Bio
Steve Capus
In November 2005, Steve Capus was named president of NBC News. Capus has served as the arbiter of issues involving ethics, style, standards, safety and other matters that affect the Division’s journalistic bearing. Capus reports to Steve Burke, chief executive officer of NBC Universal.
James Fallows
James Fallows is The Atlantic Monthly's National Correspondent, and has worked for the magazine for more than twenty years. His previous books include Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy, Looking at the Sun, More Like Us and National Defense, which won the American Book Award for non-fiction. His article about the consequences of victory in Iraq, "The Fifty First State?," won the 2003 National Magazine Award.
Mr. Fallows has been an editor for the Washington Monthly and Texas Monthly magazines, and a columnist for the Industry Standard. He writes frequently for Slate and the New York Review of Books and is chairman of the board of the New America Foundation. He has worked on a software-design team at Microsoft and as chief speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.
David Rhodes
David Rhodes was named President of CBS News in February 2011. As President, he oversees all network newsgathering and breaking news coverage including programs such as the "CBS Evening News," "The Early Show," "CBS Sunday Morning," "Face the Nation, "48 Hours Mystery," and content for CBSNews.com and CBS News Radio.
Prior to joining CBS News, Rhodes worked at two fast-growing news organizations, holding senior roles at Bloomberg and at Fox News. He began his career in electronic journalism in 1996 as a Production Assistant with the newly-launched Fox News Channel, remaining at Fox as the upstart network surpassed cable competitors to become number one in the category, where it has remained since 2002.
Over 12 years at Fox, Rhodes held various positions in newsgathering and management, rising to Vice President of News in charge of the network's day-to-day spot news coverage, domestic news bureaus, and hard-news programs. In his time at the channel, he ran political reporting, beginning in 2000, and took part in election-night decision teams from 2002 to 2008. Rhodes edited foreign coverage including coordination of the channel's resources in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Gulf region. He directed the network's coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and other major events. Rhodes was Fox News Channel's assignment manager and was on the desk in New York on the morning of September 11, 2001 when the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania came under attack.
In November 2008, Rhodes joined Bloomberg's Multimedia group as Head of U.S. Television. As Bloomberg launched a new approach to its global TV product, he assumed responsibility for the U.S. channel's programming, development, editorial, newsgathering, production, and operations, directing a staff of more than 200 people. During this time he launched an all-new look and feel for the channel's programming and made significant changes in the channel's on-air talent and overall positioning.
Rhodes holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is a native of New York City and lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Emma, and sons Ethan and Oliver.
Ben Sherwood
Ben Sherwood is a bestselling author, award-winning journalist and executive director of TheSurvivorsClub.org. From 2004 to 2006, he worked as executive producer of ABC's Good Morning America during the two most successful seasons in the program's history. Sherwood guided prize-winning coverage of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the devastation of hurricane Katrina, and the presidential election of 2004.
Sherwood's book, The Survivors Club, is a non-fiction exploration of the science and secrets of who bounces back from everyday adversity and who doesn't; who beats life-threatening disease and who succumbs; and who triumphs after economic hardship and who surrenders.
Encyclopædia Britannica Articles
- ABC
Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. To avoid a communications monopoly, NBC was forced to sell the Blue network in 1941. Its buyer, Edward J. Noble, maker of Life-Savers candies, gave the company its present name. After merging with United Paramount Theaters in 1953, ABC expanded into the emerging television industry and soon became one of the three top networks. It specialized in sports broadcasting and developed the instant replay in 1961. It was bought by Capital Cities Communications in 1985 and by the Walt Disney Co. in 1995.
- ABC on britannica.com
- Atlantic Monthly, The
Monthly journal of literature and opinion, one of the oldest and most respected of U.S. reviews. Published in Boston, it was founded in 1857 by Moses Dresser Phillips. It soon became noted for the quality of its fiction and general articles, contributed by distinguished editors and authors such as James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry W. Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In the early 1920s it expanded its scope to political affairs, featuring articles by figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Booker T. Washington. In the 1970s increasing costs nearly shut down the magazine; it was purchased in 1980 by Mortimer B. Zuckerman and was sold to the National Journal Group in 1999.
- Atlantic Monthly, The on britannica.com
- CBS Television Network
Major U.S. broadcasting company and network. It began in 1928 as the Columbia Broadcasting System, a small radio network directed by William S. Paley. By offering programming free to affiliated stations in return for their agreement to broadcast sponsored shows, Paley built the network from 22 stations to 114 in 10 years. Such stars as Fred Allen, Bing Crosby, and Kate Smith increased audience ratings into the 1940s. Jack Benny, Ed Sullivan, Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, and Walter Cronkite made CBS the dominant television network into the 1970s. The company diversified into several other fields, but only Columbia Records was successful, and the corporation sold all its other divisions in 1985 to concentrate on broadcasting. A decline in ratings and in the number of affiliated stations led to its sale to Westinghouse Electric Corp. in 1995. CBS Corp. was purchased by Viacom Inc. in 2000.
- CBS Television Network on britannica.com
- NBC
Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. Directed by RCA's president David Sarnoff, it became wholly owned by RCA in 1930. NBC was initially divided into the semi-independent Blue Network, based on station WJZ, and the Red Network, based on WEAF, each with links to stations in other cities. By 1938 the Red Network carried 75% of NBC's programs. The Blue Network was sold in 1941 and became the American Broadcasting Co. (ABC). NBC entered television broadcasting in a weakened position, and by 1952 it trailed CBS in audience ratings, though it gradually regained its leading position. In 1986 RCA was sold to GE; in 1987 NBC sold its radio networks. In the 1990s NBC expanded its cable television programming, creating MSNBC (an alliance with Microsoft) and CNBC (an alliance with Dow Jones).
- NBC on britannica.com
© 2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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