Kent Brockman

"Now, at the risk of being unpopular, this reporter places the blame for all of this squarely on YOU, the viewers."

- Kent Brockman

Kent Brockman (Kenny Brockelstein) is a local TV news 'personality' for Channel 6. He hosts the Channel 6 weekday news (Scott Christian is the weekend news anchor and Kent's fill-in) as well as Smartline, a local current affairs show, and also Eye on Springfield, which focuses mostly on Springfield's entertainment news.

Biography
Brockman represents the worst of his profession: frequently judgmental; careerist to the point of absurdity; and more than willing to film and sensationalize a schmaltzy, emotion driven puff piece for the sake of a few extra ratings points. (As with most Simpsons characters, Brockman's ethics and competence vary according to the needs of the episode.) He has been seen throwing tantrums because he cannot find certain snack foods, and once blithely announced on-the-air that the boom operator on his news program was being fired the next morning (for which he took a clout on the head from the angry soon-to-be-ex-employee). He seems to command excessive levels of power within Channel 6, even having a segment of the news programme to air his own (usually highly reactionary) opinions on current issues called My Two Cents. Despite all of this, he has won a string of media awards, but is most proud of his unspecified trophy from Del Monte. He was also a war correspondent during the Vietnam War, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, and the Gulf War (although, as he just says "Iraq", he could have been referring to the Iran-Iraq War). He also frequently uses botox, having a saggy face without it.

Brockman has a preteen daughter and a preteen son, and has jealously mentioned his sister, who is a White House correspondent for CNN. Brockman owns a collie named Jessica, whom he had "fixed", and drives a blue Mercedes-Benz S420.

Brockman once won the multi-million-dollar ($130 million) state lottery jackpot and left the news desk while still on the air, but he remained a news anchor because he was under contract, though he also admitted that he likes making $500,000 a year. He also has an ongoing feud with traffic reporter Arnie Pie, and has been shown to criticize Pie's reporting; indeed, he once chuckled sadistically upon hearing the news that Pie had been killed in an accident. He mentioned to Pie that he made some smart investments when Arnie complained about the size of Brockman's house.

He is known for using news-speak in everyday language; for example, "This just in: Go to hell!" It was revealed that his 'wit' is provided by a microphone, ear piece and a communications team in a nearby van. He has been seen, more than once, stretching his face and removing wrinkles by clipping a clothes-pin to the back of his head. In addition to his news career, Brockman writes a column for PC Magazine called "Making the Most of Your Modem." Brockman is revealed to have a 'thing' for bondage. It is implied that he may be a heavy smoker, as he was seen smoking a cigarette and saying "Oh God, I love to smoke" afterwards [presumably on camera, given his reaction afterwards] before announcing his live broadcast of the opening day of the new Cosmic Wars movie: The Gathering Shadow. One time, he hired an accountant to take care of his taxes, but the accountant in question did not do the taxes until the last possible moment, a fact that Brockman did not realize until he was doing a live news broadcast on Tax Day.

Religion
Brockman was known as Kenny Brockelstein early in his career, and he can be seen wearing the Hebrew Chai symbol as a gold medallion around his neck, , suggesting Jewish ancestry. Interestingly, however, he also refers to the Book of Revelation, during an editorial in which he states women rebelling might lead to "anarchy of Biblical proportions" (he is promptly cut off by the station and replaced with a "Technical Difficulties" card depicting Brockman in a straitjacket). Revelation is in the New Testament, suggesting Brockman no longer observes Judaism.

Language
Brockman has been shown to have no problem with using bad or otherwise offensive language on air, and he has been fired for doing so on more than one occasion. Brockman was fired for muttering, "That oughta hold those SOBs," after reporting on Gabbo using foul language while the cameras were on. In the newspaper headline following that scene, it read that Kent Brockman was fired, though he still remained a newscaster the next time he was shown. After Brad Goodman encouraged Springfield to "do what they feel", Kent Brockman reports that because of Brad Goodman exploiting Bart's irreverent personality, people in Springfield are becoming more open with themselves, then says, "...and this reporter thinks it's about f***ing time!" and isn't fired for his remark (This is presumably because of the "do what you feel" craze making troublemaking rules lenient by a significant degree, as he was also seen spraying whipped cream into his mouth shortly thereafter.). When Kent Brockman, after chastising democracy when a last-minute rider in the senate ruined the evacuation of Springfield due to an incoming comet, he decided to announce which people are gay, on the grounds that it didn't matter, as he was going to lose the job anyway.

Brockman's penchant for using offensive language worked against him, when, after Homer accidentally spills coffee on Brockman's crotch, he shouts what Ned Flanders calls a "super swear" that shocked everyone who watched it. Brockman was demoted to weather man due to the station paying a fine to the FCC, but was then fired when the network executives mistook a ring of Splenda in Brockman's coffee for cocaine. Brockman was later given his job back to silence him (after doing an expose that was seen on YouTube uncovering the real reason the FCC is cracking down on obscenity in the media), with a 50% raise, making his new salary $750,000 per year.

The Simpsons Game
Brockman appears in the opening cutscene for the level Shadow of the Colossal Donut as he and the cameraman follow Bart and Homer into the action of stopping the giant Lard Lad Donuts mascot statue running amuck through the city.

Trivia

 * Kent Brockman has Facebook and appears to be friends with Mark Zuckerberg.

Catch-phrase
Brockman's most famous phrase, repeated in various guises on internet message boards and within popular culture, is "And I for one welcome our new insect overlords". Another notable quote is "I've said it before and I'll say it again: Democracy simply doesn't work".

Inspiration
There are a few people who could be the inspiration and/or model for Brockman, including the late Los Angeles news anchors Jerry Dunphy and Hal Fishman; Canada's Lloyd Robertson; and Ted Baxter, the airhead news anchor from Mary Tyler Moore, played by Ted Knight. He has also been seen to emulate Ted Koppel, Walter Cronkite or Max Keeping.