Tuesday, September 30, 2014

John Slattery Laid To Rest

CBS 2's Tony Aiello reports on the funeral for his colleague John Slattery, which was held today at Saints John and Paul Church in Larchmont:



Thursday, September 25, 2014

Tributes for John Slattery

A sample of the tributes on Twitter:

Colleagues Mourn Loss of John Slattery

Lou Young broke the news to many on Twitter this morning:

At the age of 63, veteran CBS 2 News reporter John Slattery died suddenly in his Westchester home this morning.  The station reported that he had battled heart problems.

Slattery was just short of marking 30 years at the station, having joined WCBS-TV in October 1984.  He had previously spent five years at WABC-TV and earlier at WCAU in Philadelphia.

At noon, Chris Wragge and Mary Calvi reported the sad news:



Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson tossed to Dana Tyler to look back at Slattery's career on CBS 2 News at 5:00:


At 6:00, Dick Brennan reported the story and spoke with former colleagues Jim Ryan and Tony Guida:

.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Morrison Cleared of Criminal Charges

Rob Morrison, the former co-anchor of CBS 2 News This Morning and CBS 2 News at Noon, has been cleared of criminal charges after finishing a domestic violence program, according to the Darien Times, Daily News and New York Post. Today in a Stamford court, Morrison was allowed to withdraw his guilty pleas of charges of threatening and disorderly conduct.

Morrison was arrested in February of last year, accusing of choking his wife, then-CBS Money Watch reporter Ashley Morrison. He allegedly told the police, "I can’t go home tonight man, I’m f–king killing her!"

Days later, he "resigned" from the station, leaving his $300,000-a-year job, according to the Daily News, then publicly blamed his wife.

The two are now back together and say their eight-year-old son is "mostly unscathed."

Monday, April 21, 2014

Alex Denis Returns

Alex Denis returned from maternity leave this morning. But she didn't go back to being the traffic reporter.

When Denis went on leave in the winter, Jill Nicolini, who had been doing WLNY's "The Couch," took over her CBS 2 News This Morning traffic duties.

Now Denis appears twice a morning with a new segment called "Now Trending."

She joins Lisa Kerney in returning from maternity leave to a much reduced role. Kerney had been one of the three anchors of "The Couch" in addition to morning sports on CBS 2 but, after giving birth, was back to just sports. (Kerney left CBS 2 for ESPN a few months later.)

Denis herself replaced Katie McGee as morning traffic reporter in January 2012 while McGee was on vacation for over one week.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Diane Macedo Joins CBS 2

As we reported last month, Fox Business anchor Diane Macedo joined CBS 2 this week as a reporter and weekend morning anchor.  Macedo joins anchor/reporter Andrea Grymes at the desk.  Cindy Hsu, who had been doing weekend mornings and evenings, remains at weekend evening anchor and weekday reporter.

Meteorologist Vanessa Murdock also returned from maternity leave after giving birth to a girl in January.  She filled in for John Elliott during the week before taking back her weekend morning weather duties, which freelancer John Marshall had returned to fill.








Monday, February 17, 2014

NY Post Whines About Mobile 2

The New York Post's Phil Mushnick must've seen Mobile 2 for the first time the other day.

After making some sort of joke about Benny Hill, Looney Tunes and Three Stooges music, he writes:
We’ll pick it up with studio co-anchor Mary Calvi, about to throw it to field reporter Weijia Jiang, who was driving a car — trying to drive a car — on Staten Island while she alternately looked at the road and shot glances at the camera operator in the passenger seat.
Ch. 2 proudly and generously refers to this setup as “Mobile 2.”
Calvi, having noted that conditions are dangerous, introduced Jiang as “trying to maneuver around all these problems.”
Stop right there. That’s one way to look at it. The other way was to believe your eyes, to deal with the more self-evident — she and Ch. 2 apparently were trying to create even more problems!
What Jiang reported while she needlessly drove on — and apparently sought out — dangerously iced roads on SI could have just as easily and far more sensibly been reported from the studio: “Be very, very careful if you’re driving or even walking!”
Yes, Mobile 2 is largely a gimmick, but it also shows a live view that had never really been seen, at least when it debuted a few years ago.

And Mushnick's claim that the road conditions could have easily been reported from inside the studio is laughable. What's the point of television news if it can't show you the news?

That would be no better than a newspaper columnist who's staying inside.

(Thanks to Mike for sending in this link.)

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Diane Macedo Joining As Weekend Morning Anchor

Looks like CBS 2 will be welcoming yet another fresh face:



Macedo is a reporter at Fox Business Network.



Weekend mornings have been anchored by both Cindy Hsu and Andrea Grymes.

(Thanks to IceManNYR on TV News Talk for pointing this out.)

Monday, February 3, 2014

"New and Improved Mobile 2"

CBS 2's anchors have been promoting enhancements to the Mobile 2 vehicles, which can broadcast live while driving. It's been called the "new and improved Mobile 2, equipped with even more high-tech features." They neglect to explain those new features.

It appears that instead of a single camera held by a photographer in the passenger's seat, there are now two cameras mounted: One facing the reporter in the driver's seat and another, operated by the photographer, facing forward to show the road.

It's unclear whether two mounted cameras are the extent of the "more high-tech features."

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Lisa Kerney Leaves CBS 2

Today was Lisa Kerney's last day at CBS 2.  She tweeted the news this morning:
She also tweeted at around the same time that she was headed to ESPN, according to NewsByte2 reader Brian, but quickly deleted that message.

Kerney joined CBS 2 in January 2012 as morning sports anchor in time to cover the Giants' appearance in the Super Bowl.  She, along with John Elliott and newcomer Carolina Bermudez, were the three original hosts for WLNY's "The Couch" when the show premiered that July.  She lost that position while on maternity leave this past summer to Jodi Applegate, who herself left shortly after this blog reported on her arrival.  The third host is now Jill Nicolini, who just recently joined the program as its traffic anchor.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Tamara Leitner Leaves

NewsByte2 reader Jeffrey noticed today that Tamara Leitner's bio has been removed from cbsnewyork.com.

Leitner joined CBS 2 in April as an investigative reporter but had increasingly been given general assignment stories.  She had not been seen on the air since early last month.

She had previously served as the investigative reporter at KPHO in Phoenix, a station she had been at since 2002. There she went by the name Tammy Leitner.