Jerry Nachman, the brash, Emmy award-winning journalist for MSNBC who spent years in local TV news and edited the New York Post, has died of cancer, MSNBC announced Tuesday. He was 57.
Nachman died overnight at his home in Hoboken, N.J., according to the network, where Nachman had been editor in chief and vice president since 2002. He told the viewers of his show, “Nachman,” last January that he had been diagnosed with a malignancy in his gall bladder.
“Jerry Nachman will be remembered not only for what he brought to the news — insight, context and a relentless search for the truth — but also for what he brought to the newsroom — integrity, tenacity and a refreshing splash of humor,” NBC News President Neal Shapiro said. “He will be missed by all of us at NBC News.”
Nachman’s “passion for news was contagious,” said Erik Sorenson, MSNBC president and general manager. “All of us will fondly remember Jerry’s many wonderful stories about his colorful years in the news business.”
Nachman spent years as news director for WNBC-TV and vice president of WCBS-TV, both in New York, and as general manager of the WRC radio and television stations in Washington.
He was editor in chief of the New York Post from 1989 to 1992.
Nachman also worked in late 2001 as a staff writer for the NBC television series “UC: Undercover” and was a staff writer and executive producer at “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher.” He co-wrote a short film for the American Film Institute that won an Academy Award in the student competition in 1999.
Nachman’s final assignment for MSNBC was reporting on the Michael Jackson case in California, the network said.
Nachman won a Peabody Award, an Edward R. Murrow Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association and an Emmy Award and twice served as a Pulitzer Prize juror.
His survivors include a brother and a niece. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.