After four years, Dallas investigative reporter Brett Shipp has left Spectrum News 1, the 24-hour news channel owned and operated by Charter Communications.
Shipp, who has nearly 40 years of experience in local news including 22 years as an investigative reporter with WFAA-TV, joined Spectrum News 1 as an anchor and reporter in 2020 — serving as the marquee name when the station launched its operation in Dallas.
He's the recipient of three Peabody Awards, multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards, and regional Emmys, as well as the only local affiliate news reporter to receive the Columbia University DuPont Gold Baton.
Spectrum was unavailable for comment other than to confirm that Shipp's contract had expired and was not being renewed, and there are apparently no plans to replace him.
Shipp, whose last day was July 31, attributed it to budget cuts, and was rueful but good-humored about it. When he announced the news on Facebook, he posted a shot of his legs — the prototypical photo that people post from tropical vacations — wearing madras shorts, with the caption "My final broadcast at Spectrum News1. So why NOT break out the 70’s party trunks!!!"
Brett Shipp wore madras shorts on his last day in the office at Spectrum News.Brett Shipp
"I didn't want it to fall apart — I was having so much fun, it was the best job I ever had, because they let me be me and didn't try to put the reins on me," Shipp says. "I did documentaries, investigative pieces — I just busted Mike Miles' ass two months ago."
"But I was a number and they needed that number," he says.
Shipp started with Spectrum in Austin where he was doing the 5 o'clock and 9 o'clock news, then transferred two years ago to his hometown Dallas.
"I came back home and anchored news in mornings — we had a ball," he says. "It was a freeform broadcast that was fun to watch. We were just a family — Alex Stockwell and [meteorologist] Ricky Cody. Yesterday was like a funeral."
The Mike Miles piece he refers to was his expose in May outlining a scheme by which Houston ISD Superintendent (and former DISD Superintendent) Mike Miles was moving millions of dollars away from his charter school operations in Texas and diverting public school funds to help pay for his failing charter school operations in Colorado.
Shipp broke the story, which has spawned ensuing coverage by other news sites such as the Texas Observer.
Another highlight during his Spectrum tenure was his role in a two-week immigration series called "Driving the Border: Mile by Mile — Examining the Crisis at the U.S. Southern Border," which aired in June 2021.
Shipp made a 2,000-mile long drive along the border, starting at Brownsville, Texas and ending in San Diego.
"Live broadcast from a new town, a new story, a new challenge for U.S. officials to stop the flow of migrants into the country — it was fascinating, edifying, grueling, and inspiring, and arguably the best assignment of my career," he says.
Shipp retains a youthful optimism for the role that journalism can (but increasingly does not) play in democracy and says he has no interest in retiring.
"We need people who have the ability and willingness to ask tough questions and challenge people in power and politicians," he says. "I'm 65, so I'm probably too old to be hired, but I'm still a champion for the little guy, and I'm not going to stop doing what I do. I ran for political office in 2017, I've done media strategy for companies, I'm just ready to dream up the possibilities and imagine what's next."
