Taking Charge at CBS News
/
Susan Zirinsky was named as the head of CBS News and she has certainly hit the ground running.
She has decided to move the “Evening News” broadcast to Washington, D.C. and named “CBS This Morning” host Norah O’Donnell as anchor and she has shaken up the anchors of the morning show, led by Gayle King.
Zirinsky, who Dan Rather once said was delivered to the Washington, D.C. bureau of CBS News straight from the hospital, has gone from a 20-year-old desk assistant to, at 67, tasked with righting a news organization.
She spoke to AdAge about taking over the high profile job.
What has it been like as a woman climbing the ranks in media and at CBS?
Having started at such a young age, getting hired two weeks after the Watergate break, my perspective in the beginning was not one where there weren't a lot of women. It was the opportunity of a lifetime being in the Washington newsroom on Saturdays, occasionally Sundays. I literally was a desk assistant. I was answering phones. I was so overwhelmed to being a witness to history while living in the dorms of American University, and going to garages in the Washington, Virginia, and Maryland area with camera crews, looking for Deep Throat because the assignment editor thought, "Oh, well, maybe we can find Deep Throat," or feeling excited that I was standing in the back of the Jefferson Hotel, staking out the Attorney General of the United States, John Mitchell. I'd go back to the dorm and be bubbling over, and everybody else will have spend their Saturday nights doing what most college people do Saturday nights, eating and drinking, and I'm wanting to regale them about the back alleys of the Jefferson Hotel or what garages I had been to.
It didn't really strike me, the division of men and women, in those early days. … When I found myself at the center of the Washington Bureau in a time where journalism was so important in the democratic process, it was like the best blind date ever. Who needed Christian Mingle or Tinder? I had my date. Who cared if I didn't date, which was actually beneficial.
How much has really changed for women, both internally at CBS and in the overall media landscape?
I really believe that we are past the point of women proving themselves. Everything is equal -- we are seeing women in higher positions. I think what we really are working hard on is inclusion, and diverse leaders at the top of the shows. It's reflecting who we are as a society… There is no sex to journalism. You are a journalist.
You said ‘there’s no sex in journalism,’ but have you been actively looking to elevate women?
It's really an organic thing. I'm looking for the best people for the job. It's not as if we said, "OK, we have to put a woman in that job." These people deserve these jobs. They're the best qualified.
