Brian Thompson has served as New Jersey reporter for News 4 New York since 1998. Based at the station’s New Jersey bureau in Moonachie, Thompson has broken many stories, including the news that then-New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey would resign in a sex scandal, a story that Thompson broke via phone while out of state. Two hours later, the governor went on national TV to announce what Thompson had first reported.

Later, it was the departure of McGreevey, and his replacement by acting Gov. Richard Codey, that led to one of the most significant stories of Thompson’s career; a 45-minute sit-down interview with the first lady and Gov. Codey regarding her life-long struggle with depression.

A year after Sept. 11, 2001, Thompson was the first and only reporter to listen to and air the New Jersey police recordings of the attack on the World Trade Center, a story later nominated for an Emmy-award.

Additionally, Thompson was the only TV reporter present at New Jersey's first gay wedding and the first television reporter to report that State Police Superintendent Joseph Santiago would resign. He was also the first to report that Frank Lautenberg would leave retirement to return to the U.S. Senate. Known for his tenacity and follow-through, Thompson pulled an all-nighter to ensure full-coverage of a crucial legislative debate over a new state budget.

Having joined News 4 New York in 1996, a year later, Thompson was instrumental in WNBC’s decision to carry live New York state's legislative debate on extending rent controls for New York City, a story Thompson field anchored from Albany.

Prior, Thompson worked for five years in Washington, D.C., covering the White House, Capitol Hill, the Supreme Court and federal agencies for two dozen TV stations around the nation. During that time, he traveled to Normandy to report on the 50th anniversary of the invasion, to Hawaii for the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, and to Bosnia-Herzogovina to report on the United State's involvement in the Balkan conflict, less than a month after the first U.S. troops entered that country.

Before that, he spent 17 years in Charlotte, N.C., covering, among many stories, the political career of then-Sen. Jesse Helms while traveling around the world on various assignments.

In 2005, Thompson garnered a New York Emmy-award for his work on News 4 New York's political series “What Matters,” has been cited five times by the Associated Press for Best Coverage by a New Jersey-based Correspondent and was given the first Environmental Journalism Award by the NY/NJ Baykeeper for a pair of reports on an illegal development on the edge of New York's Harbor.

He began his career in radio, at stations in Charlotte, where he was news director at an all-news radio station, and in Gainesville, Fla., where he received a bacehlor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Florida.

Thompson resides in New Jersey with his two children.

Click Here to e-mail Brian Thompson.