John Johnson

Who is John Johnson?

John Johnson is an American television news anchorman/senior correspondent. He had been a fixture in New York City television news for many years.

Johnson joined ABC News in 1968 as a documentary producer, director and writer, winning distinction for his documentaries Welfare Game and Strangers in Their Own Land: The Puerto Ricans. He was one of the first African American filmmakers in the prestigious Directors Guild of America. Johnson then became a network correspondent and covered such stories as the Attica prison uprising.

In 1972, Johnson began a long run at WABC. In the late 1980s, he served as a rotating anchor of the 6 p.m. newscast in the aftermath of Roger Grimsby's firing with Kaity Tong and Bill Beutel. Johnson, who had also anchored the station's weekend newscasts and served as a reporter prior to this, eventually returned to reporting as senior correspondent after WABC made the decision to have Beutel anchor the 6 p.m. newscast by himself. During his years as senior correspondent, Johnson covered the first Gulf war. He also covered the war in Bosnia and was one of the first reporters landing with American troops in Somalia. One of Johnson's last assignments at WABC was his reporting at the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994-95.