David Muir’s History With Boston is Fascinating: Many Don’t Know

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

During a recent local gathering, the subject of David Muir came up.  Men and women in attendance quickly added he's the best newsperson, so professional, authentic, and honest.

"He's from Syracuse, right?", and "Was he in Boston a while back?" were questions that came up, but nobody really knew his New England history, if any.

All we knew was he has a dog named Axel and geeked out over Keith Urban.

Muir is at the top of his game hosting ABC's World News Tonight, the most watched newscast in America.  He had big shoes to fill, following previous hosts Diane Sawyer and Peter Jennings.  But, was he ever a reporter in Boston?  No one in this conversation was sure.

Muir is humble about his beginnings, though, and quick to point out that his hometown TV station near Ithaca, New York, is where it all started when he was just a 15-year-old intern.

He then went to Ithaca College, studied in Spain, became fluent in Spanish (which helped him with his all Spanish interview with Pope Francis in 2015), and was hired at his local television station WTVH, in Syracuse, New York, in 1995, according to The Famous People.

From there, he caught the attention of WCVB Boston executives, where he was a TV reporter from 2000-2003.  He covered the 9/11 attacks from a Boston angle, the Boston Marathon at Heartbreak Hill, the Tall Ships, and the Old Man of the Mountain collapse in New Hampshire.

Check out this early reporting by David Muir.

David Muir won an Edward R. Murrow Award for his work on the 9/11 hijackers path through New England on WCVB, Channel 5.  He looks back fondly on seeing beloved anchors Chet (Curtis) and Nat (Natalie Jacobsen) on the set during his time at the Needham station, according to WCVB-TV Facebook page.

In 2015, Muir delivered the commencement speech at Boston's prestigious Northeastern University.

He was also in New Hampshire to cover the Democratic National Debates at St. Anselm College in Manchester in 2015.

There is so much negativity with news outlets, but Muir seems to strike a chord of truth with his audience.  Maybe it's because he is reminiscent of epic news anchors of the past like Peter Jennings (ABC) or Walter Cronkite (NBC), whom many grew up with.  Those anchors had the ability to relate to everyday Americans in a trustworthy and calm way.

Making the local connection to a nationally respected journalist is all I'm trying to do here, because as we all know, Boston is called "The Hub of the Universe" for good reason.