Word: salant
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Nearing retirement at 65, Richard Salant, the acerbic president of CBS News since 1961, told friends he was planning to fill his days by writing a book and, perhaps, giving lectures to journalism students. But last week, in a move that amazed the television industry, Salant announced that on May 1, the day after he leaves the CBS payroll, he will become vice chairman of rival NBC, responsible for news and corporate planning. "I'm terrified of retirement," Salant explained. "The truth is, I don't know how to teach or how to write a book...
...Salant's term at CBS was ended by the network's policy of mandatory retirement for network brass (but not for on-the-air personnel) at 65, the same policy that led six years ago to the reluctant departure of Frank Stanton, the network's longtime president. (The only exception: CBS Godfather William Paley, who continues at 77 as chairman of the company he founded.) Like Stanton, Salant was offered a consulting contract, but he preferred a full-time job instead. Said Walter Cronkite, 62: "It's a darn shame that our policy doesn...
...During Salant's reign, the CBS Evening News passed NBC'S Nightly News in the ratings (ABC has generally been a distant third), and became the first network newscast to expand from 15 minutes to half an hour. CBS News under Salant also launched the popular TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes, mounted controversial documentaries, and otherwise cultivated an image as the classiest of network news operations. A Harvard-trained lawyer, Salant was initially viewed with suspicion by CBS journalists, who feared he would succumb to commercial pressure from network higher-ups. But he won journalistic respect for his tough...
...long, difficult process." Apartments and office space are virtually unavailable in Peking, and most of the news organizations will end up scrambling for long-term leases on some of the city's 5,000 suitable hotel rooms. If necessary, quips CBS News President Richard S. Salant, "we'll put our correspondents up in a tent." The cost of maintaining a Peking bureau can be high (upwards of $100,000 a year for print journalists, even more for the larger TV crews), partly because so much equipment must be imported; old Peking hands say that newcomers should plan...
...aspires to be outspoken-to present a brief as a lawyer would and end "by making a good point." He recalls the bolder broadcasts of Elmer Davis and Edward R. Murrow, and wonders why radio seems to permit freer comment than television. But were the old ones really bolder? Salant doubts it. Murrow, he says, insisted on a fairness and objectivity clause in his contract; he departed only once from this self-imposed standard, when he persuaded CBS's top brass to let him make his famous televised attack on Senator Joseph McCarthy...