these capacities who have stood out to this day in your mind, and what qualities did you find that were what made them "stand tall" in your esteem?

Tom Brokaw: My mother, who couldn’t afford to go to college when she graduated from high school at 16 at the height of the Great Depression, has always been my guiding light: smart, politically aware and always sharing her curiosity with her three roughneck sons and construction foreman husband. She’s the model for all the women who have left the deepest impression on me — the working single moms, the school principals who dug into their own pockets to make sure inner-city kids had lunch money, the military wives who worried by night and went cheerfully through the day, raising their kids and managing the family while dad was away.

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From Bella Mia: Why do you think there have been so many press scandals like the Jason Blair scandal at The New York Times, and the Dan Rather scandal? Could you comment on this issue?

Tom Brokaw: Journalism is not physics. It’s subject to the same human frailties as any other endeavor.

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From Dabney: Who did you find most interesting to interview during your career? Why?

Tom Brokaw: Mikhail Gorbachev. I was the first journalist to interview him and I was deeply impressed by his intelligence and visions as he went about the daunting task of undoing the political and economic oppressions of the Soviet Union. He will be a giant in future history books.

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