Anchor Raising Profile for Latinas in Network News
Maggie Rodriguez, who has been co-anchor of “The Saturday Early Show” since June, will become co-anchor of the weekday “Early Show,” the third-place competitor to NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS announced on Tuesday.
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The appointment is effective Jan. 7. Rodriguez joins Harry Smith and Julie Chen as a co-anchor of the broadcast, as well as news anchor Russ Mitchell and weather anchor Dave Price.
“It’s great news,” Manuel De La Rosa, vice president/broadcast of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, told Journal-isms. “It’s a step in the right direction. If you look at their anchor team, it’s something that reflects America. Every race is represented, north to south, and east to west. It seems that CBS is getting it right,” said De La Rosa, a reporter for KIII-TV in Corpus Christi, Texas.
On Wednesday, CBS announced that Hannah Storm, co-anchor for the past five years, “will move into a new role at CBS News. . . . Storm and Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports, are in discussions to determine the scope and depth of her new duties.”
“In the past six months, Maggie has proved to be a remarkably good fit in morning news,” McManus said in Tuesday’s news release. “Not only has she done great work on the morning broadcasts, both weekend and weekday, but she also has reported for the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC and anchored the weekend EVENING NEWS. Her tenacity as a journalist and her authenticity and warmth will serve Maggie and CBS News very well.”
“This is my dream job,” Rodriguez said in the release. “I get to utilize the journalistic skills I’ve developed over the past 15 years and have fun at the same time with feature segments. To do that with a group of people I like and respect as much as THE EARLY SHOW team, who’ve made me feel welcome from day one, is wonderful.”
Rodriguez has reported for and substitute-anchored the weekday edition of “the Early Show.” She also has reported for the “CBS Evening News” and “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
Her appointment to the weekend job in May was timely: It was the first of a Latino or Latina to a high-profile broadcast network position since Elizabeth Vargas’ ill-fated tenure in 2006 as co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
Rodriguez anchored the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts at WFOR-TV, the CBS-owned station in Miami, from 2000 to earlier this year. She started her journalism career at WLTV Miami (1989-90), a Univision-owned station, where she was an associate producer, field producer and assignment editor, and worked from 1991 to 1994 as a reporter for the Univision Network.
While Rodriguez’s appointment increases Latino visibility in network news, Manny Medrano left ABC News last month, where he covered the U.S. Supreme Court. He returned to Los Angeles, to station KTLA-5, saying he preferred greater variety in subject matter, Veronica Villafañe reported Friday on her Media Moves blog.
De La Rosa said his sense was that the numbers of Latinos at the networks was remaining the same, but “we’re gaining in terms of high-profile positions.”
